$10 per day childcare - celerbation or concerned

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 So want to say “for now” to all those answers from politicians and advocates like the AECEO and OCBCC for this … based on historical precedent of what happens when the government is responsible for the majority of funding I find it hard to trust promises like “ratios won’t increase” also do not see funding being distributed equitably to see improvement to wages across the board - large licensed centres are going to end up eating up the majority of funding because well they are the least financially viable model of childcare and have the highest overhead model and overtime easy to hypotheses that there will be less and less for the tiny amount of licensed home childcare that is currently is represented in the licensed model let alone if the “unregulated sector” starts to try to migrate over placing more demand on said funding that’s been allotted which is based on the currently model that only meets 25% of the actual childcare used in Ontario. 

 

Again based on precedents of history - hate to keep saying it but look at Quebec …. despite the sector being unionized for 25 years now their home childcare sector, under this same model being represented here, gets the scattered crumbs that are leftover and preCovid had started roaring strikes because 25 years in and home childcare was still making LESS than minimum wage because they were getting away with paying them daily rates vs hourly wages and the length of the days just kept increasing as parents worked longer hours and had longer commutes you know to help pay for these programs … and this is despite the reality that home childcare has the least amount of overhead, provides the lowest ratios/group sizes for children and the access to a responsive attentive primary caregiver throughout their early years journey that all the brain and trauma informed research shows is vital to success in the early years. 

 

Currently licensed programs cannot properly staff programs NOW where are they gonna get all these new staff from to open up new spaces or to be home coordinators for agencies?

How quickly are we gonna see more and more centres who currently only hire ECE because they believe that’s what high quality program should be having to resort to hiring unqualified staff a because of shortage and b because they can pay them LESS and the burden of the pressure from the government not funding enough in wages to keep up that practice - which is gonna put more responsibility on the ONE RECE required per group because with the CECE and protected practice laws the non qualified staff are not SUPPOSED to be doing program planning, discussing development with parents and array of other “only a RECE” can do

As always people get hyped about the sound bytes and then are greatly disappointed by what actually rolls out! 

 

FDK is almost 20 years in between the pilots and than the full roll out is STILL underfunded and looks NOTHING like what was promised

Based on conversations with peers I it is likely that majority of home childcare providers will WAIT and see what actually rolls out before being concerned about this … I am willing to guess that any families going on wait lists NOW for this new program will likely have children in university before they actually opening up spaces for them! 

 

I would also bet money that the majority of these 86,000 spaces being promised  of which 15,000 are already been already created in 2019 and counted in this promise will be for SCHOOL AGE children and not the 0-4 age group which they do NOT tend to open up  too many of at a time in comparison! School age care is the ONLY care that can actually balance an operational budget because their ratios are so much higher than current infant and toddler or even preschool programs which is why programs choose to focus on those age groups with school age and preschool spaces being in abundance and toddler and infant spaces in great demand in the licensed sector!

 

And I have to say it once again if parents cannot access this 'social support' $10/day program to let a parent stay home and DIY their own childcare or get their nanny, extended family member or neighborhood home childcare costs covered via the program too than it’s NOT gonna fit the definition of ‘universal’. At best based on the current landscape it is going to be a very expensive investment that is only reaching 25% of the children in Ontario and that just does not seem like a EQUITABLE investment in the early years or respecting CHOICE for Ontario families!

 

Can’t help but be concerned about the future generations that are gonna come up through this model specially when again the research that shows that Quebec’s long term studies on the actual social/emotional and mental health outcomes for their program users has been alarmingly poor So sure the program got more parents into the workforce cause both can work but at what TRUE COST to children and families living there cause there’s more valuable things in life than lost INCOME.

 

Hug your little ones tight and if you believe in a higher power pray that today's announcement about Ontario joining the Federal government's $10/day platform turns out to actually be beneficial to the CHILDREN it is meant to serve as building blocks for their life long learning path! 

 

For the first time in two years I ironically now have something to be grateful for with the pandemic having closed my own early learning program and my health having forced me to retire from practicing early childhood education for the time being - I can advocate from the sidelines without the stress of having to live through this uncertainty of roll out first hand! 

 

Changes in childcare have never run smoothly as they rolled out and sadly far too often caused more stress and work for those on the front line than benefiting them! 

