Personnel key calculation in Germany

This article describes the calculation procedure for statistical purposes. Further details can be found in the article Supervision key.

childcare

In connection with the statistics of child and youth welfare in Germany, a standardized method for calculating the personnel key is used, which is used to determine the child care key or personnel key in day-care centers .

The Federal Statistical Office defines the personnel key by means of the full-time equivalents of the children in care (full-time care equivalent) and the persons working in the day-care center (full-time employment equivalent) for the various group types. The basis for this are daycare centers with a fixed group structure. The calculated personnel key must not be confused with the specialist-child ratio .

Calculation method since 2012

Due to different working hours among the staff and different lengths of care times for the children, standardization must take place so that the results are comparable. For children, the contractually agreed weekly care time (hours) is based on 40 hours per week. This results in the full-time care equivalent . The total of the contractually agreed weekly working hours, based on the regular weekly working hours of 39 hours per week, is used for pedagogical staff. The scope of employment of people working across groups is evenly distributed among all groups in the day-care center, whereby management shares are not taken into account. This results in the full-time employment equivalent . The calculated equivalents for the children and the staff are divided . This results in a standardized personnel key per group.

Full-time care equivalent

The full-time care equivalent of a child group is calculated by first adding the contractually agreed care times of all children within the group. The result is then divided by the duration of all-day care of 40 hours / week.

 ${\displaystyle {\text{VZBetreuungs}}{\ddot {\text{a}}}{\text{quivalent}}={\frac {\text{Summe der Betreuungszeiten}}{40}}}$

Example kindergarten group (age from 3 years to school entry)

6 Kinder mit 25 Stunden
6 Kinder mit 30 Stunden
6 Kinder mit 35 Stunden
6 Kinder mit 40 Stunden


Vollzeitbetreuungsäquivalent = (6 × 25 + 6 × 30 + 6 × 35 + 6 × 40) / 40


Vollzeitbetreuungsäquivalent = 780 / 40  = 19,5

Full-time employment equivalent

The full-time employment equivalent is calculated from the weekly working hours of the skilled workers in the respective group. Cross-group workers are distributed proportionally to the groups in the day-care center. Line shares are not taken into account. Due to the survey method, these weekly working hours are to be understood as including the proportions for substitution and indirect educational work. The calculated value is divided by the regular weekly working time of 39 hours / week.

 ${\displaystyle {\text{VZBesch}}{\ddot {\text{a}}}{\text{ftigungs}}{\ddot {\text{a}}}{\text{quivalent}}={\frac {\text{Summe der Wochenarbeitszeiten}}{39}}}$

Example kindergarten group above

1 Vollzeitkraft mit 39 Stunden
1 Teilzeitkraft mit 29 Stunden
1 gruppenübergreifende Kraft, Anteil 12 Stunden


Vollzeitbeschäftigungsäquivalent = (39 + 29 + 12) / 39 


Vollzeitbeschäftigungsäquivalent = 80 / 39  = 2,05

Personnel key

To calculate the personnel ratio, the full-time care equivalent is divided by the full-time employment equivalent.

 ${\displaystyle {\text{Personalschl}}{\ddot {\text{u}}}{\text{ssel}}={\frac {{\text{VZBetreuungs}}{\ddot {\text{a}}}{\text{quivalent}}}{{\text{VZBesch}}{\ddot {\text{a}}}{\text{ftigungs}}{\ddot {\text{a}}}{\text{quivalent}}}}}$

Example kindergarten group above

Personalschlüssel = 19,5 / 2,05 = 9,5 (als Zahl)

The result is the number of children who are mathematically cared for by a full-time specialist. The smaller this number, the better the childcare situation. This can also be given as a ratio:

Personalschlüssel = 1 : 9,5 (als Verhältnis)

statistics

After the personnel key of all groups has been calculated using the method described, the median of the distribution is determined - separated by age group and federal state - and published by the Federal Statistical Office in the publication "The Personnel Key in Child Day Care Centers".

→ Main article : "Statistics" in the article supervision key

Expert-child relation

Skilled worker-child relationship over time (corresponds to the example in the text)

The skilled worker-child ratio indicates how many skilled workers are available to work with the child. The picture on the right shows the situation for a daily routine. The calculated personnel key must not be confused with the specialist-child ratio, because the sum of the weekly working hours also includes the hours for substitution in the event of illness, vacation and advanced training as well as indirect educational work (preparation and follow-up, parenting discussions , team meetings and more). These time shares must be deducted to determine the child-related employment equivalents. How high this proportion is is assessed differently by different calculation models and also depends on the proportion of part-time employees. Values ​​between 23 and 36 percent are given. If one calculates a lump sum of 25 percent of the total working time for “child-free times”, the example above initially yields

 ${\displaystyle {\text{Fachkraft-Kind-Relation}}\approx {\frac {0{,}75}{9{,}5}}\approx {\frac {1}{12{,}7}}\approx 0{,}079}$   (ohne Korrekturfaktor)

Of the total of 80 specialist hours per week, only 60 hours (12 hours per day) are spent working with the child. There is one more special feature to consider. Dividing the average number of skilled workers (1.5) by the average number of children (19.5) results in a ratio of 1: 13. The deviation from the ratio calculated above is explained by the fact that when calculating the full-time equivalents for staff, 39 and divided by 40 for children. With the correction factor 39/40 the result is

 ${\displaystyle {\text{Fachkraft-Kind-Relation}}={\frac {0{,}75}{9{,}5}}\cdot {\frac {39}{40}}={\frac {1}{13}}\approx 0{,}077}$

In the example above, there is on average only one educator available for 13 children.

Calculation method until 2011

The calculation method was changed several times up to 2011, so that personnel codes cannot be compared with the values ​​of previous years in two respects. From 2010 on, the group-related median (group-related mean value) is shown. In previous years the arithmetic mean was shown.

On the other hand, since 2012 the exact contractually agreed weekly care time for children has been recorded and not, as in previous years, only categories of daily care times. Until 2011, instead of the actually agreed care times, average care values were used for the personnel key calculation. This followed from the data acquisition of the care times of the children according to size classes , which did not provide exact values ​​of these care times. Because of the inaccuracies and distortions involved, this procedure has been abolished.

In addition, from 2012 the working hours of the staff will be recorded in up to two work areas; previously, the entire working time was assigned to the predominant work area. This has improved the calculation of the personnel key. However, a comparison with previous years is only possible to a very limited extent.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Federal Statistical Office: "The staff key in day care centers", 2017, page 5, "Methodology of the staff key calculation from 2012" , accessed on April 4, 2019
2. ↑ cf. also Bertelsmann Stiftung: "Early Childhood Education - How is the personnel key calculated in daycare centers?"
3. ↑ Viernickel / Schwarz: "Research Report - Keys to Good Education, Upbringing and Care", 2013 , accessed on July 19, 2017
4. ↑ cf. Fuchs-Rechlin 2013 and Country Monitor Bertelsmann Foundation
5. ↑ Federal Statistical Office: "The staff key in day care centers", 2010 , accessed on May 30, 2015