Placements of children and educational assistance: put the family at the centre of reflection

informationPlacements of children and educational assistance: put the family at the centre of reflection

Placements of children and educational assistance: put the family at the centre of reflection

Date of publication: 27/07/13

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Placements of children and educational assistance: put the family at the centre of reflection

In its opinion on the right to family life and placements of children, CNCDH recalls that everything must be done to maintain and preserve, as much as possible, family ties in the context of the protection of children and the educational assistance.

In France, approximately 273,000 minor are supported by the services for the protection of children's councils, and among them, about 134,000 are placed outside their family environment, in foster care or in institutions, as a result of administrative or judicial decisions. These figures are increasing for several years, and the number of minors placed in France is proportionally higher than in many other European countries. Gold, unlike a misconception, only 20% of the investments are handed down due to abuse or sexual violence. Indeed, the very large majority of the investments is correlated with educational deficiencies, and the consequences of poverty on family life more widely. If it motivates never to her only decision, the precariousness of the families has a real influence on the action taken.

A law applied unevenly according to different territories

In this notice, the CNCDH recalls that the Act of March 5, 2007, reforming the child protection provides a legal framework affecting, but the implementation of devices in addition to being insufficient, is too disparate from one Department to the other. If the concepts used in the context of the protection of children "disturbing information", "danger", "risk of harm", "best interests of the child" have knowingly was left to the discretion of professionals, giving them the ability to tailor responses to each situation, children die of abuse while others are placed unnecessarily, evidence of dysfunctions in the devices. In its opinion, the CNCDH alert public authorities concerning this ambivalence and recalls, like Pierre Naves, inspector general of Social Affairs, that 50% of placements of children could be avoided.

Think 'family': the solution to get out of the children/parents duality

The CNCDH seeks the systematic development of a project for the child (EPP) at the beginning of the implementation of the educational assistance measure. This project which aims to build and assemble the objectives and modalities of the various educational interventions with regard to the needs of the child and his family, must be built with parents so that it is not imposed them. The CNCDH considers that must be supported and imagine comprehensive programmes oriented towards the family. It therefore recommends the implementation with families in difficulty of action plans incorporating in a coordinated manner across devices support provided by the regulations (treatment of bad housing, parenting, coaching in social and family economy support, employment, etc.).

Finally, the Commission is keen that the child and his parents can actually benefit from the assistance of a lawyer.