Places in crèches, increase in aid... How Borne wants to make childcare easier

It will soon be easier to have your children looked after. This is in any case what ensures Elisabeth Borne who will present, Thursday, in Angers (Maine-et-Loire) her plan for early childhood. Anticipating the presentation to the Council of Ministers next week of the bill reorganizing the public employment service, the Prime Minister will detail in particular the financing of the 200,000 new nursery places envisaged by 2030, despite the shortage of staff in this sector.

Childcare "is one of the most important obstacles, along with mobility, to access to employment. When a child arrives in a couple, it is often the woman who is led to withdraw from the labor market, "says Elisabeth Borne in an interview with Ouest-France posted online Wednesday evening. It is "a very important issue of equal opportunities, but also a huge issue of equality between women and men," says the Prime Minister.

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Elisabeth Borne should thus detail the funding of 100,000 additional places in nurseries by 2027, with the objective of reaching 200,000 new places by 2030 (which the Prime Minister had promised in July 2022). Thus, 5.5 billion euros will be mobilized over 2023-2027. Young children currently have 458,000 places in crèches, and 770,000 with childminders.

A plan to improve the quality of reception

After an alarming report by the Igas (General Inspectorate of Social Affairs) published in April, which called for far-reaching reforms of the sector to better prevent abuse, the Prime Minister will also discuss measures likely to improve the quality of reception, such as a system of "reporting and follow-up of reports", or more controls. Approvals for nurseries will thus be "limited to ten years, with a systematic appointment halfway through," explains Élisabeth Borne.

In addition to crèches, a €70 million "Innovation Fund" will develop "adapted" childcare arrangements for people in difficulty. "We will increase the aid of CAFs for the employment of a childminder so that this solution does not cost more than a nursery," also announces Elisabeth Borne to Ouest-France, recalling the increase in the ceiling of the tax credit for childcare expenses.

The government estimates that 49% of crèches lack professionals. It will therefore also be a question of the means to remedy the lack of attractiveness of these professions, "aggravating factor as much as symptom" of the difficulties in welcoming children, according to Igas.