Child and youth welfare facilities Lack of medical and therapeutic care The medical care of the children and adolescents was severely restricted in some regions of Austria. Almost all hospital appointments even for planned treatments were cancelled during the spring lockdown even in urgent cases. Medical specialists treated emergencies only during this phase. Psychotherapies for minors were also cancelled. Some therapists switched to video therapy, which was not accepted by all children and adolescents, meaning that they received no therapeutic care for a long time. In some facilities there were frequent problems with PPE, as it was not delivered on time. Positive examples However, the commissions reported about examples of best practice during the pandemic. These residential facilities managed to cope very well during the curfews and school closures. It was perceived that group cohesion increased and there was clearly less conflict and escalation in the crisis. In some facilities, the children and adolescents even had better grades due to home-schooling and in some cases progress was made with children who have a fear of school. Some teams were very creative in using the time in the best possible way. Daytrips, workouts on the terrace or ballgames with school friends over the fence helped the minors to cope with the curfews. In one facility, the pedagogical head built a climbing frame out of wood with the children and planted a raised flowerbed for each child together with the minors. Shared accommodation are part of systemrelevant infrastructure Several operators expressed their concern to the commissions that the social pedagogues working in child and youth welfare facilities could be at a disadvantage in the drafting of the national vaccination strategy in the same way they were with testing and supplies of PPE. In the view of the NPM, the personnel working there should be given the opportunity to be vaccinated at the same time as the pedagogical staff in schools. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Austria, the question has been discussed how often healthy children contract the virus and just how infectious they can actually be without becoming seriously ill. The assumption persisted for a long time that in particular children under ten years of age only contribute to infection in schools to a limited extent. However, a growing number of studies indicated towards the end of 2020 that children under ten years of age are infected with SARS-CoV-2 almost as frequently as children between the ages of eleven and fourteen or their teachers. The risk of transmission to care staff in sociopedagogical and socio-therapeutic facilities is thus existent. 73 X The development of children is at high risk both during the health crisis and thereafter. This shall be countered, in particular after the pandemic has levelled off. X Child and youth welfare shared accommodations shall be equipped with the technology necessary for home-schooling.