As far as early childhood is concerned, one would expect only quality services. This is unfortunately not the case: there are also many cases of degraded services. The situation is “very disparate” from one establishment to another, the best rubbing shoulders with the worst, is alarmed by the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (Igas), which recommends in its report, published this Tuesday, April 11, profound reforms to better prevent child abuse. According to the establishments: the quality of the building and the interior layout, the effective supervision rates, the training of professionals and the general ability to meet the needs of children are disparate, and “lead to serious inequalities between territories” .
In total, the inspectors visited 36 public and private establishments across France. They also distributed a questionnaire to which 5,275 directors, 12,545 crèche employees and 27,671 parents responded. Igas had been commissioned by the government after the death of an 11-month-old baby in a private nursery in Lyon in June. A case in which an employee was indicted, suspected of having made the child ingest a caustic product.
Facts identical to those found in nursing homes
Many of the adults interviewed described situations resembling abuse, the authors point out, referring to children forgotten on the toilet, deprived of a nap for lack of sufficient beds, or on the contrary left to cry until what they fall asleep.
This subject is “too little questioned”, even though “the risk areas and the facts reported are identical to those that are observed in any reception of vulnerable and dependent people”, that is to say in the homes pensions or establishments for the disabled, note the authors of the report. Other testimonies mention children who are not given anything to drink, “that way, we change diapers less”, who are left too long in their soiled diaper, who are humiliated or insulted (“you whining for nothing”, “you smell bad”…), which are force-fed by pinching their noses to make them open their mouths, or even physically abused by pulling their hair or tying them up to a radiator.
More checks recommended by Igas
For Igas, improving the quality of reception must go through a strengthening of controls, an increase in the rate of supervision and the level of qualification of professionals, but also by a mode of financing of establishments conditioned on quality objectives. . The rapporteurs also underline the need to remedy the lack of attractiveness of early childhood professions, which leads to a chronic understaffing and therefore a burnout of professionals in post. This is an “aggravating factor as much as (a) symptom” of the difficulties in welcoming children well, according to them.
Faced with these findings, “all the recommendations” of the document will be taken into account, assured in a press release the Minister of Solidarity, Jean-Christophe Combe, who wishes to “act quickly”. The minister is expected to announce measures in the spring, as part of the “public service for early childhood” promised by President Macron. This project has a quantitative dimension, with the necessary creation of more places, but also a qualitative dimension, underlined the minister’s entourage to AFP. “I will be vigilant in implementing the recommendations and checks”, for his part tweeted the Secretary of State for Children, Charlotte Caubel. “There is no question of experiencing an Ehpad 2.0 crisis.”
For a baby under one year old, spending 40 hours a week in a crèche, with all that “involves noise, agitation, risk of overstimulation” is not necessarily the most appropriate response anyway. to its needs, considers the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs. The institution therefore calls for “reviewing the duration and rules of remuneration for maternity, paternity and parental leave” to “increase the possibility of parental presence with the child during the first year of life”. In France, today, the duration of maternity leave is 16 weeks (approximately 4 months), while paternity leave is 25 days.