Child care (Aide à l’enfance et à la famille) is available for children and young adults in difficulties as well as for their families. Children and young adults in difficulties are those that are threatened in their physical, mental, psychical and social development, are facing a physical or moral danger or are at risk of social and professional exclusion.
More specifically, the objectives are:
- to prevent any obstacle to the good physical, mental, psychological or social development of the child or young adult;
- to ensure the physical and moral safety of the child or young adult;
- to promote the social and professional inclusion of children and young adults.
This assistance is organised around three actors or groups of actors:
- Office national de l’enfance (ONE, National Office for Children): this department of the Ministry acts as a one-stop shop (guichet unique) to which the child, the young adult, a member of their family or a professional may turn to request help;
- the state structures: boarding schools, the Institut étatique d’aide à l’enfance et à la jeunesse (AITIA, State Institute for Child and Youth Welfare), the Centre socio-éducatif de l’État (CSEE, State Socio-Educational Centre);
- private service providers approved by the Ministry.
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