Hofer Land daycare portal launches

Photos (District of Hof): Presentation "Mein Kita-Platz im Hofer Land"

A unique collaboration in Germany

The city of Hof and the district of Hof are jointly taking an important step towards digitalization and family friendliness: the digital daycare portal "Mein Kita-Platz im Hofer Land" is being launched. From February 2025, parents in the Hofer Land region will be able to book childcare places for their children easily and transparently online.

The city and district of Hof are working together with the Berlin-based company "Little Bird", which is already used in over 550 municipalities and districts. It is unique in Germany that an independent city and a district are cooperating with Little Bird. This makes the Hofer Land region a pioneer in providing young families with standardized digital access to free daycare places.

"The new platform significantly simplifies the entire process of registering, allocating and managing nursery, kindergarten and after-school places. This is an important milestone for us in providing families with the best possible support and at the same time making processes more efficient for everyone," said Mayor Eva Döhla and District Administrator Dr. Oliver Bär.

Mayor Eva Döhla and District Administrator Dr. Oliver Bär

Tatjana Schlemmer, Managing Director of the Catholic daycare centers in the Hofer Land pastoral area

Foto (Landkreis Hof): Markus Tremel, Bereichsleiter Kindertagesstätten beim BRK

Marcus Löhner, Deputy Head of the Protestant Parish Office Hof

Ina Ackermann, Deputy Head of Montessori Kinderhaus Hof

Carmen Siniawa, Daycare Center Counseling and Supervision City of Hof

Maximilian Fleischer, Head of Human Resources Development, Organization, Digitization City of Hof

Tina Lewenhagen, Digitization City of Hof

Advantages for everyone involved

The aim of the Hofer Land daycare portal is to minimize the workload for parents, daycare centres and administrations. To this end, the data of families looking for a daycare place is recorded centrally and in real time, which avoids double registrations and speeds up the entire process. This means that in future, parents will only have to enter their data once in order to apply to up to five facilities at the same time. The new portal was launched on February 1, 2025, and applications for a childcare place can now be submitted digitally.

Ina Ackermann, Deputy Director of Montessori Kinderhaus Hof: "We are hoping for a high level of transparency and lots of information for parents, which will be made available in this portal at a low threshold so that they can find out about all facilities in the city and district of Hof in one place on the internet. It is still important to us as providers and facility managers to also be available for personal contact."

Easy access to childcare places

The portal offers parents numerous advantages: After registering free of charge, they can find out about childcare facilities, their opening hours and educational concepts without obligation. Thanks to a practical search function that filters according to individual criteria such as type of childcare or location, it is particularly easy to find suitable places. Parents can register and make individual inquiries up to 18 months before they wish to start childcare. District Administrator Dr. Oliver Bär expresses his satisfaction: "It's great that all facilities and daycare centers in the city and district of Hof are now visible at a glance and can be reached with just one click."

Personal contact remains intact

Despite digitalization, personal contact between parents and facilities remains a central part of the registration process. "I'm particularly pleased that it makes things a lot easier and makes things clearer for families. It combines digitalization with family friendliness," says Mayor Eva Döhla. The portal collects inquiries and enables personal appointments to get to know the daycare centers. The final allocation of places is carried out by the system, which guarantees the highest data security standards.

Markus Tremel, Head of Daycare Centers at BRK: "Registrations are made centrally via a portal. There are no duplicate or multiple registrations, and you have a clear overview of which parents are still looking for care and which have already been accommodated. What's more, you also receive legible forms with an easy-to-read telephone number and contact details. That's the big advantage for us."

A modern system for the Hofer Land region

The introduction of the portal will strengthen the family-friendly infrastructure in the Hofer Land region and set new standards for digital administration. Mayor Döhla, herself a mother, says: "As I have three children - who are no longer of kindergarten age - I can say that I would have wished for a portal like this as a mother.""Many thanks to everyone who has worked on this project, and many thanks to everyone who is supporting this project, which will continue to develop and grow," says District Administrator Dr. Oliver Bär. The new daycare portal is now available at