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Child Day Care Regulatory Review Committee
A Vision for Child Care and Development in Manitoba
The Child Day Care Regulatory Review Committee envisions
a "universal, accessible, affordable, quality"
child care system which provides for optimal development of children
and support to families throughout Manitoba. These four key elements
need to be considered as an integral part of the ultimate goal of
building a comprehensive child care system throughout Manitoba.
In order to achieve this goal, the issues surrounding six main components
of the child care system need to be addressed. These components
are as follows:
- Standards/Quality Care
- Funding
- Training and Professionalism
- Governance
- Integrated Service Delivery
- Public Education
1. STANDARDS/QUALITY CARE
While the minimum standards of the current Community Child Day
Care Standards Act and Manitoba Regulation 62/86 ensure basic health
and safety for children, the Committee believes that these standards
must be enhanced to ensure the highest possible level of care and
learning is provided in all facilities. The Committee recommends
action to:
- support the development of national standards for child care
and development programs;
- provide incentives to exceed minimum standards; and
- ensure a funding level that enables a stable, well remunerated,
trained, child care workforce.
The child-focused curricula currently practiced in Manitoba is
critical to quality early childhood education. This practice ensures
the provision of care and education within warm, responsive, consistent
environments and promotes children's learning and development in
a natural way.
2. FUNDING
The Committee knows that Manitoba is positioned to expand child
care and recommends a universal, non-profit, publicly-funded, licensed
child care system within three to five years, with long-term funding
secured. The Committee recommends action to:
- support the creation and expansion of spaces that are responsive
to the needs of rural and urban families and communities;
- ensure a well-paid and well-trained workforce by developing
a strategy that addresses the critical issues of recruiting and
retaining early childhood educators;
- enable the construction of new facilities, as well as upgrading
of existing inadequate facilities and equipment;
- enable the creation of inclusive early intervention and family
resource programs, including universal, no-fee, part-time nursery
programs and encourage the availability of early intervention
experts to support these programs; and
- enable the expansion of the Child Day Care Program resources.
The Committee recommends further increases to public funding in
order to achieve universal child care within the next three to five
years.
3. TRAINING AND PROFESSIONALISM
Training and ongoing professional development
for providers of early childhood care and education are among the
strongest indicators of quality. The Committee
recommends action to:
- provide accessible and affordable training;
- expand current models of training and develop new models that
respond to community needs;
- provide specialized training options for caregivers, such as
training for family child care home providers, school age care
providers and management training;
- review the current classification system and educational requirements
for early childhood educators based on best practices;
- provide funding to design and implement a certification process
for early childhood educators;
- provide funding to develop and implement an accreditation process
for licensed child care facilities; and
- provide funding to foster development of ECE training programs
responsive to the needs of the current untrained child care workforce.
The Committee also believes that training must be both transferable
and portable across Canada and supports the development of national
training standards.
4. GOVERNANCE
Strong, knowledgeable community-based boards that reflect the needs
of the community and its families are key to maintaining viable,
high quality child care services. The Committee believes that enhanced
options must also be explored and provided for family child care
home governance. The Committee recommends action to:
- support and strengthen the governance of child care programs
and services within communities;
- provide training for community-based boards;
- recruit individuals and groups to community-based boards that
have experience and expertise to best support and promote the
development of early childhood care and education programs;
- increase the current level of parental participation on boards
of directors; and
- explore new models of governance for child care facilities,
such as the Hub model.
A broader board governance role would help to ensure the effective
and efficient use of resources for child care facilities. It would
also facilitate community planning and the inclusion of child care
as part of both urban and rural economic development.
5. INTEGRATED SERVICE DELIVERY
The Committee supports an integrated service delivery model, whereby
child care services are established as part of community partnerships
with continued input from families. The Committee recommends action
to:
- increase communication, co-ordination and co-operation between
jurisdictions;
- strengthen relationships with schools and other community services;
- encourage partnerships to meet a variety of family needs in
both rural and urban communities;
- ensure a system of monitoring of basic health and safety for
programs currently excluded from the Act, such as parent-child
centres, infant labs, in-school lunch programs or before and after
programs, unlicensed family home care;
- expand the definition of "licensed child care" to
allow flexibility and creativity in designing responsive and integrated
services, such as in-own-home child care, care for sick children;
and
- support the creation of an integrated system of early identification
and intervention for children in child care facilities.
6. PUBLIC EDUCATION
Early childhood care and education is fundamental to the healthy
development of all children and is the first tier of education.
The Committee recommends action to:
- raise the profile of early childhood care and education to the
public at large; and
- develop strategies to inform the public about the early years
and healthy child development in urban, rural, and northern settings.
Child care is the cornerstone of healthy child and family policy.
Its vital role in building a healthy society requires further promotion
to the general public.
Accessibility… Affordability… Quality…
Universal Child Care
For more information contact
Child Care. |
