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What is Manitoba's child care system all about?
 Licensed
child care in Manitoba helps support parents and create the best
possible outcomes for children. The Manitoba Child Care Program
of Family Services and Housing oversees the licensed child care
system. Licensed child care includes full-time infant and preschool
centres, school age centres, and licensed nursery schools, as well
as child care in homes.
Manitoba currently has over 1,100 licensed child care facilities
with about 24,500 spaces throughout the province. It is estimated
that more than 30,000 children, including over 1,200 children with
disabilities, use these spaces each year. Some attend part-time
licensed nursery schools. Others attend licensed child care centres
or homes on a part-time or full-time basis.
In 1983, The
Community Child Care Standards Act was established to define
the types of child care settings that require licensing. The Act
and its regulations also ensure that child care in licensed centres
and homes meets certain minimum standards, including the number
of trained ECEs required to work in centres or nursery schools.
Regulations ensure child-focused, play-based, age-appropriate programming.
Centres must provide a variety of activities, as well as space and
equipment for creative art, music, science, dramatic play, reading,
fine motor, large motor, blocks, water, sand and construction.
The Government of Manitoba recently announced its Five-Year
Plan for Child Care. The plan sets very specific targets for
improving the child care system by 2007. Among its many initiatives,
5,000 funded child care spaces will be created and an additional
450 ECEs will be trained. It also committed to increasing ECE wages
by 10 per cent over the five-year period. ECEs are, and will continue
to be, in high demand.
Return to Careers in Child Care main page.
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