Preoccupying. Minors placed by ASE, child welfare, have never been so numerous in Charente. “There are 950 to which we should add 100 to 120 unaccompanied minors”, underlines Maryline Vinet, responsible for children and families at the Departmental Council. During its last session, the Department confirmed the concerns: “Child protection is experiencing several developments and difficulties today. The Department thus notes a sharp increase in activity for educational measures at home as well as for placements, putting great strain on the existing reception offer. »
This sector is suffering. Everywhere in France. He…
Preoccupying. Minors placed by ASE, child welfare, have never been so numerous in Charente. “There are 950 to which we should add 100 to 120 unaccompanied minors”, underlines Maryline Vinet, responsible for children and families at the Departmental Council. During its last session, the Department confirmed the concerns: “Child protection is experiencing several developments and difficulties today. The Department thus notes a sharp increase in activity for educational measures at home as well as for placements, putting great strain on the existing reception offer. »
This sector is suffering. Everywhere in France. There is not a department that is not affected.
“It’s a national problem, not just in Charente”shade Maryline Vinet. “When I meet counterparts from other departments, I put things into perspective. » But the department went from 872 minors placed in 2016 to 1,118 in 2022 and from 535 educational actions in an open environment (AEMO) in 2016 to 807 in 2022. The Department is also facing a more complex situation for accompanied children and young people. The consequences on child protection and the multiplication of structural problems relating to the health sector (disability, child psychiatry) are increasing, says the report. Added to this is the difficulty of recruiting staff. The sector is particularly sensitive (read below).
A situation born from Covid
Jean-Marc Thomas, CFDT personnel representative at the Department, confirms: “This sector is suffering. Everywhere in France. There is not a department that is not affected. Nationally, it is estimated that 30% of children under the responsibility of the ASE have a need for child psychiatry. However, in France, psychiatry is itself in very, very serious difficulty. It only exacerbates the problems. »
“It’s a situation that was born from covid, explains Maryline Vinet. We saw the emergence of a number of children who were doing badly, families who were doing worse and worse. The confinements have either created violence or revealed situations. »
And three years later, the difficulties persist. “We have witnessed a precariousness, an impoverishment of families”notes the chosen one.
Like a bottomless pit. In 2022, the Department created 53 reception places, 66 in 2023, at home, in an open environment, in living spaces, others for unaccompanied minors, for a financial commitment of 2.5 million euros . In 2024, 62 places should still be created, urgently, in living units, in “reinforced” open environments. Estimate: 2.6 million euros. Today, “all temporary placement orders”, those which fall under the jurisdiction of the judge, are executed. For the rest, “we have pending placements”.
A parenting support center
How to cope? “We have a role to play in prevention,” responds Maryline Vinet, brandishing the new departmental plan for prevention and child protection born from the consultation of early childhood professionals and even 78 children who gave their vision of the thing… Beyond the revaluation of early childhood professions, creating places, “we focus a lot on prevention and support. This is what will save families.” The elected representative mentions in particular the creation of a “parenting assistance” relay, which will offer the possibility to parents facing difficulties to entrust their child for two or three weeks. “Because of an illness. For a single mom who is losing her temper. »
A call for projects was launched by the Department. It will have to materialize in the Angoulême metropolitan area, but the relay will be intended to support teenagers from the entire department. To allow families to breathe. And support children and young people towards autonomy. This is objective No. 5 of the diagram.
Marthon: teenagers denounce their living conditions at the Grand-Breuilh home
“At first it went well. » It was in December 2020, when Cotton left the Leclerc-Chauvin Children’s Social Assistance (ASE) home, in Angoulême to enter Grand-Breuilh, in Marthon. A “living and welcoming place”, for children placed by the children’s judge, followed by the PJJ, judicial protection of young people. Cotton had behavioral problems and the matter was taken to court.
“On September 13, the children’s judge ordered that he be changed where he lived and renewed his placement until July 2, 2025, the day he came of age. On October 27, Cotton, now 16 and a half years old, ran away. Since then, he has been at my house in Châteauneuf, everyone knows about it. Nobody does anything. And I expect someone to come and take it away from me at any moment,” says Sonia Garcia, the teenager’s mother.
Cotton warned. “I won’t come back here. » Because of “everything that happened”. From the “harassment” that his mother denounces, the threats that the teenager reports, the psychological pressure that the director and certain educators exert. And then there was this day when the teenager says that a teacher severely threw him across a room. A complaint from his mother, against the establishment, was dismissed. Another, against the educator in question, is the subject of an investigation.
“Mistreatment,” says the mother, who is in conflict with the institution. “She did not accept the placement of her child,” translates Maryline Vinet, the elected official responsible for the issue at the Department, who says she is not aware of other testimonies. “But I am not informed of specific cases. »
Other teenagers, however, confirm the “a little brutal” living conditions, as a former employee of Grand-Breuilh also says. Marie-Hélène Teixeira, from Gond-Pontouvre, will go today to the Angoulême police station to confirm the complaint she filed online. “For abuse. My son Matthew suffered from this in February. » She contacted the ASE herself because she could no longer manage the situation. “I put my foot in the machine. My son told me about the home, that he had been strangled because he had been insolent. I was told he was extrapolating. I trusted the referents. Today, I regret not having believed him. I blame myself for not having protected him. »
Matthew left home. Like Bryan, placed at the age of three at the Children’s Home in Grand-Breuilh for four years. ” I got tired of it. I ran away. » He doesn’t care about the consequences. He will be “18 in two months” and experiences it as a liberation. Because he told an educator that he would like to “work like him to nap, he emptied my studio, slammed me against the wall. I had to push him to get free. I broke everything.” Today with his grandmother, he continues his courses at the ITEP de Tous-Vents in Angoulême, like Cotton.
The teenagers also talk about the kids who get slapped for no reason in the refectory, and who don’t dare say anything, “things that have been broken.” He left some behind. Cotton remembers crying for three days because of a perforated eardrum and a knee on his ear. “They told us it was the swimming pool,” his mother loses his temper.
At the Department, Cotton’s situation is being monitored, “but the complaints have not been reported to us,” indicates Maryline Vinet. A former employee speaks more of “psychological abuse and pressure” in this “living space” which accommodates around ten teenagers.
In Grand-Breuilh, a “permanent of the place of life”, who does not wish to be quoted, protests and affirms that no kid would have to complain about his welcome. Christian Sauts, whom the teenagers call “the boss”, president of the association which manages the place and would be very affected by the complaints of the families, did not respond to our request for an interview.
#children #Charente #worrying #explosion
