TO HAVEWith the publication of Flammarion’s book “Les Ogres” on Wednesday, September 18, the investigative journalist Victor Castanet, who had already highlighted the abuses in the Orpea group of nursing homes in “Les Fossoyeurs”, has brought the spotlight back to the private kindergartens, which have already been targeted by five parliamentary reports and inquiries and two books in eighteen months. Clearly, the panorama continues to darken over the cribs.
Institutional mistreatment
According to the first published excerpts, the journalist reveals new facts about the abuse in a private nursery. A fact that was already documented in a report published by the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (Igas) in April 2023 and put into action after a tragedy: the death of 11-month-old Lisa, who was sprayed with Destop in a nursery in Lyon. If this news is extreme, the report reveals that “daily acts of abuse” have become scandalously commonplace and amount to institutionalized abuse.
“Public admission policy […] The Igas rapporteur notes that it is guided primarily by a quantitative logic aimed at increasing supply without quality management, and acknowledges that “the risk of abuse and mistreatment has not been sufficiently taken into account and controlled”. We should also expect the law of 7 February 2022 to include the concept and definition of mistreatment in the Social Action and Family Code.
Igas recorded at least 2,000 cases of abuse during his work. The following are some of the examples he reads that are instructive: “lack of water, change, lack of time”; “no diapers, no food, no bed for naps”; cases of forced feeding to the point of vomiting; physical punishments and even insults of babies, etc. “This is the Orpea of the little ones,” one father told the authors of the book “Babyzness”, published in 2023.
This 2000 situation is scandalous in itself. For Igas, it is a matter of “staff and organizational constraints”: “There is a shortage of more than 10,000 full-time employees. »
Poor working conditions
“Early childhood professionals have been sounding the alarm for years,” explodes Véronique Escames, co-secretary general of the National Association of Early Childhood Professionals (SNPPE), who is also planning a mobilization to denounce the lack of human and material resources for training and recognition of the profession.
Deterioration of working conditions that contribute to a physically and mentally tiring profession. “The screams, noise, violence, biting that are an integral part of this type of encounter and the daily life of professionals and that can arouse many negative emotions in adults are largely ignored,” admits Igas’ rapporteur.
Seeking profit
How were the “ogres” allowed into the nursery? “In a quantitative strategy,” replies former MP William Martinet, on the initiative of the parliamentary inquiry commission. “We had to make room in nurseries at all costs. Even if it was private, even if it was very expensive, even if the conditions for reception were not good. Even if this meant deregulating the sector. So we lowered the requirements in terms of the level of qualification, the rate of inspection, etc. » According to William Martinet’s analysis, the authorization system implemented between public authorities and private groups adds “excessive subsidies and an extremely favorable legal, regulatory and financial framework.” Except that the giant is insatiable.
Finally, Victor Castanet throws a wrench in the water by suggesting that the former Minister of the Family, Aurore Bergé, and Elsa Hervy, spokeswoman for the private nursery lobby, will make a deal to avoid any scandal. Kidnapped…
“Ogres” by Victor Castanet. 416 pages, ed. Flammarion.
FFEC is furious
Following the publication of the first excerpts from “Ogres”, the French Federation of Nursery Companies expressed its “outrage” in a press release, recalling that “People & Baby has been no longer a member of FFEC since 2011, due to violations of the rules of ethics agreement”. “If the facts reported in this journalistic investigation had legal consequences, we would have joined to support the victims and to defend the dignity and interests of all the women and men who invest in our nurseries every day”, states FFEC. “This book will finally allow rapid measures to be implemented quickly”.
