Pinned in the book “Les Ogres” by Victor Castanet, the group of private crèches People & Baby targeted by a legal investigation

The conviction, at the end of September, of a director and a nurse, both former employees of the private crèche group People & Baby, for “violence without incapacity against a minor under 15 years old by a person having authority over the victim” was a reminder of the working conditions in the group. “This is not the trial of People and Baby but of two individuals”then recalled Maître Alexandre Schmitzberger, the lawyer of a family whose child, aged two, had returned from daycare with “scratches at the base of the neck” and “digitiform traces suggesting an adult hand, on the arm and trunk”.

It is now the turn of the group of private nurseries, as a whole, to be in the sights of justice. An investigation was opened by the Paris prosecutor's office, following a complaint from the Anticor association, to “acts of fraud to the detriment of a public person or an organization charged with a public service mission, misappropriation of public funds, misuse of corporate assets, breach of trust, complicity in fraud tax, potentially attributable to People & Baby crèches ». The investigation was entrusted to the direction of the judicial police on Thursday, November 14.

“The starting point of this affair is the book by Victor Castanet”

“Faced with the inertia of public authorities, it seemed necessary to us to act”explained Paul Cassia, president of Anticor, during a press conference organized on Tuesday, November 12, where he announced the filing of the complaint. The People and Baby group has been at the center of attention since September 18, the date of publication of the latest work by investigative journalist Victor Castanet: The Ogres (Flammarion editions). A dense investigative book where the author demonstrates how People & Baby did not hesitate to make the situation of its employees more precarious, but also to put the children looked after in danger, for example “voracity” and quest for financial profit.

“The starting point of this affair is the book by Victor Castanet on the management of a company which manages private crèches”explained Paul Cassia, to justify Anticor's complaint. The association's lawyer, Maître Vincent Brengarth, recalled the particular context surrounding this affair: either private nurseries “who benefit (…) from public aid from the State” and one “lack of number of nursery places”.

France has 460,000 collective childcare places, including 50% in public crèches, 27% in private crèches – People & Baby, therefore, but also Les Petits Riding Hoods or Babilou – and 23% in associative crèches. “The opening to the private sector is happening because there is a failure of public authorities”castigated Victor Castanet in an interview for the Twitch channel of Humanityat the end of October.

The instability of the sector, combined with strong demand, has allowed private companies to exceed their obligations and prioritize their profits. According to Anticor, the amount of money embezzled by People & Baby would be “at least 2.1 million euros, a figure which only concerns partial unemployment aid fraud”.

The group of private crèches already refuted these accusations in September, in reaction to the outcry created by The Ogres : “the practices described in the book are completely out of step with the values ​​we hold today. » The new management of the group – the founder, Christophe Durieux, was ousted from his position as director last spring – claimed to have “started a profound transformation” with the appointment of a new leader and promised to correct “without delay” All “malfunction that could be identified”. Not enough to satisfy justice, like the associative field, while potential victims demand accountability.