Coronavirus: child protection on the brink of implosion

"We don't do any more substantive work. We just manage everyday and school life with the means at hand," warns Laura *, educator specializing in child protection in Île-de-France, interviewed by France. 24. In the Mecs (Children's home of a social nature) where she is stationed, the confinement put in place on March 17 to stop the spread of Covid-19 on French territory has disrupted daily life.

Usually, Laura accompanies around sixty children. Intervening when they are in the structure, she helps them manage their daily life, their education and their family situation. The closure of the schools led her to partially renounce her initial role to lend a hand on academic support and animation.

"Our management had communicated a lot in advance on the subject," she underlines. "She provided us with explanations on the coronavirus, the procedures to follow, the barrier measures to put in place. The management had anticipated a modification of the schedules to because of school closings. We also have gel and some masks, "says Laura.

"It's okay, it's a little flu"

Her husband Guillaume *, an educator specializing in another structure, was not so lucky.

"What is clear is that there was no work with the field teams upstream. They imposed decisions on us: we were asked to be in contact with all the children when they could be healthy carriers. There was no reflection on our endangerment, on the respect of barrier gestures ", he lists, questioned by France 24." We had some fairly violent altercations with our executives on The subject. We wanted to work, but not at any cost. They did not take the measure. There was a side: "It does not matter, it is a small flu."

"We only plan on the fortnight of confinement announced [until April 15, note]," adds his colleague Camille *, also a special education teacher, interviewed by France 24. "We know it will last longer, but our projections stop on that date. "

The two colleagues, however, give a good point to their supervisors who have struggled to equip them with gel and masks, without waiting for an official endowment.

"We do not have stocks and we are not able to put in place something that will be perfect from a health standpoint," notes Camille, however. "With good weather, we manage to do as many things as possible outside in the garden to minimize the risks. But if there is an emergency, we rush to the pavilion concerned without necessarily thinking of putting on a mask. It would also be impossible to change gloves at each contact ... "

"It is stressful to work. We can be a vector, we can infect children, we can infect our colleagues, we can bring the virus home," she worries.

Children who live fairly well in confinement

The two specialized educators work in a children's village: 51 young people in eleven pavilions in groups of five. Each group is taken care of by a social worker and another family assistant, while the educators normally monitor the children individually.

"We do a maximum of education for barrier gestures. We explain to the children that it is no longer possible to come and hug. The older ones understand more easily but the smaller ones have trouble," explains Camille.

"We try to take things with humor but without doing too much because otherwise the children do not realize what is happening," adds Guillaume.

In early April, Lyes Louffok, a member of the National Council for Child Protection (CNPE) and himself a former child placed in care, worried in an AFP interview that the situation is "generating even more violence in the home" ". Indeed, confinement aggravates the drifts within vulnerable populations.

[open letter] the great children forgotten by the current crisis - juvenile justice, child protection, prevention, it is time to react! # Covid_19 #confinement #enfants #teamTS pic.twitter.com/F6BFa27sxZ

Marie *, a psychologist in the same village of foster children as Guillaume and Camille, has the same concerns. In normal times, she carries out psychological monitoring of the children, helping them to work on their family history, and guides the educators to help the children. She recalls her concerns when the confinement was announced.

"We were afraid that confinement would impact the children, in particular because of the almost total absence of contact with parents. We were also afraid that it would exacerbate tensions between children, "she explains to France 24.

To his surprise, the children seem to react well to confinement for the moment, well helped by the reception conditions of the structure and its large outdoor space.

"It is interesting for me to see how they evolve cut off from any family context. These kind of conditions do not usually exist. They live it rather well. They do not ask about their parents, very few of them ask to call them. And for those who were most disturbed, they are having less of a crisis right now, "notes the practitioner, who still had to adapt her practices by now carrying out her interviews wearing a mask, and in the whenever possible, outdoors.

"The children understand that it is for their protection," confirms Camille. "There are those for whom it is more complicated because it has completely changed the daily rhythm, their time to get up, the fact of going to school. It is complex not to know when it will end. C "It's hard not to have any more links with their friends. Our concern was also at the level of the welcoming. The staff are tired and worried about their own tension. This tends to situation and risks rubbing off on the children," explains Married. "But in the majority of cases, the hosts take advantage of this exceptional situation to create more links with the children, with workshops or activities that they do not have time to do in normal times. The real concern is is at the level of education. They are going to be very late at that level, "worries the psychologist.

