Deputy mayor responsible for early childhood in particular, Tasmine Akbaraly takes stock of the city’s ambitions.
Having a place in a crèche in Montpellier does not seem easy. Do you confirm it?
I believe this is true in all territories. It should also be noted that not all parents wish to have a place in a crèche. With the team, we resolutely aim to have early childhood at the center of our policy, particularly from the point of view of the first 1,000 days, as underlined in Boris Cyrulnik’s report.
Our political objective is of course to respond quantitatively to the needs expressed by families but also to respond qualitatively. I believe that today, we have moved from the concept of childcare to a concept of the quality of childcare.
It is really at the center of our early childhood political project. We see that the subject goes beyond the accounting problem of reception structures. But we are aware that we must respond to it. We also intend to create 300 crèche places over the next six years.
Qualitatively, what are you going to propose that is different?
What will be different is the approach. It is first necessary to identify the needs and then to offer places in crèche with adapted hours, occasional reception. Behind the objective of a place in a crèche, we realize that there is above all a real need for parenting support. Our policy will focus on that.
This support will take different forms: developing parent-child care centers, outsourcing the educational tools of our establishments, better informing parents about the different types of childcare, supporting women from pregnancy.
How are places allocated today?
A system registers requests via the Presto site. They are then recorded by the early childhood service. Agents call back families to ensure that the request is consistent with their needs.
An algorithm is then applied, according to a certain number of criteria: working families, single parents, twinning, presence of disabilities. Income is not a criterion as such but social difficulties are taken into account in the allocation.
The earlier the request is made, the higher the probability of having a place. But there must still be space in the requested establishment and for the age of the child.
Do you plan to make this system clearer for citizens?
The award criteria will be made transparent. We will work on the anonymization of files. We are in the process of putting things in place. Our policy is that there is better information and better support for parents in their choice.
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