 

Margaret

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life

 

 

 

Professionalism in the age of Internet

 

Just wanted to share a PSA to remember it is important to be cautious about what we post on social media, about how we speak out on social media and so forth because under the CECE Code of Ethics and Standards for Practice we can all be held accountable for violating those standards by the College even when you are NOT AT WORK or engaged in your scope of practice - for example one of the CPL groups on Facebook where ECE often vent has over 14,000 members and you just do not know who is reading/watching or taking potential screenshots of the professionalism, conduct and potentially negative opinions of the field of the ECE within here. 

 

 

 

If you read the CECE newsletters there was a recent disciplinary actions filed against a member of the College for behavior that happened AFTER HOURS between two colleagues who had chosen to socialize outside of work and an altercation happened that ended up being reported to the College and the person was found in violation of the Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice and disciplined as a result.

The reality is that whether we individually agreed with it the College of ECE is something that MANY in the field, the AECEO membership and OCBCC and other early years advocates and so forth, have all advocated for DECADES to see happen - actively petitioning the government to help make it happen by changing the laws. creating new laws and providing start up funding to get it up and going as the first step in ECE being recognized as the professionals we are. Seriously as a new grad in 1990 this was the 'goal' talked about by professors and it took over 20 years from it to be an idea to be a reality - cause the change in our sector is SLOW.

Like it or not it is now been made a legal requirement under the Early Years Act to have a college that oversees and regulates the ECE sector so all the venting and complaining in the world is not going to charge the reality that the College is not going anywhere. So IMO we need to find a way to accept this as a professional requirement to practice now on top of the diploma and do our best to let the anger/negativity go because it honestly does not serve us - it creates a mindset of this field sucks where we stop remembering the things we love about the field and our WHY for entering it. 

 

 

IMO it also does not send the message to the public that may be reading our comments or overhearing us at Starbucks that we are ARE professionals who understand the importance of having a regulatory body to protect the PUBLIC, to build their trust and respect in knowing that there is an organization that oversees the profession and holds practitioners to a higher standard than was previously exhibited and can actually prevent someone from practicing entirely. The time where substandard ECE who managed to pass college but do not have the actual skills or motivation to thrive in the sector were able to just jump from centre to centre after being fired with no way to 'communicate' to future employers that they should NOT be practicing. Sadly police checks ar NOT ENOUGH because you can not belong in this field and still not have broken a law yet that would show up on one. Sadly even references are NOT enough because no one is going to leave the person who FIRED them as a reference and most organizations have a liabity rule where they will not disclose it anyway even if they did leave them as a reference. At the end of the day THAT is the role of the College - to protect the public from substandard ECE who managed to graduate with the diploma but should not be practicing and to raise the bar on professional conduct of those it regulates. The college was NEVER about what it could actually do for US but rather how we can show the PUBLIC that we are professionals with high standards of practice who are deserving of the respect and resources of other professionals doing similar work.

Sadly we still have a LONG way to go to actually accomplish that much of which is our own fault because not enough of us are standing proud to be a member of said regulated profession and as a result most of the public does not even KNOW nor CARE that we are regulated. At the end of the day IMO if we want to be better paid and have more buy in from the public to FUND that for us we need to be doing a better job of SHOWING them everything we actually have to DO to practice ECE. Ask any parent if teachers are regulated they KNOW about the Teacher's College. The same cannot be said for US :( 

 

 

 

I also know that many members, myself included, are frustrated by the cost of membership in relation to our low wages - a very valid concern and that is something we can actually work to advocate to change while still remaining professional about the College and its role in public safety. As members we VOTE on who is going to represent us on the Colleges Board - so vote for someone who is going to actively champion ways to reduce the cost of membership and create policy where membership is reduced if retired/on parental leave/ medical leave! Perhaps relocating outside of GTA to lower the enormous cost of rent and other expenses in that region is the first place to start ... living in a digital era with remote work and remote meetings there is NO reason that the College has to be located where it is and for the amount of money the College spends on RENT alone the College could BUY a property in a region of Ontario that has lower cost of living - heck they could partner with other early years to house some rental space and actually generate INCOME for the College to reinvest in keeping membership fees low and offering more to membership! 

