City council decides to increase operating cost subsidies for daycare providers

Daycare providers in Offenbach can expect more money in the coming year. At its most recent meeting, the city council decided to propose a five percent increase in operating subsidies to the city councillors. Mayor and head of the daycare department Sabine Groß explains: "The general rise in personnel costs also presents daycare providers with a challenging situation. Daycare centers are important places of education and care for the youngest children in our city. It is therefore important that the daycare sector is adequately funded. Of course, we must always take the city's financial situation into account. The clear focus of Offenbach's budget continues to be on education and childcare, and rightly so. In my view, the proposal now presented by the municipal authorities is a good one that takes into account the city's budgetary situation as well as the responsibility we bear for good education and care for the youngest."

For 2024, the city council has now decided to increase operating subsidies by five percent compared to the previous year. "The Youth Welfare Office has taken into account more than just the development between 2023 and 2024 in the calculation," says Groß: "It has taken into account both the increase in operating subsidies since 2022 and the results of the collective bargaining in the public sector. The latter are also an important reference for the independent daycare providers." The wage increases included one-off payments in 2023 as well as one-off payments and pay increases in 2024 and were included in the calculation accordingly.

Background: The City of Offenbach uses the state personnel cost table (LPKT) to calculate the operating cost subsidies for daycare providers. The reference value for the annual increase in these subsidies is the table for 2015, whereby the city guarantees the providers an average annual increase of at least two percent, even in the event of negative developments over the years. For 2023, a four percent increase was projected for the first time in order to enable the providers to absorb the disproportionate rise in costs, particularly for personnel, energy and food.