“The low-cost dynamic has done a lot of harm”: Victor Castanet explains what he discovered in private daycare centers

Victor Castanet signs “Les Ogres”. Vincent Capman Flammarion

After the Ehpad in "Les Fossoyeurs", the journalist and writer Victor Castanet examines in "Les Ogres", released Wednesday, September 18 (Flammarion, 416 pages, 22.90 euros), the operation of private daycare centers in France, particularly those of the People & Baby group. He discusses his discoveries in an interview with Midi Libre.

Your investigative book “Les Ogres” sheds a harsh light on the workings of private daycare centers, particularly those of the People & Baby group. What perhaps struck you the most??

These are the cases of mistreatment, particularly in the Villeneuve-d’Ascq daycare center, near Lille, where nine children were affected. Some have experienced humiliation, where they have been locked up for long periods in the dark without a pacifier or a comfort blanket, and left to cry.

There were also practices of food deprivation and some parents noticed traces of blows and scratches. All this has left after-effects on these children, difficulties sleeping, problems with socialization, relationships with adults, delays in language or cleanliness.

I had been able to observe how terrible it was to end one's life in suffering (in “The Gravediggers”, Editor's note), but starting it like this can condition your development, your well-being, for years, even your whole life, which shows the urgency of dealing with these issues.

Do we find this suffering in other daycare centers? private ? Is this the symptom of a systemic drift ?

What interests me is how certain systems lead to or maximize the risk of malfunctions.

And I discovered a certain number of abuses at People & Baby, particularly in terms of cost optimization (meals, diapers, payroll). Overall, there is a responsibility of a certain number of private groups, notably La Maison bleue and Les Petits Chaperons rouges, which have been driving a low-cost dynamic for fifteen years. Operators have decided to conquer market share by slashing prices and therefore by destroying the sector. This low-cost dynamic has done a lot of harm because it has led to a reduction in the wage bill.

There is also a more global responsibility of the State which has set up a financing method, the single service provision (PSU) which is only attached to financial criteria, in particular the billing rate and occupancy, instead of being interested in quality criteria.

These private operators are criticized for being obsessed with the occupancy rate, for wanting to fill at all costs, which is precisely what the administration asks of them! This system is harmful.

Isn't it the reign of appearance, especially at People & Baby, with its concept of "perceived quality" ?

This notion is mind-boggling and problematic. An example: in a nursery, a director asks her superiors for toys because there are very few, she is told that she will have to wait several months, but a few days later, she is told that an armchair, a plant and a painting are missing so that it looks nice at the entrance when the parents arrive and for that there is a budget.

This notion of perceived quality says it all about a group that pays more attention to the window than to what is really happening in its crèches.

Regarding the tragedy in Lyon in 2022, you reveal that the employee of People Baby who killed a baby by making him drink toilet unblocker had been pushed out the door by a competitor. This raises the question of recruitment in certain establishments?

Some groups invest in having quality human resources, recruitment policies, training, monitoring, feedback, it is essential, when there is a black sheep, these alert systems must work.

In the case of the terrible tragedy in Lyon, there is the responsibility of this woman and the practices of People & Baby who needs to be questioned, because this woman had been hired a few months earlier by another group, Babilou, the teams had noticed dysfunctions and after five days, they had said to themselves that she was not made for this job.

At People & Baby, she stayed for several weeks and, more seriously, they let her open the nursery alone. In other groups, you never leave a childcare professional alone if she doesn't have more than two years of experience.

You also describe, at People & Baby, aggressive and dubious sales methods, fake reviews on the Internet, an excessive low-cost logic, with penny-pinching, unpaid suppliers, and an ability to take advantage of loopholes in public aid. This is an illustration of the Durieux system, the one you call the Tapie of the crèches ?

This is the maximum symbol of the excesses of this system, the founding couple, Christophe Durieux and Odile Broglin, had only one obsession, to make the structure grow, that's why my book is called “The Ogres”, there is this notion of voracity, with an objective first of development and purchase of new structures.

They have gone into debt to the tune of 450 million euros in recent years with British and then American debt funds, with gigantic interest rates, they bought up groups left, right and centre, in Singapore, Dubai, China, while at the same time, suppliers were not paid, for meals, diapers, toys, which could lead to supply problems.

Directors all over France tell me that they were not delivered meals, they went shopping themselves at Carrefour or Auchan to bring food back to the children.

At the time when there was this crazy spending on development, there was negligence, an abandonment of the teams and suppliers. Likewise, I am told that basic safety elements such as fire doors were not checked by maintenance when they broke, or it took months.

