Childcare policy changes helpful
Powell River Peak
November 22, 2007

BC's government has just released changes to regulations governing licensing of childcare workers.

Alison Bledsoe is the Powell River project coordinator for Understanding the Early Years and an early childhood development professional with 15 years in the field.

"Overall, I see that this announcement could mean positive changes in the childcare sector," said Bledsoe. "However, it negates the two most significant issues in childcare in BC today: the affordability of childcare for families and an adequate and meaningful human resources strategy--one that addresses recruitment, retention, wages, working conditions, etc."

At the Busy Bee Daycare in Powell River, Carol Murray sees an immediate advantage in the new regulations. "It used to be that graduates of early childhood education (ECE) courses had to volunteer for 500 hours of work experience before they could have their licence," she said. "Now, they can apply for a job and be paid right away while they gather the hours they need to get their licence."

Murray says this will have an impact on her business. "There are ECE graduates who are available now who will legally be qualified to run the daycare if I'm away," she said. "A volunteer can't do that. Plus, it's a real hardship for new grads to have to work 500 hours for free just to finish their qualifications."

There are three key changes:

* Family childcare operators will now have the flexibility to take in a maximum of seven children, newborn to five years, without having to reserve spaces for infants and school-age children.

* A new category of childcare licensing--multi-age childcare--will allow eight children in a home with one ECE-certified individual, an increase from seven children under the family childcare category.

* New ECE graduates will be given one-year certificates to work as fully qualified staff immediately upon graduation. Childcare operators will have additional qualified staff to draw from when hiring, and new graduates can get their required 500 hours of work experience needed for full licensing….