Approval and Costs

If you want the care of your child in a day care centre (Kita) to be subsidised by the Hamburg city authority, you will need a day care centre voucher (Kita-Gutschein). You can apply for this voucher at the Youth Welfare Office (Jugendamt) that is housed within the District Office (Bezirksamt) in the area of Hamburg where you live. The Youth Welfare Offices (Jugendämter) issue the vouchers in accordance with certain criteria (e.g. gainful employment of the parents). The voucher contains information about the service you can claim for your child (e.g. "Krippe 8 Stunden" ("Day nursery 8 hours")) and your own financial contribution towards the costs of care.

The day care centre (Kita) that you want your child to attend should not be specified on the voucher (Gutschein). You can choose a day care centre yourselves and - if a place there is vacant - cooperate with the Kita management to draw up a care agreement (Betreuungsvertrag) for the admittance of your child. You can find support for your Kita search on the pages "Freie Plätze heute" ("Places currently vacant") and "178 Kitas zur Auswahl" ("178 day care centres to choose from").

You can find details about making an application, the approval criteria and the costs in the following text. The managerial staff of our day care centres (Kitas) will advise and support you in all of these questions. You are welcome to get in touch with the day care centre that interests you before going through the official procedures. We will be glad to help you.
Specific information, including necessary forms etc,. you will get on www.hamburg.de/kita . This web-page belongs to the responsible authority Behörde für Arbeit, Soziales, Familie und Integration.

Responsibilities: Who issues the Kita vouchers (Kita-Gutscheine)?

We at the Vereinigung run day care centres and are responsible for the reliability of the care given and the furtherance and nurturing of the children's educational development. We cannot issue a voucher (Gutschein) for the care of your child; it can be issued only by your local Youth Welfare Office (Jugendamt). To obtain a day care centre voucher (Kita-Gutschein) for your child, you must submit a written application at the Youth Welfare Office (Jugendamt) in the district of Hamburg where you live (or more accurately, where your child lives). You can get the application forms at the Jugendamt itself or from our day care centres. You must enclose evidence of your family's income along with your application form.

Click here for the addresses and telephone numbers of the Youth Welfare Offices (Jugendämter).

Types of service: What types of vouchers (Gutscheine) are available?

The day care centre vouchers (Kita-Gutscheine) differ according to the age of the children and the hours of care required per day:

School-age care for schoolchildren commences at 13.00. If requested, hours can also be used before 8.00. With a voucher for "Hort 5 Stunden" ("School-age care 5 hours"), for example, a child can be cared for in the Kita from 7.00 to 8.00 and from 13.00 to 17.00. During the school holidays, all of the levels of school-age care are extended to include the period from 8.00 to 13.00.

If your five-year-old child is attending a preschool-class in school (Vorschulklasse) you can get complementary after-school-care (Anschlussbetreuung an die Vorschule) in a day care center (Kita) beginning at 13.00 for 2, 3, 5 or 7 hours a day. The vouchers for complementary care in a day care centre also include the period from 8.00 to 13.00 during the school holidays.

If the child moves into a different age group during the agreed period, you will receive two separate vouchers (Gutscheine). Say you are granted approval for 6-hour care for one year from 1 September to 31 August of the following year. Your child has its third birthday on 15 May. You will then receive a "Krippe 6 Stunden" ("day nursery 6 hours") voucher (Gutschein) for the period from 1 September to 14 May and an "Elementar 6 Stunden" ("Elementary 6 hours") voucher for the period from 15 May to 31 August.

We have special offers for disabled children between 3 and 6 years old. You can find out more about these on the page "Behinderte Kinder" ("Disabled children").

Approval criteria. Who gets a Kita voucher (Kita-Gutschein)?

The question of who is entitled to a day care centre voucher (Kita-Gutschein) is regulated in the Hamburg Childcare Law (Kinderbetreuungsgesetz) and the administrative regulations based on that law.

• General entitlement to child-care from the age of 3 until starting-school
  
  If the child is at least 3 years old but not yet in school, it is entitled to a five-hour day-care, i.e. to an "Elementary 5 hours including lunch" voucher - irrespective of whether the parents are employed.

