Die Entwicklung integrierter familienunterstützender - Qualiflex.lu

France – 1. Aims and structure of family policy in France
1 Aims and structure of family policy in
France
Since 1945, France has an explicit and institutionalised family policy that
implies legal recognition of the family as a social institution playing a major
role in the maintenance of social cohesion.
The history of family support in France is bound up with a conception of
the state that has an obligation to protect maternity, childhood and the capacity
of women to work outside the home. This conception began to develop
at the end of the 19th century when motherhood was considered to
need attention from the state for demographic reasons (the decline in fertility).
The demographic issue has been a vital component in family policy since
the nineteen century. Just after World War II, when the Social Security system
was created, family support was still aimed at encouraging families to
have more children and also at raising the income of large families. Although
incentives to raise the birth rate have become much less explicit,
family policy measures are still imbued with these ideas: family allowances
(allocations familiales, Kindergeld) are given only after the second birth, and
their level increases with the number of children. The tax system still favours
large families with the “Quotient familial” (Fagnani, Math, 2008).
It is important to bear in mind that CNAF (National Family Allowance
Fund, the family branch of the social security system) and its large network
of CAFs (123 Local Family Allowance Funds) play a key and pivotal role in
the policies providing support and services in kind to families in numerous
areas (as well as cash benefits). CAFs hire a large network of social workers,
of “travailleuses familiales” (family workers), of “aides ménagères” (home helpers)
helping low-income families under many circumstances (after a birth, or
when one of the partners is ill, for instance). They also provide financial
support to families to make sure that they can afford to stay in their home
or to restore an apartment, to improve their living conditions, to buy domestic
appliances, etc. CAFs also own and run “Centres de vacances” (Holidays
camps or buildings) and provide low income families with “bons de vacances”
so that they can spend holidays with their children.
Their role of expertise is also very important and widely recognised.
Theoretically, the social partners (including family organizations) represented
on the Executive Board of the CNAF periodically determine the orientations
for intervention in family policy. In practice, decisions are made
by the Government, whether approved or not by the Executive Board. It is
solely at the local level that the Executive Boards of the CAFs have any real
decision-making power, and in particular, a margin for manoeuvre in the
provision and development of childcare services and in support to families.
The principles underlying public action towards childcare are also
imbedded in Republican ideas that organise the sharing of care responsibilities
between the state (CNAF, Ministry in charge of social policies, Ministry
of Education, local authorities), the families and social partners (mainly the
Union Nationale des Associations Familiales, UNAF). Enterprises, non-
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