The child care crunch
THE LEADER
EVAN SEAL
Jun 13 2007

Parenting is hard work. But finding someone to care for your children while you're at the office is proving to be almost as difficult.

Surrey mother of two Erin Knudsen has experienced the ups and downs of finding a safe, stimulating place to leave her children.

Shortly after returning to her job as a school psychologist the first time, Knudsen pulled her daughter, Valerie, out of a licensed home-based daycare within the first week due to a lack of structure and stimulation provided by an inexperienced caregiver.

Knudsen said her initial negative experience only made the transition back into the workforce that much more trying.

"It's really a difficult time when you're going back to work and you have this little being that's relied on you all year and you don't know how she's going to react at this new place ... you already have misgivings about going back to work and you second-guess yourself if you don't like the day care," Knudsen said.

But thanks to her flexible two-day workweek, Knudsen was able to secure a coveted space at a day-care centre at Surrey Memorial Hospital's A Place To Grow, which offers educational games, songs, and art time.

As a child psychologist, Knudsen understands the importance of those opportunities.

But she doesn't yet know if Valerie's younger brother, Matthew, will have a spot at A Place To Grow when she returns to work this fall.

However, she knows she is lucky just to have one child at a centre with a one-year wait-list.

"I have a lot of friends who would love to be there and can't get in," Knudsen said.

Other parents have had to modify their work schedules to drop off and pick up their children within day care operating hours. Some moms who work part-time have been forced to pay for full-time child care, as that was the only child care they could find -- an expensive solution not affordable for all families.

And Knudsen worries that the B.C. government's plan to reduce operating funding to licensed child care facilities July 1 will make the cost of quality daycare out of reach for parents who earn less money.

All About Child Care, a forum set for Saturday in Surrey, will give parents an opportunity to share their child care stories and their strategies for finding appropriate care.

Penny Coates, the co-ordinator of Surrey/White Rock Make Children First and an organizer of the June 16 forum, said one of the biggest issues is the gap between what child care costs and what most parents can afford.

"What we end up doing is pushing some of the families who could really, really use the facilities ... out of the licensed sector," Coates said.

Ruth Beardsley, the program manager for Surrey's child care referral service Child Care OPTIONS, said the situation is dire for many Surrey and White Rock working parents seeking care for their children.

"We probably need 10 times more than what we have right now to serve the community," she said.

Child Care OPTIONS gives about 5,000 referrals to parents per year. With calls from the same parent within two weeks not logged separately, Beardsley said that represents thousands of new parents frantic for child care or those looking for additional spots as their families grow.

Beardsley added parents of infants and toddlers have a particularly difficult time finding space and appropriate care, as do those with shift work or jobs that take them away from home in the evenings or on the weekends.

Alternatively, parents with traditional schedules, those who get on a wait list early, or parents with more money, tend to have a better chance of getting good care for their little ones.

Beardsley said South Surrey and White Rock are the areas most under-served by child care facilities, followed by Fraser Heights and Whalley.

White Rock has seven licensed facilities offering a total of 152 spaces, Delta has about 1,400 spots, and Surrey has room for about 4,400 children in licensed centres and homes.

Surrey's licensed centres and family care are supplemented by another 100 spaces in 65 Surrey homes run by parents who don't require a licence, as they care for a maximum of two children in addition to their own. But with about 23,500 children aged infant to four in Surrey, 600 in White Rock, and the majority of their parents in the work force, there is still a gap between what is available and what is needed, Coates and Bearsley contend.

Government child care funding to change
On July 1, the B.C. government will cut the amount of money it gives to licensed day cares around the province, adding about $2 a day per child to parents' day-care bills....

Affordability key issue for many parents
Danielle Jimeno, director of A Place To Grow Childcare Centre at Surrey Memorial Hospital, said parents pay $745 per month to place an infant at the centre full-time after government operating subsidies are factored in.

But that is cheaper than in Vancouver, where an equivalent spot would run a parent more than $1,000 monthly.

As most spots come available in the summer, Jimeno said some parents begin paying for child care even if they don't need it right away.

"A lot of parents are putting up $4,000-$5,000 just to hold a spot," Jimeno said.

A Place To Grow currently has a minimum one-year waiting list -- a situation Jimeno expects to worsen as Surrey Memorial expands. (Hospital and Fraser Health Authority employees get priority registration, meaning fewer spots for the community at large in the future.)

Jimeno questioned why more employers don't offer on-site child care. She said the exorbitant cost of placing two or more children in care is keeping one parent at home, including qualified early childhood care providers, further diminishing the pool of professional child care workers equipped to look after children...