Question 8790 — professions and social activities

Summary

The social action and families code defines in article L.421-1 the family assistant as “the person who habitually and permanently welcomes minors and adults under the age of twenty-one in their home in return for remuneration. Its activity is part of a child protection system [child welfare], a medico-social system or a therapeutic reception service. He exercises his profession as an employee of legal entities under public law [Departmental Council] or legal entities under private law [associations in particular] after having been approved for this purpose. The family assistant constitutes, with all the people residing in his or her home, a host family. » Due to the fact that they practice their profession at home, full time, and that they welcome children who are sometimes in great pain, their mission exposes sometimes family assistants in complex situations. First of all, they can sometimes feel professionally isolated as they are not in direct, daily contact with the educational teams of which they are part. Furthermore, during the exercise of their mission, they can identify abuse occurring outside their working environment towards the child they welcome and be able to alert it. Finally, they can having to bear the consequences of implementing the precautionary procedure which aims to remove the child in the event of suspicion of mistreatment against him. The report submitted by the Government in 2013 to Parliament reviewing the law of June 27, 2005 relating to family assistants showed that the law has strengthened the missions of family assistants, in particular through training and the State diploma and the framework of practice of the profession has been strengthened. Other important work was also carried out in terms of approval. Decree No. 2014-918 of August 18, 2014 relating to the framework establishing the criteria for approval of family assistants makes it possible to harmonize the practices of departmental services in terms of approval and consequently improve the quality of care. However, areas for progress remain in the conditions of practice of the profession, the statutes or professional practices. Based on the findings, under the leadership of the General Directorate of Social Cohesion, a working group met from 2016, made up of representatives of the child welfare and maternal and child protection services of the Departmental Councils, associations representing families and the National Child Protection Observatory. They were invited to propose avenues for improvement around three major themes: the question of the better integration of these professionals within socio-educational teams; identification and reporting of abuse by family assistants; reconciling child protection and the professional safety of family assistants. The summary report resulting from this work is currently being finalized. It will be returned in September 2018. It aims to provide support to family assistants, their employers, and departmental councils by recalling the regulatory framework, as well as presenting the recommendations and good practices that were discussed by the working group.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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