Wolgast (dpa / mv) – The inpatient child welfare and youth welfare in the northeast suffers from a lack of staff. “The need is great. We’ve been getting more and more inquiries for years,” says Inka Peters, state manager of the Albert Schweitzer Children’s Villages and Family Works of the German Press Agency. Often she cannot take in children who need care. “Because we don’t have any staff,” Peters said. In Wolgast, a children’s village house is therefore even empty. Children are admitted to such children’s village houses if they are taken from their biological families for their own protection.
The municipal social association MV also confirms that the shortage of skilled workers in the education sector is particularly noticeable in inpatient child and youth welfare and poses great challenges to the providers of the facilities. According to the latest figures from the Mecklenburg-Western Pomeranian Statistical Office, 1894 children and young people in the north-east were cared for in the form of stationary youth welfare as of December 31, 2021. This means that they were in homes, children’s village houses, youth communities and independent residential groups or lived individually.
Peters said she received some inquiries from Berlin. It currently has a capacity of a good 30 places, which are also occupied. According to the inquiries from youth welfare offices, she says she could open an additional children’s village house every year.
