“The situation is very worrying”alert Tuesday, November 15 on franceinfo the Children’s Defender Eric Delemar, deputy of the Defender of Rights Claire Hédon who took up the situation of the social service for children in the Somme and in the North after an alert from the magistrates, lawyers and social workers. “These are child protection decisions, children in danger, assessed, proven which are not implemented”, he explains. The lack of means of the social services is singled out.
franceinfo: Why did the Defender of Rights, Claire Hédon, take action?
Eric Delmar: The situation is very worrying because basically, it is child protection decisions, children in danger, assessed, proven that are not implemented. These are fundamental rights. We know the risks of abuse in very young children, but also in teenagers. Unfortunately, we were sometimes used to delays in implementing measures.
We know that when prevention does not happen, it is later in an emergency, in dramatic situations, where the violence is exacerbated, that placement can be done, sometimes with the help of the police.
Eric Delmarat franceinfo
But it is also now measures where the child must be welcomed in a child protection establishment or with family assistants which, today, are no longer implemented or with delays which are unbearable. It must be understood that during this time, we have children who are in danger, who are no longer available for their well-being, for education, for schooling, who can take action on them- themselves or on others.
Is this seizure a marker of the seriousness of the situation?
Yes, because we are in a state of law. When magistrates, who are there to take the right measures in collaboration with the social workers of the departments, can no longer carry out their missions, it is the most vulnerable who no longer have access to rights. In a rule of law where justice is no longer heard, where its decisions are not implemented, it is rather worrying for our fellow citizens and mainly for children. Children are particularly invisible. The situation is dramatic. So, indeed, this automatic referral is very worrying.
What’s not working?
We are talking about children who do not have access to protection. Of course, this is confronted with the lack of means. It is also confronted with the compartmentalization of institutions, that is to say the governance of child protection in the territories. How the departments, with the institutions of the State, the National Education, the judicial protection of youth, must be able to work together in the best interests of the child. The children we are talking about at the moment are perhaps children who are even more out of school today.
When you are in a situation of abuse at home, how do you find the energy to go to school when you have already revealed to your teacher or your teacher that you were in danger?
Eric Delmarat franceinfo
This teacher who has done his job and who has reported sees that things are not moving… It is the whole life of the child as a whole and all his basic needs that are not respected. And it is dramatic for his future.