Educational continuity impossible to put in place

This is the big concern of specialized educators: that confinement leads to a rupture in the education of children. Educational continuity is a puzzle. Children are supposed to follow their lessons thanks to documents posted online by their school or more generally by national education. For those who are in care, the work is done with educators, who are not teachers.

"You cannot improvise as a teacher. For example, I am not able to explain a point division to a child. So we do our best but it is complicated", explains Guillaume, from the children's village.

"We are asked to manage a day of class. With only one child, it would be possible, but in my home, we take care of ten children, of ten different levels," notes Laura.

The other limitation is related to the material. In the children's village of Guillaume and Camille, there is only one computer for five students. In Laura's Guys, it's even worse: there is often only one device for ten people.

"We are simply not able to set up everything that educational monitoring would require. We cannot let a single child follow his lessons from 8 am to 5 pm without interruption on a computer at the expense of the others," explains Camille.

Special educators therefore seek solutions, often in connection with schools, between loaning materials or printing lessons and homework.

"One of our children in high school managed to get a tablet. We are very close to the teachers. However, we have to manage everything on a case-by-case basis, which takes considerable time," notes Laura, from the guys. "And whether it is my husband or me, we are fortunate to work with children who are generally stabilized and who are with us over time. The situation must be quite different in emergency shelters: I have echoes of running away from running away ... "

A sector "on the verge of implosion"

"We are not naive, we work and militate in a system, that of child protection which, all year round, is already on the verge of implosion", alerted in early April Lyes Louffok, member of the National Council for Child Protection (CNPE).

Faced with confinement which "aggravates or sheds more light on the problems inherent in child protection", at the end of March it launched a platform to collect testimonies from social workers, young people placed and foster families who are subjected to this new situation.

The lack of staff is pointed out as the main problem, which "worsens in homes, with a direct impact on their ability to fulfill their primary mission: to protect the child and guarantee his safety".

"From the start of confinement, there was a series of sick leaves. We were forced to tour with 50% of our usual staff," says Guillaume. "At the beginning, we wanted to divide 10 children each to avoid the multiplication of contacts, we had to realize that we could not."

"Ideally, we should be overstaffed in this situation," argues colleague Camille. "However, there is a minimum workforce, or even understaffing with sick leave…"

All the professionals questioned are also worried about the lack of recognition for their profession and the non-existent word of Adrien Taquet, Secretary of State in charge of child protection.

"We focus on caregivers who are certainly essential today, but we do not think about the rest and especially these children. We need better communication on the means to put in place," pleads Camille, from the village children.

At the end of March, the Council of Ministers adopted 25 ordinances within the framework of the health emergency, including one introducing "adaptations" to the usual rules of organization and operation of establishments welcoming children in care. The text also poses the possibility of an occupancy rate of 120%.

Those outside the home, the blind spot

With a view to confinement, the reception centers were called upon to send home the maximum number of children whose family situation permitted. A rather disturbing call for the supervisory staff.

"We work in the field of child protection and we take care of children placed by judicial measure. These children are placed to protect them from a toxic family unit and, in a crisis situation, we want to put them back in this toxic family unit. I hope it was only done for very specific cases ", worries Camille.

At the level of the host village where Guillaume and Camille work, the supervisors opposed the departure of the children in their care. In Laura's home, however, a young girl went back to the family home.

"The educator calls the mother every Friday, and the youngster knows that she can call us at any time if something happens", explains the specialized educator, little reassured by this device. "We could have possibly done it for other children, over a short period. But if the confinement were prolonged, it would be too dangerous. Especially in a context like that, frightening, which can harm parents and children. "

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Currently, more than 350,000 young people are subject to a child protection measure in France, half of whom are placed in homes or with foster families. And child protection professionals worry about those whose abuse has yet to be spotted.

"Our secretary of state, Adrien Taquet, does not intervene, unlike her colleague for women's rights Marlène Schiappa, who rightly insists on the subject of domestic violence. On violence against children, we have nothing, no prevention, no spots for the 119 ", worries Guillaume. "Placements that had to be made have been put on hold and the kids are reunited with their families, without school for escape ... We risk discovering dramatic things in the deconfinement."

* The first names have been changed.

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