Intensive expansion: four new daycare centres next year

This will ensure greater flexibility and a higher quality of care. The concrete figures and plans have now been presented to the Committee for Children, Young People and Families.

"I promised to invest massively in schools and childcare - and that is exactly what is happening. We are proceeding just as resolutely with the expansion of daycare centres as we are with the modernisation and expansion of our school landscape. The plans are well prepared and implementation is in full swing. We made a start last year with the construction of the new daycare centre 'Die Grashüpfer' - four new daycare centres will be built by 2026," says Mayor Michael Gerdhenrich.

The following objectives are at the centre of the planning:

• Ensuring the legal entitlement to daycare for children from the age of 1 in all neighbourhoods,
• Creation of capacities for unforeseeable requirements,
• Demand-orientated reduction of groups with children with special needs
• and adaptation of the room programme to new requirements.

Factors such as birth rates, migration, school reserves, the number of children in need of support and demand coverage rates were taken into account. Demand is particularly high for one-year-olds and children over the age of 3.

Several new daycare centres from various providers are planned for 2026, in which the city of Beckum is investing heavily:

• The new DRK daycare centre "Auf dem Jakob" will offer six groups for children aged one to six.
• The existing building at the Marienkindergarten of the Catholic parish of St Stephanus is being demolished and a new one built on the same site. The daycare centre will be expanded from three to five groups so that children from the age of one can be admitted in future (previously from the age of two).
• In Neubeckum, the Don Bosco Catholic daycare centre is being given a new replacement building at the "Im Südfelde" site, which will create an additional group.
• A new replacement building with four groups is planned for the Protestant Noah's Ark daycare centre, which is being phased out. The town of Beckum is currently conducting intensive negotiations with a potential investor and a provider in order to realise this project.

And from 2027? In the following years, extensions to the St. Stephanus, St. Michael and St. Pankratius Catholic daycare centres are planned. In addition, a new daycare centre with four groups is planned in the Steinbruchallee development area, which will open in 2028. All of these measures will ensure that all children from 1 to 6 years of age, with or without special needs, will have a place in a high-quality daycare centre. And the town of Beckum is well prepared for possible demographic and social changes.