() is a German agency set up to promote the welfare of children. Each district () or district-free city () has its own . Its structure is flat, with no centralised (state or federal) coordinating office. In Germany the youth offices were created during Weimar Republic by the Reich Youth Welfare Act () of 1922, in force since 1924. Since the local organizations function independently there is no federal administrative supervision.
The Federal Statistics Bureau () shows a steep rise in the number of children with problems taken by yearly into safeguarding.
The main reason for this is the high number of unaccompanied child refugees, who are by law required to be taken into safeguard by a (e.g. 45,000 in 2016). Among the children (age 0âÂÂ13) more than 50% return to their parents within two weeks.