COVID-19 as a Driver of Professionalisation in Work with Families in Germany?

Quite soon after the onset of the pandemic in February 2020 and the imposition of restrictions on public life, it became clear that the scaling back of opportunities to participate in society was affecting families especially drastically. Adults have not been affected to the same degree as children and young people. It has also been forgotten, all too often, that families are not all the same – in times of crisis, focusing on specific types of families and individual family members becomes all the more imperative. Even prior to the COVID pandemic, some forms of families were already under intense pressure and dependent on various facilities and networks for educational and preventive family supports. Providing these families with consistent support and meeting their needs during the pandemic proved very difficult, as not all facilities were initially recognised as being of “systemic relevance” and many were forced to close for extended periods. To what extent were support networks or specific support and care services for children and families nevertheless successfully maintained during a long period marked by contact restrictions and closed facilities between 2020 and 2022? We draw on empirical results to explore this question. The data discussed here has been gleaned from two studies we conducted at the research centre at ehs Dresden (ehs Zentrum Dresden) to examine how working conditions and the wider working environment in the work of supporting families have changed during the COVID pandemic. Both studies shed light on both negative and positive changes in educative and support work with families during the pandemic.