Each district (Kreis) or district-free city (kreisfreie Stadt) has its own Jugendamt.
Its structure is flat, with no centralised (state or federal) coordinating office.
Since the local organizations function independently there is no federal administrative supervision.
The Federal Statistics Bureau (Statistisches Bundesamt) shows[1] a steep rise in the number of children with problems taken by Jugendämter yearly into safeguarding.
The main reason for this is the high number of unaccompanied child refugees,[citation needed] who are by law required to be taken into safeguard by a Jugendamt (e.g. 45,000 in 2016).