Problem addressed

People with disabilities and their families should have the same opportunities in society as every one else. 

Article 1 UN-CRPD and other international and EU treaties are the foundation and guidance of our work. According to the German Institute for Human Rights, people with disabilities remain disadvantaged across nearly all areas of life, despite the Convention having been in force for 16 years (Deutsches Institut für Menschenrechte (2025), file:///C:/Users/Anne/OneDrive%20-%20Specialsitter%20GmbH/Desktop/Nebenprojekte/Social%20Innovation/Eckpunkte_Bundestagswahl_2025_MST_UN-BRK.pdf).
We aim for the goal to support people in Germany who don’t have the same access and participation in society. This is where our work comes into focus. People with disabilities have the right to equal participation in society, and it is our mission to support them in exercising and fully enjoying this right.

Innovative solution

There are multiple ways we intake clients. The vast majority of new requests are arranged through municipal agencies like the Social Welfare Department or the Youth Welfare Department (Youth Welfare Department = 96,81 % and Social Welfare Department = 3,19 %). Some clients find us through online research, and others recommend us to their friends and acquaintances.
The first contact of a new client is the coordinating team of the respective site. The coordinating team conducts the admission interview, which covers the entirety of the client’s situation: their diagnosis, their character, their preferences, hobbies, the day-to-day tasks as well as special wishes such as the preferred background or gender of the assistant. After the admission interview, the matching begins. Part of it is digitalized: our dashboard allows us to filter employees, or sitters, according to their qualifications, location, no-gos and special interests.
The site coordinating team makes the first connection between the potential assistant and the client and/or their family. Candidates meet the families first and get to know each other so they can build a trustful relationship before they start working together. Only after a successful meeting in real life and an enthusiastic agreement to start collaboration is a match confirmed.
The qualifications of our sitters range from kindergarden teachers, to social workers, to special eds teachers, to occupational therapists down to experienced career changers. Which qualification is necessary depends on the requirements of the respective departments and the clients’ needs. For us, it’s important to not only find qualified employees, but people with a good sense of the impact of their work and empathy for the client.
Newly employed sitters take part in an onboarding process, including a mandatory first-aid class and a child-protection class. Submitting an extended certificate of conduct is an indispensable requirement, as well.
Through our digital learning platform and online courses we offer continuous advanced training. For example clinical pictures or soft skills.
Training, supervision, and team meetings contribute to maintaining a high quality of work and provide employees with the opportunity to continuously develop their skills and competencies. Regular employee surveys help ensure that people in our organization are heard, enabling improvements to be identified and implemented.

Key results and benefits

With our inhouse digital platform we digitalized the administration of assistant services both within and outside our organization, we have transformed the way support services for people with disabilities are delivered. This has streamlined processes and reduced administrative burdens for public authorities.
The positive experience with our digital way of working is that our central administration consisted of four employees in 2019 and remained at the same size in 2021, even though the organization had tripled in scale. We attribute these efficiency gains to the implementation of our software. In 2020 we implemented our app for the employees to digitalize the daily processes of documentation and obtaining signatures from our employees for the commitments with the client.
In addition to our organization, 15 extern companies are currently using our self-developed digital platform, benefiting approximately 300 employees. The platform has since been spun off into an independent company.

Since the founding of Specialsitter in 2015, we have so far supported 6.740 families in 528.138 commitments. In the last 52 weeks, we have provided 15.552 support hours.
The working areas are as different as the people’s life situations. We provide our services in multiple settings, always according to the clients’ needs: in schools and kindergardens, in the workplspace, in the free time and in a domestic setting, at night, on a school trip or during doctors’ or agency visits.
The main outcome of our work is the improved quality of life and self-determination of people with disabilities who we support. Even though disability or sickness are commonplace, the environmental barriers in different settings are still substantial: kindergartens, schools and companies are often overwhelmed due to a lack of personnel, skills and knowledge on the specifics and practicalities of disabilities. Our services fill the gaps, so that people with disabilities can participate in social life, education and employment on their own terms. We also provide relief to the families of our clients by taking care of their loved ones with special needs, so that the carers can take a breather, find time for themselves to recharge or simply go to work knowing their relatives are in good hands.

The following chart illustrates the growth and development of our organization. It shows the development of jobs created, people supported, and service hours provided since 2023.

What our employees and families we support say about working at or working with Specialsitter: 

„They are open-minded and understanding when you have a lot going on in your personal life and need to take a short break. You don’t have to worry about losing your job if you are unable to work for an extended period. Thank you, Specialsitter.”

“Specialsitter invests not only in acquiring new clients but also in employee retention and supporting its clients.”

“A caring employer where you are not just a number as an employee, with direct points of contact. Better pay. The freedom to make your own decisions.”

“What sets Specialsitter apart from others is its incredibly kind staff, flexibility in day-to-day work, extremely supportive location managers, efficient communication and collaboration within the team, and above all, the wide range of activities and events on offer.”

“The appreciation and recognition. The gender-inclusive language—which is especially meaningful to me because it always makes me feel addressed and included. The mindfulness tips, the way communications are addressed with “Dear all,” the regular expressions of gratitude, the attitude toward my questions and concerns (“at Specialsitter, almost nothing is impossible”), and the caring team meetings.”

Potential for mainstreaming

Our goal is to become the best employer in the social sector in Germany not only by offering good work conditions, but by managing the organization democratically among all the employees in the company. We have a strong belief in people’s and their capability of taking full responsibility in their work areas. This is why our organization is built on holacratic, non-hierarchical principles, enabling a democratic participation of every team member. This structure helps us impact the communities for our clients and our sitters, because we hear the opinions of our employees through meetings and polls which we evaluate carefully and implement the results.