The Court of Auditors criticizes the Vaud day care system

Parents know it well: understanding the Vaud day care system is a real headache, as conditions vary from one region to another. For the first time, the Court of Auditors puts words to the millefeuille that constitutes the 33 networks (2022 figure): this policy presents “several shortcomings”, she writes in a very critical audit, published Wednesday November 12.

In particular, “significant differences appear in the functioning of the networks, which do not always have sufficient resources or the appropriate tools to manage administrative and financial aspects. This results in a lack of harmonization of practices and complete visibility of costs.”

In total, day care in the canton cost more than half a billion francs in 2022, a sum covered mainly by families, then by municipalities and finally the Foundation for day care of children (FAJE), itself partly financed by the Canton. Despite a 51% increase in places open between 2015 and 2022, only a third of young Vaudois have access to them.

In its report made public on Wednesday November 13, the Court of Auditors, an independent authority, identified several problems.

A law that is too vague

“Certain principles of the law have not been clarified to date. This results in different interpretations within the networks, which are difficult to understand for parents and taxpayers,” says the Court of Auditors. The main consequence is that each network has its own price list.

Institutions with unclear roles

“The risk that interpretations will be different is all the greater since there is no body that can be considered the sole bearer of this public policy,” continues the Court of Auditors. The positioning of the FAJE vis-à-vis the networks has not been established.

The impact of the subsidies paid is not analyzed

More than 112 million francs were distributed to the networks by the FAJE in 2022. But the fact that these subsidies participated in the creation of new reception places has not been established. The performance of the FAJE is also not studied.

Networks don’t help each other

To date, between networks, “there are few initiatives aimed at pooling resources and achieving economies of scale. Strong decentralization leads to non-harmonized practices and the risk of everyone “reinventing the wheel”, as noted in the audit.

The criteria are not harmonized

Depending on whether a family lives in Payerne or Aigle, they will not pay the same amount for childcare, even if they have exactly the same income, which creates territorial inequality. The Court of Auditors cannot be clearer: “The analysis of a sample of 68 files of children in care revealed that the documentation kept is not complete and does not always make it possible to justify the decisions taken in matters of allocation of places and calculation of the determining income, writes the institution in its audit. Furthermore, monitoring of these decisions (four eyes principle) is not systematically planned and is never documented. These shortcomings did not allow the Court to conclude on the fairness and consistency of the decisions taken within the audited networks.”

The FAJE accepted the recommendations of the Court of Auditors. It remains to be seen whether these will be put in place quickly, so that Vaudois have more visibility on the system which allows them to combine professional and family life.

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