 

 

The requirement of the CPL is not going away either that too so it is a waste of our time and energy trying to do away with it - it has been legislated right into the Early Years Act as a duty of the College to ensure as part of its regulation of the sector that professional development is ongoing and contains an annual self assessment component, goal setting and records of learning. Every regulated body HAS continual professional learning requirements built into their oversight mandate ... so while we cannot change THOSE things we can change what those things might look like! Members have been giving lots of professional feedback about the challenges of the current CPL process being used and some of it seeming redundant and time consuming on top of already busy lives of ECE - they have already made some ammendments in 2019 based on feedback and the last communication sent out indicated that they ARE still listening and are working on another revision to the process coming this Spring. 

 

 

Personally now that we have a membership account to log into I would LOVE to see them develop the CPL so that it can all be done VIA that membership account portal so that members donot need to stress about loosing their work or not being able to manage the formating with the downloaded copies and so forth - just create all the required components IN the membership section and record it there - and that way the College has easy access to randomly audit and there is no added expense or work to ECE called to audit having to figure out how to get their documentation either converted to digital to send via email or the cost of copying and shipping out their CPL! It is 2022 and we have 55,000 members paying $160 annually SURELY there should be money in the budget to hire a tech whiz to create a website program that could manage that! 

 

 

Basically it comes down the the serentiy prayer "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference." we need to try our best to focus our energy on the things we CAN realistically change!

 

You only get one childhood. Lets make sure it is full of magic, nature and discovery! 

 

Margaret

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life

Self Regulation

So often we hold children to a higher standard of self regulation than many of us are capable of ourselves! 

There are times when we, as adults, become over tired and over stressed and suddenly hit our threshold of all we can take with demands on us and we act out towards a spouse or family member with unkind words or we may throw a little toddler tantrum ourselves! I know it happens cause I have seen it out and about in stores and service based businesses ;) 

Peopling is HARD and what children need in those moments what ANYONE needs where they cannot regulate themselves is for us to HELP them through co-regulation showing empathy and offering support vs tossing more stress into their spiral. 

Photo credit

Mental health in the early years MATTERS! 

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life 

Should all RECE be supporting the need for Universal Childcare?

 

This question came up in a networking group on Facebook today! My views on this are likely not popular among many of my peers however at the end of the day I would advocate to put myself out of a job before I would advocate to put children and families health and wellness at risk in a system that might sound good on bullet points but could actually do more harm than good when you look deeply at the over all picture and under currents of the challenges faced by families with young children in Canada!

 

My response is thus to 'Should all RECE be supporting the need for Universal Childcare?' : 

 

If it is going to be modeled after Quebec $10 a day childcare as they keep promoting than I would vote no not all RECE should be supporting this initiative  - because IMO the Quebec system is FAILING both the children AND ECE so I strongly advocate that the ECE here in Ontario need look past the government propaganda about its success where they seem to be focusing only at getting more woman back into the workforce to REALLY see what the program looks like after 25 YEARS and get feedback from those actually on the front line working in it on is this really a system worth 'replicating' all across Canada. 

 

From my research - they have the highest ratios of children to adult across the board in ALL age groups - do we WANT to be caring for MORE children than we already do? There infant ratios are 1:5 for under 18 months 1:8 for 18 months up to 4 years all in the same room and no apparent rules about how many can be only 18 months in that 1:8 ratio. 4 year are 1:10 and 5 year old are 1:20. Are those ratios what is considered 'high quality care'? 

 

Look at their LOW PAY with an average of $19 meaning that most front line make LESS than that just making the minimum wage and a few in management roles make more at the $25 mark in order to average out to that $19 and that is even with them all being unionized after a QUARTER OF A CENTURY. 

 

 

Here in Ontario everyone keeps saying 'if only we were unionized than we'd get better pay' .... how is that working in Quebec? Fact is that a union cannot demand blood from a stone! When the cost of offering childcare rises above the income a parent can earn working, regardless if it is the parent paying it out of pocket or the government anyone with a lick of 'budgeting' will choose to say 'lets pay the parent to stay home instead' because than we are not investing millions in fancy infant and toddler centres and other overhead costs so it's actually a better investment. And the sad reality is that while we do this for public education system the reason that flies is because most tax payers do not think they have the skills to 'home school' their child and even if they do they do not get keep the cost of public education for themselves. When it comes to childcare to the youngest among is, while it definitely takes some skill set and understanding of childcare development to do it really well the fact is that for centuries parents have been doing 'childcare' themselves and raised strong innovative generations without help so society is less likely to invest in outsourcing childcare and more inclined to support a system where THEY are supported financially to stay home during the early years rather than trying to balance full time work and full time childrearing in those early years when they do not sleep through night and are very emotionally taxing due to lack of language and communication skills! 

