The Caring City Action Plan - putting care at the centre of local politics

On 11 May 2026, Alex Wischnewski was a guest at the 'Feministisch Vergesellschaften' working group of the Care Revolution network. Alex is a co-founder of the network; she presented the Care City Action Plan, which she co-initiated and which the Berlin state executive of the Left Party adopted in March 2026. On this occasion, the plan will also be presented to a wider circle of activists who may not yet have come across it.

This action plan is also exciting for care activists, such as those who have come together in the Care Revolution network: in view of the permanent situation of overwork and the risk of poverty from which the majority of care workers and people with high care needs suffer, and in view of the impending cuts to social security as a result of the federal government's "reforms", the question arises as to where and how this can be counteracted. This question will certainly become even more pressing in the near future if global conflicts and the climate catastrophe have an even greater impact and there is a threat of even more authoritarian political concepts, with or without the involvement of the AfD.

Alex Wischnewski began the description of the action plan by emphasising that the various spatial levels must be addressed if we want to establish solidarity-based alternatives: From the EU to the nation state, federal states and municipalities to the organisation of local relationships. The Caring City Action Plan is intended to take effect at the federal state and municipal levels - in the case of Berlin as a city state, it is about both. The choice of level is certainly motivated on the one hand by the upcoming elections in Berlin in the autumn and on the other by the balance of power: In view of the potential majorities in Berlin, there are prospects for implementing progressive changes that are not likely to exist at federal level.

Another aspect that, like the interlinking of spatial levels, was also a topic of discussion in the working group is the real empowerment of people in care relationships, the increase in their capacity to act. On the one hand, this is about the framework conditions of care relationships, which are only determined to a limited extent by the local authority or the federal state, but on the other hand it is about reorganisation based on solidarity: collective solutions such as cooking and eating together, support with care tasks, exchange in self-help groups, organising resistance. All of this is best done where people can actually meet - locally.

The planned measures

The following presentation is based on the text of the Caring City action plan and additional information, particularly from Alex Wischnewski's presentation. The action plan has as an anchor point the establishment of care centres as places for local care, for care facilities, for meeting places and for culture. A central component is multi-professional healthcare teams that can address the lack of general practitioners and specialists and at the same time take a look at the social causes of illness. In principle, such a care centre should be easily accessible for all Berliners; initially, a pilot project would be launched. The centre "should be owned by the state, but operated cooperatively and democratically via neighbourhood sororities" (all quotes from the text adopted by the state executive board).

A second element of the action plan is neighbourhood canteens. This is a good example of how the various levels of emancipatory care policy are brought together: People with little money or no cooking facilities should be able to get a hot meal cheaply (€3), the widespread loneliness is counteracted and the place can be used for organising, finally, part of the care work - as an offer for use! - collectivised.

In the area of inpatient care, municipal and non-profit organisations are to be strengthened over profit-oriented organisations by giving them preference for investment cost subsidies and examining the application of the municipal right of first refusal when selling care properties. Family carers are to be supported by an emergency hotline that is always available to provide advice and mediation and, in particular, can also immediately call in an affiliated outpatient care service. Emergency places in short-term care should also be available in this context. The latter is one of the cases where existing financial limits in the state budget would have to be significantly extended for implementation.

The action plan aims to support people who are not so mobile that they can easily visit counselling centres. This can be seen in the support provided to family carers or in the fact that community health nurses, modelled on the "community nurses", are to be part of the above-mentioned health teams. Accordingly, the concept of home visits for older people is to be expanded "in order to provide assistance to all interested senior citizens and at the same time identify care needs." It is also fitting that flexible childcare is to be set up outside of normal daycare centre opening hours for parents who need it. It is to be combined with drop-off and pick-up services, which working single parents, for example, may need to use.

Furthermore, a pilot project that is currently funded by a foundation and based at the Berlin-Neukölln District Health Centre is to be extended to the entire city: In Neukölln, there are link workers who work with patients to identify health-promoting measures outside the medical field. The pilot project is also to be expanded in terms of content, so that it is not just health insurance programmes that are adopted. This takes up the basic approach of critical physicians, e.g. in the Polyclinic Syndicate, to recognise and change disease-causing living conditions and their social causes.

A fundamental accompanying measure in this sense is to end housing and homelessness. However, this action plan is limited to the plan to ensure that accommodation for refugees and homeless people is only run by state-owned or non-profit organisations so that scarce resources are not misdirected into corporate profits. A reorganisation of the public service in Berlin that is sensitive to discrimination should also have a generally supportive effect.

Like the reorganisation of the administration, the concept of the care card has also been adopted from Barcelona, where coalitions led by Barcelona en Comú took steps from 2015 to 2023 to transform Barcelona into a caring city. "The Care Card gives people who have a lot of caring responsibilities in their professional or private lives privileged access to public services and other urban resources." This is both an attempt to provide targeted support to those whose needs have been particularly neglected to date, as well as an admission that there are not enough resources to realise what is actually urgently needed for everyone. However, it will also be examined how people without papers can receive the same relief through an anonymised ID card.

What opportunities does the action plan open up?

In the Caring City Action Plan, the Left Party largely takes on the role of organiser of an infrastructure offer. This is obvious insofar as it corresponds to the basic positions represented in the Care Revolution network, as better framework conditions for people in caring relationships are an indispensable prerequisite for gaining the ability to act and control their own living conditions. At the same time, care centres and neighbourhood canteens, for example, are not only seen as places of care, but also as places of encounter and organisation. This is included in the action plan, but is more of a side issue. It is up to care activists inside and outside the Left Party to give it meaning.

The fact that the party executive is aware that the implementation of the action plan is not a foregone conclusion, even in the event of government participation, is demonstrated by the fact that a distinction is often made between pilot projects, shorter-term and longer-term goals. The example of Barcelona has also shown the extent to which limits, e.g. in EU law, the financial drying up of the local state, resistance from the administration or lawfare, the attempt at legal blockades by interested parties, can hinder the implementation of progressive measures. However, Barcelona has also shown that important things can be achieved even under these conditions.

There is a fine line between revolutionary realpolitik and mere poverty management. Much depends on the extent to which the Caring City project is pursued jointly with the initiatives, organisations and alliances that are active in this field. The initiators of the plan are certainly aware of this. The months leading up to the election in September and possibly the months after the election will be important here. Because in any case, the prospect of advocating for immediate improvements for people in care relationships, creating spaces and filling them with life, also opens up a great opportunity for social movements to transcend scene boundaries. And, depending on future political developments, important bases for everyday solidarity and resistance against right-wing offensives could also emerge here.

The 'Feminist socialisation' working group meets irregularly. It combines the exchange of information on the activities of individuals and groups in the network on this topic with a specific focus. Interested parties are very welcome. Write to koordination@care-revolution.org for further information .

A contribution by Matthias Neumann