Parents forced to pick up the children at the crèche an hour earlier in Toulouse or Villeurbanne.
A strike of early childhood workers in Paris.
Thousands of crèche places closed in France…
While the childcare sector is facing a serious shortage of professionals, the Association of Mayors of France (AMF) warns of the urgency of developing new training courses for these staff in a context of
“serious shortage”
.
We are also paying for the Covid crisis during which these professionals were strongly mobilized
Clotilde Robin, first deputy mayor of Roanne (Loire)
"Absolute emergency"
Faced with the emergency, the association of elected officials has just written to the presidents of the regional councils to tackle these recruitment difficulties.
"Today, this situation prevents the opening of new places, freezes cradles, forces structures to reduce their reception possibilities"
, points out Clotilde Robin, first deputy mayor of Roanne (Loire) and co-president of the working group early childhood of the AMF.
Among the reasons for the disaffection for these professions, the elected official cites
"unattractive salaries"
despite a recent revaluation,
"heavy professional commitments to manage"
,
"sometimes complicated"
needs from impoverished or single-parent families, a
"lack of
of training»
and bridges between professions.
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“We are also paying for the Covid crisis during which these professionals were strongly mobilized. It was heavy, dense, and we are paying for it today
, ”she notes.
The massive retirement of childminders, which will intensify over the next five years, further darkens the picture.
Childcare auxiliaries, educators of young children… the National Federation of crèche companies is calling for the
“absolute emergency”
training of 30,000 professionals.
The situation is all the more tense as, at the same time, the idea of setting up a public service for early childhood emerged during the presidential campaign.
While 4 out of 10 children under the age of 3 do not benefit from a reception place, Emmanuel Macron had recognized that the reception of young children was
“out of breath”
.
Like several other candidates, he promised to put in place a real
“right to childcare”
– in individual or collective reception – for all parents, with compensation in the event of a lack of solution.
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Even before the government took up the subject, the AMF insisted on recalling the
"major role"
played by the municipalities and the municipal block in early childhood policy, an optional competence which could become compulsory in the event of creation of a "public service".
This change could only be made under certain
"imperative" conditions,
insists the association, wishing to weigh in on this debate.
New regulations
"If this early childhood public service was entrusted to the municipalities, we should receive full compensation for the expenses incurred to deal with a new competence"
, warns Clotilde Robin.
Local elected officials also want to be associated “
with the objective of creating places
” and be able to continue to offer a diversified reception offer “
and not decided solely by Paris
” to stick as closely as possible to the needs of the territories.
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On the ground, a certain number of mayors are still "
skeptical
" about the implementation of this service, specifies Xavier Madelaine, mayor of Amfreville (Calvados), who co-chairs the AMF's early childhood working group.
If they do not question the interest of the project, they fear that existing services will be hampered by new regulations that are
“too rigid”
or
“poorly adapted”
to the local situation.
As for the project to create an “opposable” right to child custody, it is considered
“impossible to put in place”
in this context of shortage and in the absence of a supervisory authority
.
