Child protection: when nannies go off the rails

In 2022, one-and-a-half-year-old Siam is being looked after by a childminder. After much suspicion, his mother, Sandra Neumann, took a step that is prohibited by law: spying on the nanny using a stuffed animal. On the recording, she hears insults repeatedly.I think it took me a good hour before I stopped crying.” she remembers.

In 2023, the childminder was sentenced to a three-month suspended prison sentence for psychological and moral violence, and a ten-year ban from practicing. While more and more cases are being publicized, reports of mistreatment are reportedly increasing in daycare centers and among childminders.

In France, it is the Maternal and Child Protection (PMI), managed by the departments, which controls the means of reception of young children. Each department has its own budget. The assistants are checked every five years, but in reality, these checks have been decreasing for 20 years. In the event of a complaint, the reactivity can also vary from one department to another, according to a union of PMI doctors.

For their part, childminders sometimes say they feel very isolated and are increasingly leaving the profession due to working conditions that they consider increasingly difficult.