Child-care centres should stay open; Even without formally certified staff, daycares offer kids more safety than none at all
Times Colonist (Victoria)
31 Oct 2007

There's is something wrongheaded in health officials' willingness to force a child-care centre to close because it can't find enough staff with the required certification.

The objective is ensuring the safety of children.

But if the Fernwood Community Centre's infant and toddler centre is forced to shut its doors by Vancouver Island Health Authority inspectors, where will the 20 children currently receiving care end up?

Given the acute shortage of child-care spaces many will end up in unlicensed care, taken in by a neighbour or relative. Their safety will certainly not be ensured; in some cases it could be at greater risk.

Child-care standards are important. But so is common sense. And if licensed child-care centres are unable to meet the current standards because staff can't be found, compromise makes sense. …

The Fernwood centre, like many, is struggling to find staff with the required early childhood education certification. Limited provincial child-care funding means it can pay $14 to $18 an hour, not enough to attract qualified applicants.

So the centre applied for exemptions that would allow five staff -- including two qualified to teach in elementary schools -- to work without the formal qualifications. VIHA would only allow one exemption. The lack of certified staff would mean an increased risk to children, it said.

The authority has a serious responsibility to ensure safety. But it also should assess risk reasonably and in light of the likely alternatives. Is no care really better than an efficient, well-run centre, even if some staff lack proper formal qualifications?

The Fernwood centre …. has a waiting list of 375 families. Across B.C. there are 82,000 spaces -- about four per cent more than there were six years ago. But 11,000 families are on waiting lists seeking care for their children.

There's little hope for parents in the near term. The B.C. government plans to add 2,000 spaces over the next three years, still far short of supply. Hopes of faster progress were shattered when the Harper government reneged on the federal child-care commitment, cutting funding to B.C. by about $120 million a year.

Given the current bleak realities for parents, the emphasis should be on keeping centres open. That means VIHA and other licensing agencies should focus on whether centres can operate safely, not on whether staff have the appropriate certificates.