Acute shortage of subsidised child-care places in the city

There is currently a major shortage of subsidised places at day nurseries in the city. In fact according to Karen Umbach, the president of the Kibiz child-care agency, some 150 children need places at this very moment.
 
Eliane Birchmeier, who heads the PR department of the Kibiz agency, said there was currently a waiting list with the names of 200 children. In other words, for every one place available, as many as 20 parents apply.
 
At present, the city offers subsidised places for 131 children of the 200 they look after after in four centres, and recent statistics showed there was a need for 31 further places for children of pre-school age and 81 for babies.
 
Though its efforts, Kibiz has managed to create 11 further places at its Guthirt premises, but, as a result of cutbacks, the city cannot subsidise them. Hence they are only open to parents who can pay. As Umbach explained, the fees amount to CHF 118 per day as they do get help from the parish, the Corporation of Zug and other donations. For non-Zug resident families, the price increases to CHF 125 per day for children over 18 months and CHF 147 for babies, which means you have to have a good income in order to afford a non-subsidised place.
 
The president went on to explain that this problem had been evident for some time but had become more critical of late. "In 2011 we had around 73 children on the waiting list, a number which increased to 170 by 2014," she said, adding that the number at present was 150, as mentioned.
 
"We are continually being called by anxious parents who want to work or who have to work yet who are faced with the urgent problem of having no-one to look after their children. When one vacancy for a place for a baby came up recently, the head of the nursery was met with two anxious mothers at 7.30 am, both of whom were desperate as they feared losing their jobs if they could not find anyone to look after their respective offspring," she said.
 
What is clear to Umbach is that those in politics must recognise what a significance it could have on the economy if well educated women were not able to pursue their careers, especially now that there are to be restrictions on immigration (from EU countries).
 
Speaking in his capacity as head of the FDP party on the greater city council, Stefan Moos said that parents who really were dependent on a job should have priority when it came to subsidised places. "Naturally it is clear that well-educated women, too, should be able to keep up with the world of work. We are for creating more places in nurseries, but are concerned about the finance necessary. What is clear is that the city of Zug has no money to provide any more," he said.
 
Moos added he would welcome child-care provided by the private sector, but red tape added to the expense of it all. He saw part of solution in alternative solutions, not just those presented by city or cantonal authorities.
 
For his part, Stefan Hodel, the leader of the Alternative CSP party on the greater city council, said that a solution lay in having more individual men or women childminders to look after children during working hours. "No additional infrastructure is needed here," he said. "Nothing additional needs to be built nor hired out," adding that it was regrettable the FDP party had suggested cutting back the city's budget to the tune of CHF 280,000, despite Vroni Straub, the head of education in the city, pointing out there were long waiting lists for subsidised child care.
 
Straub herself, of the CSP Alternative Green Party, is only too well aware of how the situation has become more critical of late. She puts it down to the higher level of education of the parents concerned or high costs of living generally, forcing people to go out to work.
 
The city of Zug actually spends CHF 3 million a year subsidising child-care, but it is not possible to cover this additional demand without increasing this amount. One solution suggested by Urs Bertschi of the SP party would be to share out this sum in a different way, enabling more parents to benefit, perhaps by looking at means-testing, meaning that those with sufficient income would not be able to benefit from a subsidy, freeing up places for parents who really need them.