Unable to get a place in daycare in Bordeaux?
You are certainly not the only ones to be faced with this problem, testimonies are pouring in in this regard.
And for good reason, as Fannie Le Boulanger, the deputy mayor for early childhood, already announced in September, 70 positions are vacant.
Childcare assistants, educators of young children, but also cooks or psychomotor therapists... The City, which is desperate to recruit, is bringing out the heavy artillery for the second time in a few months.
In the streets and on bus shelters, the slogan
“What if it was you?”
Apply!”
covers the streets of Bordeaux.
“All profiles are sought
,” insists the environmentalist municipality which is also increasing its publications on social networks.
While around a hundred reception places are still frozen, the town hall is struggling to absorb the flow of 100,000 new residents who have arrived in the Gironde metropolis over the last decade.
Due to a lack of staff, some nurseries are also serving less than their capacity.
Renovated to accommodate 40 cradles instead of 20, the crèche in the residential area of Caudéran has blocked its registrations for 30 children due to a lack of staff.
A
“huge frustration”
for the town hall, but above all a big thorn in the side for families who are struggling to find childcare for their children.
Also read “It’s stress!”: the struggle of Bordeaux parents to have their baby looked after at the start of the school year
Low salary and “little recognition”
But it is enough to lift the veil on the early childhood pay slips to better understand the sector's difficulties in recruiting.
A childcare assistant on a fixed-term contract has a salary, without bonus, barely above the minimum wage.
All this while Bordeaux rents continue to rise.
“To resolve the basic problem, it has to come from higher up, with real increases in salary scales
,” says Élodie Saint Germain.
The director of the Bordeaux municipal nursery Carreire is regularly forced to occasionally close a section or reduce opening hours.
“Between long work stoppages, very difficult to replace, and small absenteeism, we are missing two people today, sometimes up to four,”
explains the one who should have around fifteen employees to ensure
“the well-being”
of the 40 children that its structure can accommodate.
Add to this the lack of flexibility, coupled with the physical and psychological fatigue that such an activity generates, and you will obtain
“a job with many constraints and very little recognition”,
estimates Élodie Saint Germain.
Read alsoLack of staff in nurseries: the criticized use of delegated management by Bordeaux town hall
Vicious circle
The only problem is that while “very motivated” candidates for these professions exist according to Aude Adolphi, educational coordinator of the CAP Early Childhood Educational Support (AEPE) in a Bordeaux high school, few of them manage to professionalize.
“They quickly turn back because they have not found a work-study program, while the structures say they are in shortage
,” she regrets.
Of the thirty candidates at her door last year, four found a work-study program, five accepted an unpaid internship, and the others gave up, she describes this way.
A vicious circle whose paradox is explained by a ministerial decree, dated August 31, 2022, which formalizes that staff not trained in the education of children must be hired on an exceptional and exceptional basis.
At the same time, there is a shortage of around 10,000 professionals in the sector in France and more than a third of employees in Bordeaux collective crèches are over 50 years old, according to the national union of early childhood professionals.
The City's last poster campaign, in October, resulted in 18 recruitments for 43 applications.