This week, Victor Castanet’s new investigative book, The Ogres, makes headlines. After denouncing mistreatment in some Ephad, he is now attacking private daycare centers: lack of staff, food, mistreatment of children. The picture is far from glowing.
franceinfo: What happened to make us no longer able to protect the most vulnerable, the elderly and children alike? ?
Jean Viard: Let’s not pretend that we’re talking about all daycare centers. Just as not all nursing homes have the same problems as a certain group whose name has changed. There were 4 million people over 80, the target audience, there are only 700,000 in nursing homes, and here we’re talking about 450,000 children who are in private, public or associative structures, out of 2 million, or about one child in four.
So that means that the majority of childcare and elderly care is done by families. Very often, it is a burden on women, with all that this entails in terms of time constraints, etc. Afterwards, what this book demonstrates is that, whether it is private or public, basically, it is the same question, we need control, and for us to have confidence, we must have confidence in the control. Because effectively, when we entrust a child or an elderly person, we are not very guilty in a certain way, and above all we want absolute trust. So, in my opinion, the role of the State is to guarantee trust and they must be controlled, whether they are private or public.
What is being criticized most is the management of the private sector. Does that mean that everything should be thrown out? ?
But no, everyone has their own ideology. I think that the role of the State is first and foremost to control. I can understand that there are people who prefer public structures. 40 years ago, I participated in the creation of an associative nursery because at one time, you had to create them yourself, then, this nursery was municipalized, there are others that are privatized.
The big problem is that we don’t have enough daycare centers because when one child in four is looked after, it means that many people stop working, or mothers don’t work, and can’t work. That’s the real problem. We also create a lot of daycare centers in companies. But what is clear first of all is that there is a shortage of them, and then that they lack control.
And all this is in the hands of politicians, we know about the improvements, better salaries, more controls, a re-evaluation of public aid too?
Yes, but it’s not just a question of money. Many people do this out of passion, out of love for children. There was a whole debate because now we accept a certain number of employees in daycare centers who don’t have the diplomas. It doesn’t shock me. That there are qualified people who supervise is the least we can do. But there is also a culture of diplomas in France on which we have to put a little flexibility. But then obviously, it’s a bit of a question of money. So be careful, because private daycare centers are paid mainly by families.
Is the situation we are experiencing in France specific to our country, or do our European neighbours take better care of their elders and their children? ?
No, it’s not that they take better care of them… Take the question of Germany. Historically, a working mother was a little rejected because it was considered that the role of a mother was to take care of her children. And if she worked, it was considered that she was abandoning her children a little, that’s ancient history. But in countries like Germany, it’s still extremely present.
And so, in Germany, there are a lot of women who don’t work when they have children, not only because there are no daycare centers, but also because the image of the mother who drops off her child in the morning, picks him up in the evening, and goes to work, is still a very negative image. The good thing about France is that we have basically reached the point where a mother has the right to work, and it is completely legitimate for her to drop off her child in the morning, or for the father to drop him off in the morning, etc. And that is where France is rather ahead of a lot of countries. I took the example of Germany because it is right next to us.
I believe that France is not behind in this area from a cultural point of view, we are rather ahead, from a facilities point of view, we are not, and in particular in the large working-class neighborhoods. This is where there are mainly single women, with children, who do not work, in particular because there are no daycare centers, often in the most disadvantaged large neighborhoods of our territory.