Children in care: what will the bill change?

[Mise à jour du 16 décembre à 11h57]. On the night of December 14 to 15, 2021, the Senate adopted the bill to better protect children in care, which could be definitively adopted in early 2022. The text was voted unanimously last July in the National Assembly. On January 11, a joint committee bringing together deputies and senators will be organized to try to find an agreement on a common version of the text. For the Secretary of State in charge of Children Adrien Taquet, this bill “aims first to improve children’s safety, whether emotional, material or physical “. Among the main measures: the total ban on accommodating minors in hotels, within two years. Young people will also be able to benefit from a right of return until the age of 21, in the structures of Social Assistance to Children (ASE). The senators also recommend, on an experimental basis, to create a departmental committee for the protection of children.

Care for children in care: what does the bill provide?

Improve the daily life of children in care

• Accommodation for children placed in the hotel is prohibited. The government wants prohibit the reception of minors in hotels for more security. This type of reception had been denounced several times, especially after the assassination of Jesse, a young man of 17 entrusted to the ASE, and killed in a hotel in Suresnes in 2019. A decree will then detail establishments that will be prohibited from the placement of children such as social hotels or tourist hotels, and will specify “the exceptions (emergency, sheltering) strictly supervised and limited to a maximum of two months with reinforced educational support requirements, in order to prevent minors from ending up on the street” specifies the secretariat of State responsible for children and families in a press release dated June 15.
• The inclusion in the law of prohibition of separation of siblings
• The guarantee of a priority access to social housing for former ASE children
• Guarantee a support solution for each young person from ASE reaching 18 years of age thanks to the youth guarantee and contracts for young adults
• To give judges the possibility of appointing a lawyer for children when their interests so require.
• The juvenile judge must systematically be informed in the event of a change of place of placement of the child so that he can ensure that this decision is made in the best interests of the child.
• Children in care should also receive “the benefit of sponsorship” by volunteers as well as “a mentor” upon entering college.
• Promotion of the profession of family assistants, in particular by determining a minimum remuneration for the care of a child
• The bill also plans to reform and revitalize the national governance of child protection.

• Before placing a child in the ASE, a systematic search will allow the child to be entrusted to a person in his entourage., whether it is close family (grandparents, uncles and aunts …) or family friends.

Ensure the safety of children in care

The bill also provides strict controls to “ensure that no one who has been convicted of sexual offenses can work in contact with children”. The fight against mistreatment is also an essential point of this new strategy. An external referent will then be created and can be entered directly by the children. Finally, professionals in contact with children will be better trained in identifying and reporting worrying situations such as acts of violence.

For more than a year, many measures have already been put in place to protect young people from Social Assistance to Children (ASE) with in particular the automation of higher education scholarships, access to student accommodation, personalized support from 17 years old with the youth guarantee for enhanced professional support and financial assistance of 500 euros per month. These measures thus aim to fight against the dry exits of children in care once they come of age.