Child and youth welfare facilities X The staffing required to cover the additional demand caused by the pandemic shall be provided. X Socio-pedagogical staff should be given the opportunity to receive vaccination at the same time as teachers, as they are part of the system-relevant infrastructure. 2.3.4 Worsening instead of planned improvements Even before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, the NPM had criticised that quality improvements had been planned in Burgenland with the Regulation on Children’s and Youth Assistance Act but the daily allowances had not been increased accordingly. Only the index was adjusted. The socio-therapeutic shared accommodations are particularly affected, as eight children will only be allowed per group from 1 October 2024. In order to be able to achieve the reduction in group size by half in the remaining three years, the facilities should not occupy places that become vacant due to release or adolescents coming of age. The owners and operators are faced with untenable financial problems because the regional government has not yet raised the daily allowances. The consequence is that minors will continue to be accepted until the end of 2023 under the existing permits and would then have to be released regardless of additional care needs. The NPM opposes this approach based on children’s rights considerations, as it would entail an avoidable breakup of relationships that is harmful for the children. Furthermore, the increased requirements on the staff have been in effect in Burgenland for a year and were not compensated for 2020 either. The NPM insists that the Burgenland regional government quickly ensure that the owners and operators are compensated for the additional cost incurred by the proactive adaptation to the requirements of the Child and Youth Welfare Facilities Regulation. Daily allowances in Burgenland not increased yet The Child and Youth Welfare Facilities Regulation was changed in Lower Austria too; socio-pedagogical inclusive housing for minors in full residential care were introduced. In the future, up to four minors with special individual needs of a mental, physical, emotional or social nature can be placed in these shared accommodations. For every minor with special needs, the “individual care” module should be paid in addition to the daily allowance. The existing socio-therapeutic residential groups will cease to exist in the future. Closure of sociotherapeutic shared accommodation After monitoring visits in several shared accommodations in Lower Austria in 2019 and 2020, the NPM commissions reported that the management feared that, under the conditions of the standard cost model, they would no longer be able to accept children and adolescents requiring high levels of care who were previously housed in socio-therapeutic residential groups. There is a risk here that instead of more places being available for children with special individual needs as the Land expects there will be fewer places. 74