Additional human and financial resources for investigators and prevention, or even a “boost” of 1,500 euros at age 18 for young people leaving child welfare (ASE)… Elisabeth Borne presented, Monday November 20, the government’s new plan against violence against children for the period 2023-2027, on the occasion of International Children’s Rights Day.
In the afternoon in Matignon, the French Prime Minister chaired the third interministerial committee for children (CIE), a body launched in November 2022 to build a “transversal vision of childhood policy”, which had been met for the second time in June. In the presence of eleven members of the government, including the Secretary of State for Children, Charlotte Caubel, she discussed two priority themes: the 2023-2027 plan against violence, which succeeds that launched in 2020, and the strengthening of State action in favor of protected and vulnerable children.
“Wherever there is room for improvement, we must continue to act. We have a duty to children: to protect them,” the Prime Minister said at the opening of the meeting, calling for “creating a culture of child protection.”
Strengthening means of prevention
Elisabeth Borne thus confirmed the upcoming increase in the number of investigators from the Office for Minors (Ofmin), currently numbering thirty-five, to “eighty police officers and gendarmes”.
She also announced the upcoming creation of “new positions within systems for collecting children’s speech, such as 119”, as well as within the Signal-sports unit. Ten positions of departmental delegates “for steering child protection”, recruited on an experimental basis to be the contact persons for the departmental councils, and under the aegis of the prefects, will also be created. “This system [is] intended to be generalized” subsequently, she said.
Regarding measures for “better care for child victims of violence”, Elisabeth Borne said in the preamble to the meeting the government’s wish to develop pediatric reception units for children in danger, so that ‘a unit of this type exists “by court by 2027”.
She also announced that the government was going to launch a training plan within several ministries, dedicated to “the identification of all forms of violence” and which will be aimed at children’s professionals. An annual communications campaign is also provided for in the new plan. In 2024, it will focus on violence against children in sport.
1,500 euros for young people leaving ASE when they reach the age of majority
Second theme addressed on Monday: State action in favor of “protected and vulnerable children”. On November 10, during the Conference of the Departments of France, the Prime Minister called for “general mobilization for protected children”, a burning issue for these communities, including in their report to the State.
Nearly 370,000 children are subject to a protection measure under the ASE, whose services have, since the major decentralization laws of 1982 and 1983, come under the authority and responsibility of the president of the council departmental. Ms. Borne had mentioned “new commitments” to be made on Monday during the CIE, “in particular in terms of health or education” for these children.
In her introductory remarks on Monday, Ms. Borne insisted on the “protected schooling” system supported by Minister Gabriel Attal, “a real roadmap between school and child protection stakeholders,” which includes the appointment of referents and the systematization of educational interviews at 15 and 17 years of age for the children concerned.
The head of government above all announced a “financial boost” of 1,500 euros for young people leaving the ASE, automatically received at the age of majority, as part of a “young autonomy pack” which will include mentoring actions and a majority ceremony organized in the departments.
Earlier in the day, Elisabeth Borne went with Charlotte Caubel and Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior, to Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine) to visit the Ofmin, responsible for coordinating the operational activity of the security services. police and gendarmerie. She also went to Issy-les-Moulineaux (Hauts-de-Seine) to meet the victim support association L’Enfant bleu, before the CIE was held.
Criticisms of “measures without real funding”
The organization of this third CIE comes after the publication of a long-awaited report from Ciivise, an independent commission responsible, among other things, for combating incest. In an interview with the Journal du Dimanche, Ms. Caubel assured that it should continue to exist with “a new roadmap”, while the associations fear for the sustainability of this organization.
If the L’Enfant bleu association gave a rather favorable reception to the measures, others are less enthusiastic. The president of the association La Voix de l’enfant, Martine Brousse, spoke of “a form of disappointment” at the sight of this plan. “Instead of having a global view of the suffering child, we have announcements of things already done, there is almost nothing new,” she judged.
“Children need an emergency plan, not a communication plan,” also criticized the Child Collective. Former foster child and ex-member of the National Child Protection Council, Lyes Louffok described to Agence France-Presse a “pile of measures without real funding”.