Finistère. Child protection in danger, with the difficulties of “Don Bosco”

With the disappearance of the Don Bosco association, several systems could disappear, including the reinforced and individualized support for children. At midday, a demonstration was organized by several unions in front of the Don Bosco headquarters in Landerneau. These unions and management accuse the State and the Finistère Department of not compensating for inflation and the salary increases decided by the government.

“Social shock absorbers like few others exist”

For the president of Don Bosco, the State and the Department are passing the buck and seeking to limit the resources allocated to integration. A bad calculation in the eyes of Isabelle Melscoët.We have a social and medico-social model of the private sector, what we call the non-profit private sector – associations and foundations – which have built public policies, which respond to public policies and which are places for living together and social shock absorbers like few others. Indeed, the public will not disappear, even if the service is destroyed, and they will probably be much less supported. This will end up in the usual fixation points: the public hospital, public psychiatry, the public police station and it will not cost the same and it will saturate systems which are already saturated and whose mission is not particularly this.”

Credit : Yann Launay

“It’s the logic of the lowest bidder”

For Florent Laot, a specialist educator and CGT delegate, Don Bosco is undoubtedly also a victim of competition between social actors. “Don Bosco is an actor who still wanted to keep quality support, but it probably costs too much. The idea is to leave room for two actors who agree to move towards a lower median cost. For a long time, there was a logic of the best bidder, that is to say that in the responses to calls for tender, we would look at the quality of the support, even if it was more expensive, now, we are in the logic of the lowest bidder. It is the actor who responds who has the lowest rate, who is chosen almost systematically …”

Credit : Yann Launay

SARI could close its doors on December 31

Among the services that could disappear: the SARI – Reinforced and Individualized Support Service, which welcomes children in very great difficulty. The cost of this support is significant.“Too substantial”the Department estimates.

The SARI could close its doors on December 31. The educators of the system are worried about their future and especially that of the young people, as expressed by Gildas, Bérengère and Roland.Young people, given their experiences, have significant behavioral problems which can generate major crises of violence, self-aggression, self-mutilation, etc. On this individual support, it is our job to secure them as much as possible. Something that would not be possible to do on a larger group…

The news was announced to the young people and they asked us what would become of them? We were attached to you. You were the adults we could rely on. Today, reality is here and it is a lot of anxiety. There are no structures that can accommodate them. They will not be in a traditional home or in a foster family. This is worrying for them, and for us..”

Don Bosco’s management reluctantly launched a job protection plan, explaining that the deficit would ultimately threaten the entire association. But for Isabelle Melscoët, “It is the choices of the State and the communities which are at the origin of this situation”.

Both unions and management are calling on the State and the Department to act quickly to avoid these job and service cuts.