“Sorry, we cannot accommodate your child at the leisure center”. It is with these words that Sylvie * [the first name has been changed, Editor’s note] was welcomed at the gate of the public service building on Wednesday September 14. His son was however well registered, since August, in this establishment managed by the town hall of Draveil (Essonne). “I was told, clearly: ‘There is no more room, we can’t take your child’ and then they explained to me that they were understaffed because of the Covid”, says- she told Planet.
Furious, she goes to the town hall of the city, where she is not frankly given a solution: “They explained to me that they had been informed the day before of the lack of personnel and that they were therefore not able to keep the children in compliance with the rules. They also told me that they had recruitment problems and that, for the next Wednesdays, the instructions will be a bit: first come, first served”. From one week to the next, Sylvie must therefore register her son for the next one. Children in private education, as is the case of his son, must register by email or on a portal that does not work. As of Monday, these digital tools were still not in service.
If the mother of the family can hear the recruitment problems, she does not understand the lack of anticipation of the municipality in the face of a problem that is not new. Above all, she regrets the lack of communication, explaining that she did not receive any emails or apologies after the incident last week. “Registrations have been closed since the end of August, so they knew they would have a certain number of children to welcome”, she specifies, adding: “What do we do with our children in the meantime? For example, a liberal nurse had to cancel her entire working day, we have no visibility for the next Wednesdays“.
In a letter that Planet was able to obtain, the town hall of Draveil explains that the extracurricular services “have to face a shortage of animators”. Referring to a situation that is found throughout the country, the town hall adds that it must set up a reservation system. 15 days before the date of attendance, parents must reserve the leisure center on Wednesday, “in order to adjust the number of supervisors and optimize the quality of the entertainment”. A situation which is “very stressful for the parents, but also for the children”, concludes Sylvie with Planet, still waiting for the answer to her email for the registration of her son next Wednesday…
