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Social Code, Book VIII – Child and Youth Services
Sozialgesetzbuch Achtes Buch (SGB VIII) – Kinder- und Jugendhilfe

Social Code, Book VIII – Child and Youth Welfare (Achtes Buch Sozialgesetzbuch – Kinder und Jugendhilfe) – Article 1 of the Act of 26 June 1990, in the version of the publication of 14 December 2006, modified by Article 2, Para. 233 of the Act of 19 February

As part of the Act for the Reorganisation of the Act on Child and Youth Services, (Gesetz zur Neuordnung des Kinder- und Jugendhilferechts, KJHG) – after decades of reform discussions, a new legal basis was established in 1990 for child and youth welfare in the Federal Republic of Germany: Book VIII of the Social Code – Child and Youth Services (SGB VIII). The new Book replaced the Youth Welfare Act (Jugendwohlfahrtsgesetz), the basis of which is from the year 1922, and came into force on 1 January 1991, and even earlier in the newly formed German Länder – on 3 October 1990. At the same time, the material was incorporated in the Social Code.

For the realisation of the Act in accordance with para. 1 SGB VIII, youth services should in particular:
  • Promote young people in their individual and social development, and contribute to avoiding or reducing disadvantages
  • Counsel and support parents and other guardians in bringing up their children
  • Protect children and young people from danger in order to preserve their well-being
  • Contribute to establishing positive living conditions for young people and their families, as well as maintaining or establishing a child- and family-friendly environment
The Act regulates a broad spectrum of tasks that are split into services and other tasks. In addition to general offers for the support of young people (youth work), the services include social education assistance for the promotion of school and vocational training (youth social work), general offers for the promotion of bringing up children in a family (parent education, parent training), the promotion of children in day care institutions and in day care, individual parental assistance for bringing up their children, treating children and young people in an out-patient, partly in-patient and in-patient form to satisfy a specific educational need, as well as individual educational aids for young people who have come of age.
 
Because it is related to these tasks, the task of integration assistance for psychologically disabled children and young people is also part of these tasks, although social welfare continues to be responsible for physically and mentally disabled children and young people. In addition, there are other tasks, such as the involvement of the youth office in court proceedings (guardianship court, family court, juvenile court), the role as a lay person acting in support of a defendant, official guardian or official carer, as well as the protection of children and youths in foster care and institutions.
 
The tasks are largely performed by the local supporters (districts, towns that are administered as districts in their own right). These have to set up a youth office. In addition, the law defines national supporters. They are defined by the state and, in addition to the so-called Supervision of Homes (Heimaufsicht), they are above all charged with the task of specialist counselling of youth offices.
 
The tasks of the youth services are financed from community funding (tax receipts of the communities, allocations by the Federal Länder). Parents and young people contribute to the costs for the support of day care institutions and day care, as well as the costs for partly in-patient and in-patient educational assistance. Out-patient educational assistance is non-contributory.

 
In the more than 17 years since it was passed, the Act has been amended several times. The most important amendments include:
  • The introduction of the legal entitlement to a nursery place for every child that has turned three (1996)
  • The expansion of the counselling provided for the maintenance of parenthood after separation or divorce and for dealing with behavioural conflicts (1998)
  • The reassignment of the financing of supporters of partly in-patient and in-patient services (1999)
The last two amendments were passed by the Day Care Expansion Act (Tagesbetreuungsausbaugesetz, TAG) and the Act on the Further Development of Child and Youth Services (Kinder- und Jugendhilfeweiterentwicklungsgesetz, KICK).