End for childminders

“No childcare place for the children affected”

This week it was announced that the Upper Austrian childminder campaign is facing partial closure, affecting 480 children.

(Bild: Wenzel Markus)

The partial closure of Aktion Tagesmütter OÖ is hitting municipalities hard. This is because the childcare facilities there are already full in most cases. A young woman from Ebensee has lost her job for the second time in six months as a result of the closure.

"Now I'm going through all this nonsense for a second time," says Julia-Sophie Klusch from Ebensee in despair. The 29-year-old mother of two is a childminder and, just like her 107 colleagues, was registered with the AMS by Aktion Tagesmütter Oberösterreich. For Klusch, it's déjà vu all over again: "I was previously with the Gmunden childminders' association, but we found out about the insolvency on Friday, November 24, 2023, and there was no more childcare from Monday." At that time, Klusch had four childminders (between 1 and 4 years old) in her care.

We have been struggling with cost increases for years and this cannot be a viable option for the association. I hope that the state will perk up.

Ines Schiller, Bad Ischler SPÖ-Bürgermeisterin, hofft auf ein gutes Ende.

Bild: Wenzel Markus

Secured until the end of September
"That really threw me off course mentally," recalls the childminder. She has been with Aktion Tagesmütter OÖ since February and has two children who come to her regularly. "I still have no idea what will happen next. Childcare is at least secured until the end of September," says Klusch. But where will the 480 affected children then go?

"We don't have a single free place in our crèches. There are two in all the nurseries we have. We would have to build new buildings, but we can't do that in eight weeks," explains Ines Schiller, SPÖ mayor of Bad Ischl. 56 children and 14 childminders are affected by the closure in her municipality.