• Care provision when parents are working or attending occupational training

  Under the Hamburg Childcare Law (Kinderbetreuungsgesetz), children have a legal entitlement to a day care centre voucher (Kita-Gutschein) if their parents are gainfully employed or attending occupational training. These Kita-Gutscheine are being issued to children of all age groups, i.e. from infant age to the completion of the 14th year.
  
  If both parents are working, day nursery (Kita) care will be approved for the period during which neither parent can care for the child on grounds of work. This rule takes account of both working hours and the travelling times between work and home. Depending on needs, a voucher (Gutschein) can be issued for 6, 8, 10 or 12 hours (or for schoolchildren a voucher (Gutschein) for 2, 3, 5 or 7 hours).

  Studies, occupational training and full-time language courses are treated exactly the same as gainful employment. The same applies to measures for integration into the labour market, for example the so-called one-euro jobs. Periods of parental leave, however, do not count as employment.
  
  The rule that applies to both parents working will also apply when a lone parent works or is taking studies, occupational training or a full-time language course.
  
  If you are applying for a day care centre voucher (Kita-Gutschein) because you are about to take up employment, the period covered by the voucher (Gutschein) can be scheduled to begin four weeks before you start work. Please take advantage of this opportunity so that you can help your child to settle down at the Kita before you start working.

• Child or family with special problems
  
  If a child or a family has special problems, special rules apply. If the parents cannot provide the appropriate care and support for their child, for example because of illness or other exceptional burdens, or if your child displays substantial delays in development or other noticeable difficulties, the family is entitled to day care centre care (Kita-Betreuung) for six, eight or ten hours per day as required irrespective of whether the parents are employed.
  
  If your family or your child has such problems, you should not hesitate to notify the Youth Welfare Office (Jugendamt); in this way, the approval of Kita care will ease the burden on your family.

• Other educational grounds, parents seeking work
  
  A voucher for day nursery or school-age childcare or for care longer than 5 hours for 3 to 6 year-olds can also be issued if Kita care is desirable on other educational grounds (e.g. more intensive support for the child, growing up together with other children) or if a parent, although not working, is looking for work. In these cases, however, parents have no legal entitlement to care. Applications in such cases are usually put on a waiting list and the prospects of receiving a day care voucher (Kita-Gutschein) are currently rather poor.

When you submit your application to the Youth Welfare Office (Jugendamt) you must indicate which of these approval criteria applies to you. It is also important that you clearly specify the periods of care that you require for your child. If your working hours vary, for example, or if you often have to work overtime beyond your contractual working hours, you should make this clear to the Jugendamt and request a voucher (Gutschein) which corresponds to the periods that you need.

The Youth Welfare Offices (Jugendämter) in Hamburg issue vouchers only to children who are resident in Hamburg. The day care centres run by the Vereinigung, however, also admit children from outside Hamburg if there are vacant places.  Click here for more information about the care of children from outside Hamburg.

Parental contributions - How does the financial contribution system work?

The bulk of the costs of care in day care centres is paid by the Hamburg city authority. There is, however, a legal stipulation that the parents have to contribute their own "Familieneigenanteil", which we refer to here as the parental contribution. The parental contribution is determined by the Youth Welfare Office (Jugendamt) when the voucher is approved and must be paid monthly. The amount in question is specified on the voucher (Gutschein).

The amount of the contribution depends on
1. how high the family’s income is,
2. how many members the family has,
3. how old the child is and how long the daily care period is,
4. how many children from a family are being cared for and

Further to 1.: Put simply, the family income comprises all types of income less taxes and social security contributions. Child benefit is not counted as income. Click here for details..

Further to 2.: When we speak of family members, we mean the child itself, its parents and the other children that live together with them. If the child lives together with only one parent, this parent alone counts as part of the household.

Further to 3.: The parental contributions for shorter daily care periods are lower than those for longer care periods (e.g. contributions for 4 hours are lower than those for 8 hours). In addition, contributions for children of school age are lower than those for the pre-school children.
During a child's pre-school year 5 hours day-care daily are free of cost. If a child needs more hours day-care in its pre-school year, the parental contribution will be reduced accordingly.

