Notes

Socio-educational support provided in a home or other form of assisted living is considered a form of residential care. In accordance with Article 34 of Book 8 of the Social Code (SGB VIII), it can have one of three objectives:

• return to the family,
• preparation for placement in another family or
• a longer-term residential arrangement designed to prepare the recipient for an independent life.

Parents whose children have been placed in care are entitled to counselling and support as well as to assistance in maintaining a relationship with their child. This counselling and support is designed to help improve circumstances inside the birth family within an appropriate amount of time given the child’s developmental status to the point that they can return to their parents’ care. If no lasting improvement is possible, the focus of said counselling and support services and any help in maintaining the parent-child relationship turns towards creating an alternative long-term perspective that ensures the child’s or adolescent’s wellbeing (Article 37 [1]).

There are many reasons why a young person may have to be placed in care in a home or another institutional residential setting. The reasons most frequently cited in child and youth services statistics are

• “parents’/guardians’ limited ability to provide care”,
• “insufficient support/care for the young person in the family” and
• “endangerment to the child’s welfare”.

In 2021, 145,052 young people were living in residential care delivered in accordance with Article 34 (89,665 minors on the basis of socio-educational support services [Article 27]; 32,994 young adults on the basis of support for young adults [Article 41]; 22,393 children, adolescents and young adults on the basis of integration support for young people with psychological disabilities [Article 35a]).

Around 60% of them were living in homes for several groups of young people; 36% lived in single-group facilities; and 4% lived in their own homes. Between 2006 and 2018 the number of residential facilities rose by 87% to 12,400. The largest group of young people in residential care is the 14-18 age group. Over the last decade, however, the number of children in care younger than school-age has risen (2019: 6,300).

Many young people who are living in care have a socially disadvantaged background: More than half the families whose children are in residential care receive government benefits, 40% are single-parent families. 70% of the single parents are on government benefits. 2% of the young people in care no longer had living parents. Just under half were members of the immigrant community; for almost one third of them, German was not spoken in the family.

Girls are underrepresented in the group of recipients of socio-educational support. Their number only begins to rise once they reach puberty.

Many young people who live in residential care resist the use of the term Heim (home); they call for a different word to be used both in common parlance as well as in the law. This is because, they say, the term stigmatises them as Heimkinder (home children).

Before they can receive residents, homes and other forms of residential care must apply for an operating licence (Article 45), the granting of which is the responsibility of regional child and youth services providers (Article 85 [2] sentence 6). Amongst other things, they must provide evidence of a complaints management and protection concept.

The public-sector organisations bear the cost of residential care (Articles 39, 40 in combination with Article 91 [5]). Depending on their income, parents may be requested to make a contribution, the amount of which is calculated in accordance with a legal regulation (Article 94 [5]). The earlier option that meant young people could be required to contribute towards the costs of their own residential care was abolished effective 1 January 2023 via an amendment to Book 8 of the Social Code. As a result, it is now possible for young people in residential care to keep all of the income they earn, without having to pay contributions towards the costs of the respective care to the youth welfare office.

• Statistisches Bundesamt (2022): Statistiken der Kinder- und Jugendhilfe – Erzieherische Hilfe, Eingliederungshilfe, Hilfe für junge Volljährige 2021, Wiesbaden.
• Tabel, Agathe (2020): Empirische Standortbestimmung der Heimerziehung, IGfH-Eigenverlag. Frankfurt/M.
• Zukunftsforum Heimerziehung, an initiative for the further development of home education, funded by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.