The deterioration of public services is one of the main subjects of criticism against the government. And one of the Macronist martingales on the subject are the France Services houses, a sort of decentralized administrative one-stop shop in rural areas, but also certain urban areas that are not better equipped. It works well, even the opposition recognizes it. But last week, the Assembly voted for an LFI bill to require the return of physical reception points for public services, proof that demand is still very strong.
In 20 minutesthe Minister of Transformation and the Public Service, Stanislas Guerini, announces a further expansion of the network, but also an improvement in the service offering.
You have just formalized the launch of 96 France services houses…
Exactly. With this new wave, the promise of the President of the Republic, made at the end of the Great National Debate almost four years ago, to bring public services closer to our fellow citizens, will be fully fulfilled. Now, with 2,700 France services spaces throughout the country, all of our fellow citizens have public services less than twenty minutes from home. They are supported by communities, post offices, associations, sub-prefectures, etc.
How does a France Service house work, and above all, what can you find there?
France services are first and foremost agents, now almost 7,500 in the country. At least two per space, trained in a range of services around nine operators: taxes, family policy, pensions, but also farmers’ mutual insurance, the Post Office. On all these everyday public services, our fellow citizens can come to these physical spaces, without an appointment, to find an answer. And it works: more than nine times out of ten, a user who enters a France services house sees their approach resolved the moment they leave.
From January 1st, two new services will appear in France Services offices…
We will continue to progress on the network, but our priority must now be to enrich the range of services. First on the renovation of housing. We know to what extent simplified access to the services of Ma Prime rénov’ or Ma Prime adapt’ is an expectation of the French. It is sometimes a complex public service because the renovation work is complex. From next January, in the 2,700 France services spaces, our fellow citizens will be able to find a first level of access to these public policies.
Next is energy. From January 1, 2024, France Service spaces will be able to support the French in their request for an energy check. Today, there are still two in ten French people who are entitled to the energy check and who do not benefit from it. It’s a central challenge for our action: ensuring the last mile of our advertising policiesliques. France services allows you to sew together formal rights and real rights.
As you said, France Service arrived after the Great National Debate and therefore after the “yellow vest” crisis. Is this really a response to this discomfort?
Yes. What the “yellow vests” demonstrated was sometimes a feeling of downgrading in the face of the closure of certain public services. France Services is a political response, in the noblest sense of the term, to this feeling of downgrading. We are reinvesting widely in our public services, in schools, health, sovereign public policies… My mission as minister is to take up the challenge of the efficiency of all daily public services. From retirement pension to identity papers, to family allowance funds, that is to say all the needs that we encounter in our lives, from birth to death.
In these moments, we need not only digital public services that work, but above all, at a given moment, voices and faces in front of us. France services provides solutions where extremes live on the difficulties of everyday life. As with the reopening of a factory, with the reopening of public services, we push back the extremes.
It is a way of fighting against the National Rally, a populist party which lives on the backs of people’s difficulties. We must be able, in the region, to provide concrete answers, less talk of love and more proof.
Oppositions from all sides rather recognize the benefits of France Service. However, many consider that basically we are replacing specialists with “Swiss army knives”. Isn’t this a weakness of the system?
I do not believe. I believe in our agents, who are very well trained on the public services with which they have to operate. Because users who go to France services often ask to be helped with two or three steps. I don’t think we would have more than 90% satisfaction in the network if that wasn’t the case.
I want to be very clear: France Services is a central public policy for simplification and proximity of public services, but it is not the only one. One of the challenges we have before us is to decompartmentalize the networks. I am thinking in particular of the first network of counters, the town halls, with which we must work. Once in a living area, we synergize the network of town hall secretaries with the network of France Services agents, we see that we are doing what the French expect: we are solving everyday problems. We must not let people think that everything could be simple overnight, because people’s lives are complex. But what should be simple is the access point.
Another criticism is made indirectly of the device. The Defender of Rights explains that this does not necessarily solve the problem of electronicism that exists among the population since France Service houses are largely digital access points. What could be the State’s response? ?
I am the first to be aware that all of our fellow citizens cannot rely on digital access points for their administrative procedures. Today there are 13 million French people who still experience difficulties with digital technology. This is also why we have deployed 4,000 digital advisors to support digital autonomy.
What I do not accept is that some of the online procedures are, for example, not accessible to people with disabilities: we are investing 60 million euros so that 100% of the online procedures are accessible.
We must therefore act at all levels: it would be madness to turn our back on digital technology, but we must do it in a demanding manner. We have to do good digital. For example, when we have given information to one administration, all the others could also be informed. That will make people’s lives easier. But that also means that digital technology should not be the only way to access public services. I agree to digitize online procedures, but on one condition: to always be able to have an alternative to the telephone and an alternative to the counter, in particular thanks to the French spacesthis service.