Further to 4.: If several children from one family are to receive care, the full parental contribution is paid only for the youngest child. For the second youngest you pay only a third of the regular contribution, although this may not fall below the minimum contribution. For the third youngest child and every other child after that, you pay only the respective minimum contribution. ("Geschwisterkind-Regelung" ("Sibling Regulation"))

Contribution tables: what costs can I expect?

Here you can gain an insight into the official contribution tables with which the Youth Welfare Offices work. The tables each contain the contribution that is charged for the care of one individual child. If more than one sibling is cared for, the reduced charges specified above ("Sibling Regulation") must also be taken into account. Our online contribution calculator will help you to determine the contributions applicable to your own case accurately.

Irrespective of income, only a minimum contribution - currently € 31 per month - may be charged for the care of disabled children.

Care agreements: What kind of agreement is made between parents and the day care centre (Kita)?

If you redeem a day care centre voucher (Kita-Gutschein) in our Kita, a care agreement (Betreuungsvertrag) between you and the Kita will be drawn up in accordance with the day care centre legislation that prevails in Hamburg (Kita-Gesetz). This agreement is the precondition for the admittance of your child and regulates the obligations and rights of the Kita and the parents. We pledge, for example, that the Kita will be open from Monday to Friday as scheduled throughout the year, with the exception of public holidays and a maximum of 5 separate days closed that will be announced well in advance. The agreement also regulates how the parents pay their contribution and stresses the parents' right to terminate the care agreement (Betreuungsvertrag) with a notice period of one month to the end of the month.

Any day care centre management team will be happy to provide you with the full text of the care agreement (Betreuungsvertrag).

After the first voucher (Gutschein): What happens then?

Most of the day care centre vouchers (Kita-Gutscheine) are valid for a period of one year. The parents must apply for a new voucher in advance within the prescribed period. When this application is made, it must again be accompanied by documents indicating the level of family income, since the parental contribution may have to be reset.

Unfortunately, the care cannot be continued if the new voucher is not presented on time. We therefore recommend that if possible, you submit your application for a new voucher (Gutschein) three months before the previous one expires.

Every time a new application is submitted, the Youth Welfare Office (Jugendamt) examines whether a need exists under the approval criteria outlined above. With regard to this point, you should know the following:

• If a voucher (Gutschein) was approved on grounds of employment (or occupational training, etc.) and the parent is still employed, you will be issued with a new voucher (Gutschein).

• If a child is being cared for on grounds of working parents and one parent takes parental leave on the occasion of the birth of a further child, you can expect to receive a voucher (Gutschein) for the child that is already at the Kita only for four further months from the birth of the further child. For the rest of the parental leave, no vouchers are approved for children at day nursery or school and only 4-hour vouchers are approved for children between 3 and 6 years old. If the parental leave comes to an end and the parent takes up employment again, however, the child is granted a voucher (Gutschein) again as a matter of priority, and without a waiting period.
  
  If one parent becomes unemployed, the Youth Welfare Offices (Jugendämter) proceed in the same manner as with parental leave.

Privately funded services: What services can be obtained without a voucher (Gutschein)?

If you receive a day care centre voucher (Kita-Gutschein), this means that the bulk of the Kita costs will be paid by the Hamburg city authority. It is also possible, however, to pay for Kita services privately without receiving public subsidies. For further information, please click on the following links:

• How can I purchase flexible hours, over and above the Kita voucher, that I can use whenever I need a longer care period for my child on individual days?

• How can I finance full Kita care or the extension of the periods on an excessively "short" voucher (Gutschein) privately?

• What possibilities are there for having my child looked after only for individual days if the normal care, for example by grandparents or a child minder, is cancelled at short notice?

We will help you

As you can see, the rules for the approval of day care centre vouchers (Kita-Gutschein) and the costs of the Kita care are far from simple. Our Kita managerial staff know about these issues. All you need to do is get in touch with a Kita near you run by the Vereinigung, even before you apply for a voucher. We will be glad to advise you.

© 2004 Vereinigung Hamburger Kindertagesstätten gGmbH / Zum Impressum