The Predicament of Childcare Policy in France: What Is at Stake?

Abstract

France is well known for providing working parents with formal childcare arrangements and generous benefits aimed at reducing costs for families. Currently, and despite a general tightening of purse strings in the social security administration, childcare policy has continued to see increases in funding and remains a growth area in the French welfare state. Yet reforms introduced periodically since the mid-1980s illustrate clearly the growing influence employment policies are having on childcare provisions. For all the rhetoric devoted to the promotion of ‘freedom of choice’ for parents in the childcare sector evidence suggests a different set of priorities. In reality, the impetus to increase the number of options for the placement of children in supervised care derives from the desire to bring more mothers into the workforce while at the same time satisfying the increasing demands placed on employees through the development of flexible work schedules and in particular non-standard work hours.

Keywords:

• childcare
• employment policies
• extended work hours
• France
• non-standard work hours
• reforms
• well-being of children

Notes

¹ Family spending on childcare services was estimated in 2005 to be 1.62 per cent of GDP in France, 1.83 per cent in Denmark, 1.69 per cent in Sweden, 1.37 per cent in Finland and 1.26 per cent in Norway. This can be compared to 0.82 per cent on average in the OECD countries and, for instance, 0.87 per cent in Germany. (Source: OECD Family Database. Available at: http://www.oecd.org/document/4/0,3343,en_2649_34819_37836996_1_1_1_1, 00.html).

² Jeanne Fagnani is also a member of the advisory board of a Family Allowance Fund (Val-de-Marne department in the Paris region).

³ Over the last decade, there has been an increase in the number of ‘Multi-accueil’ services, sometimes also called ‘Maisons de la petite enfance’. They currently account for nearly three-quarters of childcare facilities (CNAF, 2010). The rationale is to group together in one place, multiple and flexible childcare arrangements: crèches, halte-garderies (half-time daycare), emergency care for children at risk and meeting rooms for child minders who look after children in their own home but who regularly make use of ‘Multi-accueil’ facilities to provide the children with opportunities to play together. The objective was to meet parents' needs by providing them with opportunities to modify their childcare arrangements in relation to professional constraints and to have access to a sort of one stop shop for the childcare solution best suited to meeting their current obligations (from part time to full time for instance, on a regular basis or from time to time, etc.). The use of some slots in ‘Multi-accueil’ is therefore not defined in advance.

⁴ Child minders in France are closely supervised by the ‘Protection Maternelle et Infantile’ (PMI services). Child minders are required to register with local authorities, a procedure that is mandatory if parents who rely on them wish to be eligible for the related childcare allowance.

⁵ This childcare allowance covers the social security contributions to be paid by the employer of the registered child minder. An additional and income-related financial contribution is also given to the family.

⁶ The infant mortality rate declined from 52 per thousand in 1950 to 7.3 in 1990 and 4.1 in 2002.

⁷ In cases where it is difficult for parents to make alternative arrangements or when the caregiver is held in high esteem by the family.

⁸ The gap between supply and demand for formal childcare has been estimated at a minimum of 350,000 places (Haut Conseil de la Famille, 2010).

⁹ New article R.2324-17.

¹⁰ In crèches and other centres, there are three types of workers. The puéricultrice usually works as the director of a centre (or a publicly organized family daycare scheme). At least half of the staff in centres must be auxiliaires de puéricultrice. If the centre has more than forty places, there must be at least one éducatrice de jeunes enfants. These workers have been applying in increasing numbers to become directors of centres, creating a certain degree of tension with puéricultrices, who have traditionally held the senior posts. The puéricultrice will have been trained as a medical nurse specializing in paediatric work (a four year post-secondary educational commitment). In contrast, the auxiliaire is only required to attend an ‘école d'auxiliaire de puéricultrice’, a vocational qualification that lasts only a year. The éducatrice will have received post-secondary training lasting two years and four months at a specialized training centre (there are twenty-three specialist training centres mainly run privately, but accredited by the Ministry of Social Affairs). The training includes pedagogy and human development; education and care; child development and educational practice; group management; law; economics and social studies; and, professional studies and methods.

¹¹ In April 2010 they drew up a petition against the new legislation under the banner of ‘Pas de bébé à la consigne’ (Left luggage: no babies allowed) and organized several demonstrations (see http:www.pasdebebesalaconsigne.com).

¹² Following the introduction of the law passed on 10 July 1989 regulating children's attendance of nursery school.

¹³ Established since 2004, the Family tax credit (crédit d'impôt famille, CIF) is a financial incentive provided to companies to encourage them to develop more family-friendly initiatives for their employees. The CIF stipulates that 25 per cent of related expenses are deductible from taxes paid by the company up to a ceiling of €500,000 per year and per company. Within this regulatory framework, five categories of expenses are statutory:

•	expenses linked to training programmes for employees on parental leave;
•	supplements paid to employees on maternity or paternity leave or on child-sick leave;
•	costs linked to the creation of crèches or contributions to the running of crèches in which places are reserved for employees with children under 3 years of age;
•	employee refunds on expenses related to exceptional childcare costs arising from unpredictable professional obligations outside the normal work schedules;
•	CESU (a prepaid service voucher) that may be used by employees for childcare in the event they are not receiving a childcare supplement from the local CAF.

¹⁴ The service provider (either the company itself or a private provider in charge of managing and running the childcare centre) is subject to specific requirements and has to comply with the PMI's criteria relating to the quality of care in order to be entitled to the CAF's subsidies.

¹⁵ For children between 3 and 6, this is even not questioned, given that nearly all of these children attend free and full day nursery schools, even when one parent does not work.

¹⁶ In 2008, 2.01 in France and 1.91 in Ireland (Eurostat, 2009).