Adrien Taquet is the Minister for Children. – ALAIN JOCARD / AFP
Prohibition of placements in hotels, standards of supervision in homes, better remuneration of family assistants: a bill aimed at improving the lot of minors entrusted to Social Welfare for Children is presented on Wednesday in the Council of ministers. This text, carried by Secretary of State Adrien Taquet, must be examined at first reading in the National Assembly in the first half of July. It intends to remedy the “unsuitable frameworks” and “faulty coordination” which “too often” characterize the action of professionals.
Hospitality for minors in care must be prohibited, with “strictly supervised” exceptions and “reinforced educational support requirements” to prevent minors from ending up on the streets. Because of these exceptions, it is “abusive to speak of prohibition”, criticized the associative network Repairs, which brings together former children in care. A report from the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (Igas) had pointed out in January the “clearly identified dangers” incurred by ASE minors accommodated in hotels: the educators are not present enough and the young people are close to them. places of trafficking.
“Strict checks” of criminal records
According to the Igas, between 7,500 and 10,500 minors are concerned, 95% being unaccompanied foreign minors, known as unaccompanied minors (unaccompanied minors). The bill provides for “strict controls”, in particular of the criminal records of all adults in contact with children (professionals and volunteers). He wants to establish standards of supervision common to all structures taking care of minors, and improve the training of professionals, in particular in the detection of acts of violence.
Family assistants, who take in placed children in their homes, will benefit from a minimum remuneration for the care of a single child – currently below the minimum wage – and the maintenance of their remuneration in the event of suspension of approval, a measure demanded by these professionals recently mobilized for better working conditions. In order to avoid the hiring of less virtuous family assistants, a national accreditation database will also be created, in order to prevent an assistant who has lost his accreditation in one department from going to continue his activity in another. This measure was welcomed by the Repairs association.
The former children in care, on the other hand, strongly criticized the absence of any measure aimed at continuing to support the young people of the ASE after their 18th birthday, to prevent them from being “thrown into the street”. Currently, “more than one in three homeless youth is a former placed child,” according to Repairs. More than 350,000 children are the subject of a protection measure in France, half of whom are placed in homes or with foster families.