 

Even the Quebec's unionized home childcare sector is currently doing rolling strikes because they do not even make the current MINIMUM wage of $13.50 an hour because they pay them a daily rate vs an hourly one and most providers work 10 plus hours a day not the 8 that most centre staff do! So from what I am reading the universal childcare has not really benefits the FRONT LINE at all - still low paid and have higher ratios for their trouble! 

 

And is it really benefiting ALL families equably?  It has been over 25 YEARS and it is still not UNIVERSAL and yet the cost of operating it is bankrupting the province so they have no money for other infrastructure like roads or hospitals - according to the Finding Quality Childcare in Canada website as of the last survey in 2019 the program only services 54% of the demand when looking at 0-12 year olds and that drops to only 42% when you look at 0-4 year olds! They seem to have a inequitable TWO TIER system where there are limited 'subsidized' spaces and everyone else is either paying higher out of pocket fees OR arranging for family or other types of childcare with lower out of pocket costs.

 

 

And most importantly the research coming out on the CHILDREN who've lived this system for 25 years in high ratios and with parents who are over taxed balancing full time work and full time child rearing and full time household management is VERY troubling - showing increased emotional and mental health challenges and increases in physical illnesses and societal challenges over all. 

 

So sure the upfront cost of $!0 a day childcare might  look great at first glance and sure on paper it increased the number of woman in the workforce and increased their financial security of having their own income but we really need to look at the OVERALL cost to children, parents, early childhood educators AND the taxpayer over all! The system is FLAWED and we really should not be holding it up as a model to emulate! 

 

There are way better models in other countries that can result in more women in the workforce, betting paying jobs for woman by ensuring EQUALITY in parental leave programs so that it is not the woman who has to choose to remain out of the workforce! Look to those!!!!

So if we are going to look at modeling a Canadian Universal Childcare system like NORDIC countries do and instead fund an actual living income for a proper parental leave for the first 3 years. A leave that can be shared equally between both parents if desired so no one has to give up their career entirely but where so parents can share the load to provide FULL TIME CARE at the low ratio and primary caregiver that brain research shows children thrive best with while also working part time to keep themselves up to date with career advancements and such - yes please!

 

Create a universal childcare system where we were to invest in have community family centres and playgroups building on the EarlyON programs we already have where highly trained RECE can offer EARLY LEARNING via playgroups but can be done at the higher ratios of children serviced because their parents are also there providing the CARE. A family centre that can also act as a resources to parents with workshops and support groups for connection designed on helping them gain the skills they need to thrive at the demanding role of parenting. 

 

A system where 'universal childcare' by an actual THIRD PARTY highly trained RECE waits to start once the child is 3 and goes until 6 with a ratio that is more conducive to that age group in order to publicly fund both the early learning and care needed while ensuring well compansated educators. 

 

A universal system where children do not move to a formal public education setting until they are turning 7 within the school year - where they wait to introduce formal reading/writing/ expectations until all children would be developmentally read. Early years are spent instilling a love of reading and literacy awareness through play based interactions with adults and their environments!

 

If we are going to model a universal system like THAT where everyone is winning than sure sign me up! 

 

 Because they have been at it since 1975 and unlike Quebec studies show THAT model actually results in positive outcomes for all - parents are not pulled in two directions in the early years trying to work full time and do the full time job of parenting so they are better rested and have better mental health outcomes, children form strong family attachments with their parents during those first 3 years thus have the social emotional growth to thrive in the universal preschool programming! They hold off trying to cram unrealistic reading and writing on 3-6 year olds making children stressed and turning them off of learning and therefore they have might higher rates for both that carry out through their entire education system. Our FDK approach is not providing those same results - ratios are too high and the reading/writing/ expectations are not developmentally appropriate for the majority of children that age creating stress and anxiety around 'learning' for children!

 

You only get one childhood. Lets make sure it is full of magic, nature and discovery!

 

Margaret

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life