All this tells how forced development logics are done to the detriment of children. But there is a very strong question of ego, of narcissism, in this operator and a sort of giant Monopoly battle with its competitors, it was about who was going to have the most daycare centers.

However, People & Baby, in a very mysterious way, unlike Orpea which was making super profits, is permanently in deficit, they have no money. But I discovered that the founding couple was getting rich in parallel with a real estate scheme, they were owners via personal SCI of part of their nurseries, around 70 premises, which they rented to People & Baby.

They are now owners of real estate assets worth around 150 million euros.

What is the responsibility of the public authorities??

There are failures in the controls, whether at the PMI level where a certain number of inspectors complain that following their controls, when they recommend administrative sanctions or even closures, the local elected official sometimes blocks because he knows that he needs private structures too much.

There is also a subject at the CAF level which must control occupancy and billing rates. I discovered that a certain number of operators, notably People & Baby, asked their director to make false declarations of hours of presence of babies in order to receive more public money. However, according to witnesses, certain CAF and the National Family Affairs Fund (CNAF), were aware of these systems of irregular collection of public money.

There is a very strong responsibility of the public authorities for low-cost. When I speak with stakeholders off the record, they all tell me that the worst payers in France are the public authorities, town halls, communities and ministries who sometimes spend three to four times less on a cradle than a company like L'Oréal, LVMH or Société Générale.

You also talk about a “wolf pact”, what was it based on ?

A year ago, two books devoted to this sector were published, and a controversy began, a scandal that was quickly hushed up. I received documents, emails, WhatsApp and Telegram messages, both from the private sector and from the collaborators of Aurore Bergé, then Minister of Solidarity and Families. She concluded a sort of non-aggression pact with the general delegate of the Federation of Private Day Care Centers.

So you have never heard a private operator criticize the government's early childhood policy in recent months. At the same time, they were able to get their messages across to the minister. I have in particular a trace of a note from the Federation sent to the minister a few days before an intervention on BFMTV, a certain number of points from the note are transcribed word for word in Aurore Bergé's statements.

I also have recordings in which members of the Federation congratulate themselves on co-piloting the minister's announcements. There is a subject of lobbying influence.

One of the players in the sector, the boss of Little Red Riding Hoods, even boasted of having succeeded in canceling the minister's participation in a TF1 report.

What do you think of the reaction of Aurore Bergé, who denies it and reserves the right to refer the matter to the justice ?

I gave her the opportunity to respond, in the book she gave her version of the facts, I have a certain number of elements that support the revelations,

Several managers of private daycare centers hired PR agencies in anticipation of the release of your book, were you subjected to pressure ?

No, they thought it wouldn't be very useful… But I had to reassure high-level witnesses who participated in this system in these private groups, there is a lot of pressure on them.

What message could you send today to parents who might be worried in light of your revelations ?

A reassuring message, the vast majority of early childhood professionals do a fabulous, difficult and poorly paid job, they are passionate and take care of our children, we can thank them because These are tough and undervalued jobs. I want to pay tribute to these early childhood professionals, in most daycare centers in France it goes well.

On the other hand, there are now deviations among a certain number of operators, notably People & Baby. There are nurseries where you immediately sense that things are not going well. We need to talk to the teams, see how they feel, if there is a lot of turnover.

What do you recommend today ?

According to several witnesses who participated in this survey, we need to break the low-cost dynamic, set floor prices, we also need to think about more effective controls and rethink this method of financing.

All this raises broader questions about the relevance of entrusting the care of vulnerable groups to private players subject to the stock market price or the appetite of their shareholders. Does the same question arise in other sectors after nursing homes and daycare centers??

Yes, I receive alert emails every day in other health sectors, including disability, ASE (Child Social Assistance), psychiatry, etc.

This will be one of your next fields of investigation?

I don't know yet, these are very long investigations, between two and three years, it's a lot of investment, I do it with passion and determination, but I haven't decided yet what subject I will work on next time. In any case, this subject of vulnerability concerns me.

Since the release of “The Gravediggers” two years ago, has the situation changed significantly in nursing homes? ?

This has made it possible to put an end to the Orpea system. There is a new management, they have hired a lot of people, increased nutritional budgets, there has been a big investment in ethical issues, this has changed the way this group operates and it no longer has the same shareholders, now it is the Caisse des Dépôts with much lower profitability requirements.

The period of hyperprofits in nursing homes is over, however, it is a sector in crisis, as long as there is no old age law to rethink financing methods, improve staff ratios, there will be dysfunctions. Despite the scandal two years ago, the emotion and investment of the presidential majority did not live up to the challenges.

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