Due to (supposedly) increasing demands for parents and families in modern societies, parental and family support programmes have become a fundamental paradigm in the fields of early childhood education and social work in Germany and other European countries. Supported by the policy, since the mid-2000s a substantial number of day care centres and family education centres in Germany have been transformed into so called familiy centres (also parent-child centers) as “nodes on the local network of family-oriented assistance” (BMFSFJ 2013, p. 299). A fundamental idea of the familiy centres approach is to support and empower particularly needy parents – e.g. single parents or parents with a migration background – in the care and education of their children (Schmidt submitted; Schmidt, 2012). Core principles of the familiy centres approach in Germany, as well as in other European countries, are opening to the community, cooperation and networking and low threshold (Diller, Heitkötter & Rauschenbach, 2008; Stöbe-Blossey, Mierau & Tietze, W. 2008). These principles have been transferred from social work to institutions for early childhood education. Major impetus on this came from initiatives in England since the mid 1990s (Whalley, Arnold & Orr, 2013).

The aims of the presentation are, to give A) an overview on relevant concepts of family centres in Germany and B) a critical review of its current status of implementation. The concepts of familiy centres are presented according to specific criteria based on a typology of family centres in Germany by BMFSFJ (2013; see methods/methodology). The two major concepts – family centres based on day care centres and family education centres – are presented in more detail. The critical review of the implementation focuses on political initiatives in the federal states of Germany and is also based on specific criteria (see methods/methodology).

 The presentation is supposed to stimulate discussions on similarities and differences in the family centres (or parent-child centers) approach in other European countries. As a basis for comparisons, references to corresponding approaches in other European countries, especially in England, are made.

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