Twice as expensive, barely more places: Paderborn’s childcare absurdity

The city of Paderborn today spends more than twice as much on childcare as it did eleven years ago. The number of places has risen by 15 per cent over the same time. For 2026 the city is planning fewer places than for 2025, at higher costs. All the figures in this piece appear in the city’s budget documents; they are public and are linked at the end.^[1][2]

The costs: doubled in eleven years

In the childcare part of the budget all the large blocks rise sharply: staff from 19.0 to 40.5 million euros (+114 per cent), grants to independent providers from 27.4 to 57.4 million euros (+109 per cent). What is left with the city after deducting Land funding and parental contributions grows from 17.8 to 38.3 million euros (+115 per cent).^[1][2]

The places: first expansion, then standstill, now decline

Up to 2022 Paderborn built up around 800 places. Since then the number has been almost standing still: from 6,012 places in 2022 to 6,024 for 2026, an increase of 0.2 per cent. From 2025 to 2026, 118 places disappear, 96 of them in municipal day-care centres. Places for children under three have been falling since 2023, from 1,467 to 1,434.^[2][3][5]

Where the absurdity lies

Over the long run the places have not fallen. The gap has been opening since 2022: costs rise by 31 per cent in four years, from 78.0 to 102.5 million euros. The number of places grows over the same time by 0.2 per cent, from 6,012 to 6,024. Per place the city therefore pays 17,014 euros a year today instead of 9,306 euros in 2015.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

All the years at a glance

The places for 2015 and 2016 are planned figures from the 2016 budget. The municipal places for 2015 to 2022 appear in the statistical yearbook, and from 2023 in the budget plan. Places are reported per childcare year, costs per calendar year; the matching is therefore approximate.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

What now has to happen

The following section is assessment, not finding. It contains demands of this editorial team and no determination by an authority.

Do not save on childcare – but turn every euro into places. Concretely: take administrative work out of the day-care centre through digitalisation and AI, deploy everyday helpers, book care hours according to real need (today around 60 per cent of Ü3 bookings, that is for over-threes, are for 45 hours), fill groups up to the statutory limit, build a cover pool instead of closing groups, retrain administrative staff who become available as childcare assistants.^[2]

The city should publish every year how many places it creates per million euros.

And above all: measure. The aim would be to stop the decline in 2026 and to create around 8 per cent more places with the existing staff by the 2028/29 childcare year. A large independent provider is already warning that care places will be lost through the city’s savings package.^[6]