Child and youth welfare facilities Risk of overload of poorly trained staff The better the staff is prepared for the challenges of caring for children and adolescents during their training, the fewer problems they will have in practice. Dealing with the particularities of the individual children or the group must be covered in further education and advanced training in order to equip the caregivers in the best possible way. If the caregivers are not adequately trained or if they even perform the job without any training, the likelihood of being overstrained is very high. Strain increases the risk of burnout manifold, which results in higher staff turnover in a facility. There is thus a direct connection between poorly trained staff and the breakup of relationships, which is extremely harmful for the children’s development. There is also a direct connection between the work overload of untrained or inadequately trained staff and the risk of violating human rights. The NPM has been pointing out for years that the qualifications and level of education vary greatly in the facilities. This is because the Children’s and Youth Assistance Acts of the Laender and the regulations enacted thereunder permit different qualifications and the owners and operators of the facilities do not place much emphasis on education and training. The technical supervision only checks if the staff have completed the training prescribed in their Land and if the number of training hours is complied with. What is not checked is whether the training and the level of education corresponds with the challenges of the children taken care of in the residential group. The commissions repeatedly identify deficits in this context and recommend relevant training programmes. Further education and advanced training as new monitoring priority 79 The NPM and its commissions have defined the further education and advanced training of the socio-pedagogical staff as a new monitoring priority and will address this issue frequently in 2021. To this end, a comprehensive questionnaire was developed which has to be used on every monitoring visit to child and youth welfare facilities in order to achieve comparable results. An important point here will be whether during recruitment care is taken that the candidates’ qualifications meet the specific requirements of the shared accommodations, and whether sufficient and adequate further education and advanced training will be provided so that the personnel is equipped to deal with the changing pedagogical challenges. Sufficient opportunity for reflection in the form of teams and supervision should also be documented. X The qualification of the staff shall correspond to the specific requirements of the shared accommodations and guarantee the implementation of children’s rights. X With the help of further education and advanced training, the staff shall be able to deal with the pedagogical challenges appropriately. X The opportunity for the reflection on care situations shall be provided nationwide.