The association of family assistants held its general assembly Thursday in Verniolle where several problems were raised.
Ariège not in the nails by placing children in overloaded foster families? This is what the association of foster families (AFA) of the department denounces through the voice of its president, Denis Leblond. “The law of 2016 indeed says very clearly that the approval of the family assistant does not authorize him to receive more than three minors, but we have proof that in Ariège, it is not respected.” “Placements which are made moreover without checking if the child is compatible with the other children of the foster family or quite simply with the family assistant and without working on his history or on his future”, adds the Ariegeois.
Faced with this situation, the members of the association have decided to give themselves the means to act. “We made an agreement with a lawyer, announced Valérie. Initially, he can intervene to give advice, the consultation is free at this stage, and if you need to initiate proceedings, against the departmental council for example, she said to the attention of the family assistants present, it will be up to the family assistant to seize it directly. It is up to you to take the process or to file a complaint. We are aware that this requires a concrete action on your part but it is also about your professional situation.”
Another problem mentioned by the AFA, “the very strong pressure exerted for several months on our family assistants. The examples are very numerous: it is enough to oppose a decision or to refuse a placement to be summoned. There is also more and more suspensions of approval made very quickly, sometimes following complaints, but also simply to reports. Deletions which are made without an investigation being carried out by the departmental council which one requires since several years. If necessary, foster families, overnight, find themselves in the dock.” “Summons and suspensions are always against the family assistants and the social workers are never present”, underlines Valérie.
The painting is “a little sad” and his immense anger, hammers Denis Leblond who now slips on what for him is “a form of abuse” for the child. “I have in mind the example of a colleague who retired on August 31 and who on that day still had at home a child she had been fostering for three years, very disturbed, and she still did not know not where he was supposed to go. Morality, he made three or four families before landing in a stable foster family. I think we are destroying child protection.”
The latter also regrets the lack of teamwork. “We know that the foundation of our work to succeed in properly welcoming a child is above all the teamwork that is lacking.”
The association pleads for the lines to move in this area. “The problem in Ariège is that we are always in defense of the parents, we always think about promoting the parent-child relationship when we know very well that sometimes, for the child to rebuild himself, he we have to keep it away from the parents, even if it’s temporary, but unfortunately that’s not always our pattern, even though we realize that it’s often to the detriment of the mental health of the children. the situation of a violent father with his son for whom the publicized visits were nevertheless maintained while the latter took several days to recover. So many shadows on the board of a profession which however intends to mobilize “in order to improve its working conditions in the interest of the children we support.”
Some 350 children placed in the Ariège department
In concrete terms, in the department of Ariège, the departmental council employs a little less than 130 family assistants who have the status of employees of the department, the department which places 350 children either with family assistants, in children’s homes or, taking into account the new terms and conditions, proceeds to placement at home.
