Child and youth welfare facilities The NPM also took part in this discussion in 2017: 66 quality standards were defined in cooperation with representatives of 19 organisations (see NPM Report 2018, p. 70). This agreement goes beyond organisational and Laender borders and cannot be commended enough. The results provide specialists in facilities not only practicable orientation on how to keep children’s well-being in focus. Making the quality of work for children comparable, verifiable and traceable is also an important overall frame of reference as soon as child and youth welfare becomes the exclusive responsibility of the Laender. The quality standards accepted by experts should therefore be implemented by all regional governments as binding quality criteria and applied as assessment criteria by the technical supervision. The NPM welcomes the fact that some private competent authorities for child and youth welfare and protection operating in different Laender who were involved in defining the standards have agreed to align their organisational processes to these standards in future. The NPM will use these standards for its human rights recommendations on monitoring visits. The standards cover eleven subject areas that address topics such as participation, the preventive protection of minors against violence, dealing with risks, assault and violence, health care and educational processes. All of these aspects were and still are NPM monitoring priorities. NPM contributes to publishing results The FICE Austria quality standards and a manual were presented at a press conference and a symposium held by the AOB in May 2019. Stephan Sting, professor of social and integrative pedagogy at the University of Klagenfurt, explained why quality standards are important for quality development in residential child and youth welfare facilities. Additional presentations took place with the support of the Ombuds Offices for Children and Youths in Lower Austria, Salzburg, Vorarlberg, Tyrol and Carinthia in autumn 2019. New regulation in Burgenland - no increase in daily allowances The regulation on the Children’s and Youth Assistance Act (Kinder- und Jugendhilfegesetz) came into force in Burgenland on 1 October 2019. There is a transition period of four years for the qualification of the care staff in already approved facilities and five years for the implementation of the required staffing ratio and reduction in group size. All of the other provisions have applied since the regulation came into force. The technical supervision now has to monitor the implementation of the provisions. An increase of the daily allowances, which is necessary to compensate the added cost for the operators incurred by the smaller group size and additional staff, is still outstanding. Carinthia still working on regulation There is still no regulation for the Children’s and Youth Assistance Act in Carinthia. The NPM pointed out the urgent need to concretise said act, which has been pending for six years, on several occasions. As the visits to the facilities repeatedly showed, regulations on the educational and suitability criteria, the staffing ratio and permissible group size are urgently necessary. Threats to minors could thus be averted. After talks with the competent member of government as well as discussion of the situation in autumn 2019 in the Diet 65