LThe Bells, The House of the Kangaroos, Rabbit and Company… These are sweet names displayed in the windows of lucrative private crèches, where nearly a hundred thousand young children are dropped off every morning. In the back room, the atmosphere is less magical.
Investment funds capitalized to the tune of several billion euros are pulling the strings. In the portfolio of these funds, daycare centers coexist with pipelines in the North Sea, a highway in Poland and even fiber optics in the Netherlands. Between these activities, there is only one thing in common: the requirement for a high level of profitability to satisfy investors.
Until recently, the daycare business operated in the shadows. But the proliferation of incidents, including the tragedy which cost the life of a little girl in a Lyon nursery in June, ended up attracting attention. Just this fall, two investigative books accumulate testimonies and describe a system where the search for profit leads to “economic abuse” children: rationed meals, diapers that are not changed, exhausted, understaffed and insufficiently qualified professionals. The testimonies are chilling and rightly worry parents.
Generous tax credit
These scandals are the culmination of a long process. Twenty years ago, public authorities chose to open the early childhood sector to lucrative private players. Concretely, the family allowance funds (CAF) were ordered to finance public and private managers alike. A generous tax credit was created to complement the business model of daycare businesses. This is the paradox of this privatization: the daycare business is growing because it is being fed with public money.
Today, the commodification of early childhood is a crazy train that nothing seems to stop. Successive governments, unable to respond to the shortage of childcare, saw it as a way of relieving themselves of responsibility. Daycare companies were engulfed in a system that ensured them a high level of profitability, up to 40%, according to a report from the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (IGAS) published in 2017.
As a result, for ten years, most of the nursery places opened have been provided by the lucrative private sector. So much public money wasted because it was used for the benefit of a cash machine rather than the development of young children.
The nursery business lobby has constantly demanded, obtained and eagerly implemented lower, more flexible, less “restrictive” standards. The result is a major race to the bottom, including among certain communities which have conveniently subcontracted to the private sector to reduce their expenses. The deterioration of reception conditions was encouraged by the difficulty of maternal and child protection (PMI) in exercising its mission of control over a booming private sector.
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