After revealing the excesses of nursing homes in his book The GravediggersVictor Castanet delivers in The Ogres (Flammarion) a detailed investigation into the deviances of daycare centers. To meet the budgetary constraints imposed by local authorities and the State, some private groups restrict the quantities of diapers, the quality of meals and the staff, while enriching themselves in the process.
After your investigative work on nursing homes, how did nurseries come to you?
Victor Castanet : “I was alerted by families and employees in this sector who, following the publication of the Gravediggershave drawn a parallel between a certain number of practices in the early childhood sector and those in the elderly sector. These are linked to the rapid development of these sectors and their financialisation. This necessarily implies a policy of cost optimisation, particularly on meals, basic necessities and staff, with serious repercussions on working conditions and the quality of child care.
“These practices illustrate the way our society deals with the issue of vulnerability. For several years, it has been the blind spot of our public policies, with gaps in funding and control.”
When an elected official boasts about saving money, it’s very bad news for children!
Victor Castanet, journalist, author of “Ogres”
We can clearly see that for municipalities and ministries, what matters most are the lowest bids. Is that the heart of the problem?
“This is what I find most exciting, and most tragic too. There are excesses by a certain number of operators, notably the People & Baby group, in terms of cost optimization and irregular management of public money, with sometimes dramatic consequences.
“But what I want to show is that it is not only the responsibility of certain operators, obsessed with profitability. There is also a responsibility of the public authorities. The operators and major players in the sector say that the worst payers in France are the town halls, the communities and the ministries. They offer the lowest offers. When these same operators negotiate with large groups like L’Oréal or LVMH, we buy places in cradles from them for around €15,000. When they deal with the communities, the current prices are between €3,000 and €5,000.”
This is a colossal gap!
“There is a huge difference in investment between companies and communities. This low-cost policy was put in place about fifteen years ago, at a time when a crib in a directly managed or municipal nursery cost €12,000. Subsequently, a number of operators, such as People & Baby, La Maison Bleue, or Les Petits Chaperons Rouges, have slashed prices. We are also seeing a continuous drop, with offers now going up to €2,500.
“However, we can only meet such low offers by drastically reducing costs, particularly the payroll. This is obviously the responsibility of mayors. When an elected official boasts about such savings, he does not realise that it is in reality very bad news for children!”
Why did you target People & Baby? Would you say that it is the Orpea (1) of daycare centers?
“Yes, in many ways, because the same logic of cost optimization reigns there. I talk about it for meals where, indeed, it is sometimes the sponsor of the call for tenders who wants a proposal with 12% less grammage than the government nutritional recommendations. So much so that some suppliers, like the very serious Elior group, no longer even want to respond, it seems unreasonable to them.
“The same goes for diapers and, above all, for managing the payroll. Directors are asked to exceed the regulatory capacity of daycare centers by adding one, two, or even three children, and to make false declarations to the CAF by adding hours of presence each month at times when the children are not there. This can represent dozens of hours per daycare center, thus allowing them to receive much more public money. Despite everything, People & Baby has deficits in its financial years. So I didn’t see their interest.
“Digging deeper, I discovered that a real estate scheme had been set up. People & Baby has SCPIs (real estate investment companies) which themselves own a certain number of structures (around 70 in France). These premises are then rented to People & Baby for the daycare centers and they themselves set the rents since they have no shareholders. This is therefore to the detriment of public money, because by degrading its results, the company avoids corporate tax.”
There are breaks in the weight curves of the little ones
Victor Castanet, journalist, author of “Ogres”
These practices have direct consequences on the child. You don’t hesitate to talk about abuse?
“All these financial restrictions, added to the lack of training for employees and significant and constant pressure, lead to a recurrence of incidents, news items and sometimes tragedies, such as in Lyon, where a little girl died, the victim of poisoning. We can see that the dysfunction of a nursery has implications for the well-being of children, with little ones who start having nightmares, who no longer sleep, who have tantrums and lose their appetite.
“We also note breaks in the weight curves. I add that, in nursing homes as in daycare centers, women are on the front line. They represent 90% of the staff, are very poorly paid, very little valued by society and very little unionized. They are the “forced laborers” of our time.”
What advice would you give to young parents when choosing a nursery?
“In my opinion, the point of vigilance is the situation of the personnel. We must not hesitate to speak with the teams, to see how they feel, if the atmosphere is jovial, joyful, light.
“On the contrary, if you feel that your staff is overwhelmed, if you notice that they change often or if you regularly find yourself in the morning with a young, inexperienced professional who is there for a few days, be wary. If the director has been there for ten years, that is a real guarantee of stability. The essential indicator is the well-being of the teams.”
Your work on nursing homes gave rise to a parliamentary inquiry. What has changed since your first book?
“What has changed, first and foremost, is that management has jumped! The sources who participated in this book have put an end to the system that worked to the detriment of public money, employees and the elderly. We can no longer make irregular captures of public money with end-of-year rebates. We can no longer take back, as before, the surplus allocations by keeping nursing positions vacant.
“Orpea has increased the number of employees drastically and food expenses have increased by more than 40%. At Orpea or elsewhere, the period of hyperprofits is over!”
Interview by Philippe Minard/ALP
“The Ogres”, published by Flammarion, 412 pages, €22.90
(1) French group founded in 1989 specializing in personal care. Following the scandal triggered by Victor Castanet’s book, it was restructured and is now called Emeis.
Landmarks
After the publication of other investigations into daycare centers in 2023, Aurore Bergé, Minister of Solidarity at the time, had called for better monitoring of private groups. She had notably mentioned “much more systematic” and “unannounced” checks.
In his book, Victor Castanet accuses Aurore Bergé of collusion with certain private operators. She and Elsa Hervy, a spokesperson for the private daycare lobby, are said to have secretly discussed “crisis management” and agreed on a “non-aggression pact”. Aurore Bergé has denied this.
