• On the front line during the Covid-19 crisis, nurseries are now facing a shortage of staff in several departments.

  • To remedy the situation, the government has decided to make the recruitment of non-qualified employees more flexible since August 31 and to train them internally.

  • Several trade unions expressed their anger at this measure.

    In Paris, particularly affected by the lack of manpower, a strike was organized on August 31st.

  • Low wages, degraded working conditions, loss of attractiveness for the profession… The parents and professionals who answered our call do not hide their concern for the early childhood sector and the safety of children.

While the big ones have found their way back to the office and the small and medium-sized ones have found their way back to school, the start of the new school year is far from easy for some toddlers.

Nurseries, which have been suffering for several years, are struggling – like several other sectors – to recruit.

Witness the Parisian establishments on strike on August 30th.

On the front line during the Covid-19 crisis, the profession no longer attracts candidates due in particular to "working conditions, unreplaced absenteeism, lack of resources or even the filling rate", explains Angélique, State-certified childcare assistant who works in a municipal reception structure.

Many professionals in the sector (childcare workers, childcare assistants, educators) took the time to respond to our call for testimonials to alert us to the malaise in the sector.

Far from confining themselves to "playing and welcoming the child", as Marianne reminds us, they are responsible for safety, hygiene, support and communication with the children, but also with the parents and the teams, without forget about the organization of the structure.

All with several toddlers under their supervision,

“Always more with always less”

Last July, the National Family Allowance Fund (CAF) published a survey of 15,986 collective crèches offering 411,959 places.

The figures show that almost half (48.6%) of collective crèches report a lack of staff for children.

More than 9,500 places are "closed or unoccupied because of difficulty in recruiting".

Faced with the shortage, the government published a decree in the Official Journal which made professionals in the sector jump.

Since August 31, crèches faced with a shortage of staff have been authorized to recruit people without the qualifications usually required, “in case of absolute necessity” and under certain conditions.

Recruitment outside the diploma may only concern a maximum of 15% of the workforce.

Otherwise,

the new rules provide that the novice employee will be trained internally via an “integration course” of 120 hours, then that he will benefit from qualifying training within a maximum period of one year.

As a reminder, according to the law, at least 40% of the workforce of a crèche must be qualified.

For the National Union of Early Childhood Professionals (SNPPE), questioned by AFP, the risk is indeed to “sell off” the qualifications of employees already in place, and to see exceptional measures “then become permanent”.

"The state is content to organize the shortage," sighs Cyrille Godfroid, secretary general of this union.

“Some managers will use this decree to keep nurseries open, at all costs.

But for what level of service then?

“, he asks, with our colleagues.

This decision “angry” Aurélie.

“Today, we are asking professionals to do more and more with less: more children, more non-professionals to train (which, far from relieving us, make the task heavier), less budget, less salary, less space, less quality time for more output…”, she writes to us.

Professionals as well as parents are worried about a “discount crèche”.

"And why not security guards to fill the ranks of the national police and nursing assistants to replace the surgeons", exasperated Elise, a mother.

"I had to work with a young woman with no qualifications and no experience, and even if she did, she helped me a little, I was afraid to leave her alone with the children", confides Marie, childcare assistant in micro crib.

“No one recognizes your value”

Today, Marianne thinks of reorienting herself towards the profession of childminder.

Chantal has already taken the plunge.

"Today, I make a better living by caring for fewer children", tells us this former childcare assistant in a crèche for ten years.

Ingrid and Marie-Laure, also childminders, are surprised by the government's decree when their profession requires more and more training, in particular the validation of early childhood CAP tests.

After five years as a crèche assistant in a public service delegation in Paris, Chloé has decided to resign.

“No one would do a job where no one recognizes your value.

I gave myself body and soul to be a good early childhood professional and all for nothing,” she says.

Many parents also see the profession deteriorating over the years.

“When we know, after discussing it with them, that most of them are paid the minimum wage, we can tell ourselves that they are passionate and that they will take care of our children as well as possible.

They so deserve a better salary and the respect of all!

“says Romain, father of three children.

The increase in wages is singled out by the majority of our contributors.

Change care mode

Some, like Morgane, suffer the consequences of the suffering of the profession.

"2021 was very complicated, because indeed the lack of staff meant that the crèche had to reduce its working hours", explains this mother of a 15-month-old child who has been attending a public crèche since he was 3 months old.

Because of this change, she was late for work every day and it is "financially impossible to take two different types of childcare (nursery + childminder". For her, recruiting unqualified people can be a solution "by compared to the current emergency, but in the long term, the State will really have to find a quick way to revalorize these professions". She is also worried because of the incidents in several scandals: shaken babies or even recently in Lyon ,

a baby poisoned by a nursery worker.

"They prove that early childhood professionals are at their wit's end," adds the mother.

Emilie shares the same opinion.

Last year, her daughter was looked after by someone who did not have a degree in early childhood (former teacher) in a crèche in the Paris region.

"This person was wonderful and extremely attentive to the needs of the children," admits the mother.

A chance given to a motivated and involved person.

But "this new means of recruitment is very worrying", according to her.

For other parents, the choice is more radical.

Romain's first three children were cared for in a crèche, but he will not hesitate to change childcare if the structure he has chosen for his unborn child hires unqualified staff.

Melanie, she withdrew her youngest daughter from her crèche when she learned that the establishment had chosen to hire non-graduates this year.

"As a result, I contacted a childminder who will take care of it at least this year, I prefer the crèche as childcare, but not to the detriment of my child", indicates the mother of the family.

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Early childhood: Crèches on strike to warn of their ill-being

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Nurseries: Professionals opposed to the right to hire less well-trained employees

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