Child and youth welfare facilities are designed to promote healthy eating. Eating together has been a ritual of cohabitation since the beginning of time. For this reason, it was suggested that the working times of cooks be changed so that children and adolescents can have a warm meal when they come from school. In several shared accommodations there was positive change. Double rooms are now only used for younger children and all adolescents have their own, separate room. Lockable safes were purchased and new locking systems ordered for the children’s and adolescents’ rooms in order to protect their privacy. House rules were revised upon recommendation of the commissions to be less strict and the way in which rule violations are dealt with were reconsidered. Quality has its price The response of many private owners and/or operators to criticism, namely that better quality socio-pedagogical work incurs higher costs, is understandable from the NPM’s point of view. Facility operators report that the competent supervisory authorities of the Laender have raised the requirements in recent years following recommendations of the NPM, but fail to provide the necessary funds required to this end by increasing the daily rates. Improvements that are considered necessary even by the facilities often have to be postponed for financial reasons. Facilities’ attempts to effect an increase in the daily rates on the part of the Laender have been unsuccessful. NPM promotes performance-related daily rates As the NPM is aware that better quality incurs higher costs, the Laender are requested to balance the additional costs for urgently required improvements from a human rights perspective with higher daily rates. The amount of the daily rates should be more orientated on the differentiated offers that have to be provided for individually caring for minors with a wide range of problems. A basic amount should be fixed by the Laender for all types of facilities, which can be increased depending on the needs of a child including special needs for therapies, special educational costs, additional staff etc. In Tyrol and Styria, there are already standard daily rates for different types of care forms. Substantial differences in the Laender noticeable What is noticeable for the NPM is that there are differences in the facility standards in the Laender. Vienna, Lower Austria, Styria, Salzburg, Tyrol and Vorarlberg have implemented a delegation of authority to the regional governments stipulated in the execution laws of the Laender. This delegation of authority allows them to enact more detailed provisions regarding the conditions for the construction and operation of socio-pedagogical facilities by regulation. Other Laender have guidelines that contain quality standards. The standards are not uniform on a nationwide level, starting with the maximum number of children per group to the required qualifications of the staff. The staffing ratio also varies. The NPM has been demanding uniform federal standards for years. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) also criticised the lack of uniform quality standards and differences in the numbers of available places in the Laender after the last official country review of Austria in 2012. It also 62