“We are experiencing a decline in medico-social services in general, and more particularly in our sector.
» In Essonne, specialist educators are sounding the alarm.
Several of them attended the departmental council meeting this Monday morning in Évry-Courcouronnes.
Objective: to draw attention to the difficulties of their profession while elected officials had to position themselves in relation to the new multi-year agreements drawn up between the department and its various partners.
For several years, funding for specialized prevention has been provided 80% by the departmental council and 20% by the municipal block.
A rate that the majority decided to increase to 70%/30%, 60%/40%, even 50%/50%.
“We have extended the coverage of the system to all municipalities that wish it,” explains Alexandre Touzet, vice-president (LR) in charge in particular of security and prevention.
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For professionals, this is not without consequences.
“Specialized prevention is a competence of the departmental council,” insists a specialized educator.
With child protection at the heart of our mission.
When municipalities take charge of the subject, they only see it through the prism of their skills, namely youth and public tranquility.
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Tension on recruitment
They are therefore thinking about preventing fights and violence around schools… “It’s part of our work,” recognize the specialist educators.
But our reality is rather unstructured families where parents have such crazy schedules that they can no longer take care of their children, kids with mental health problems who we cannot manage to follow... The Specialized prevention is part of an overall consideration of young people, it must not become a tool for preventing delinquency, which is only a symptom of their suffering.
And the lack of resources leads to a freeze on hiring, services managed by interns…”
For the minority group Naturally Essonne bringing together the left and environmentalists, “nothing must be done to weaken specialized prevention while the needs continue to grow”.
“In 2018, the budget devoted to specialized prevention amounted to 7.4 million euros, compared to 6.4 million in 2022 and only six million euros included in the forecast budget for 2024,” laments Marie-Claire Arasa , elected from the canton of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois.
Accusations swept aside by the majority.
“Specialized prevention is a very important policy,” insists François Durovray, president (LR).
These amounts indicated do not illustrate a budgetary restriction, but a tension for recruitment.
Moreover, if all the municipalities request the system, we will increase the credits.
Our ambition for child protection remains, as evidenced by the budget for social assistance for children which increases from 165 to 220 million euros.
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