More children per caregiver
Chilliwack Times
Jun 25 2010
By: Cornelia Naylor

More children per caregiver: in a nutshell, that's how the province plans to boost before- and after-school care by the time full-day kindergarten takes off in the fall.

The ministry of children and family development announced Tuesday it was upping the number of spaces allowed in group-care facilities for school-aged children, but the number of caregivers won't be going up in equal measure.

In facilities with kindergarten and Grade 1 students, one childcare worker can now take care of up to 12 kids. Before Tuesday's announcement, that ratio was one to 10.

Childcare advocates in Chilliwack welcome the idea of opening more before- and after-school childcare spaces but expressed concern about the increased ratio.

"I don't want to say that one to 12 means the provider is not going to do it well," said Barb Presseau, director of Child Care Resource and Referral, "but any time there's a lower ratio it's easier to provide quality care."

Provincial advocates were more direct in their criticism.

"This is definitely a bad move," said Adrienne Montani, provincial co-ordinator of First Call B.C. Youth and Advocacy Coalition in an interview with the Times. "Any time you increase the child-to-caregiver ratio it's not a good thing. It will impact on quality of care. And the thing to remember about childcare regulations is that they are minimum; they are not best practice."

MCFD said the change will not erode the quality of care, arguing the one-to-12 ratio is better than that found in schools and falls well within average staff-to-child ratios in kindergarten, Grade 1 and school-age care across Canada….

The province predicts there will be an increased need for before- and after-school care as more kindergarten children go to school full time and more parents decide to return to the workforce….

In facilities with kindergarten and Grade 1 students, the regulations have been adjusted to allow four extra kids to a new maximum of 24 while in facilities with no kindergarten and Grade 1 students there will now be five additional spaces allowed to a maximum of 30 children.

Since group-care programs are still restricted by regulations that limit the square footage of their facilities, however, it's unclear how many spaces the change in capacity will actually open up.

According to the new regulations, operators who want to increase their capacity need to apply for an amendment to their licences by contacting their licensing officer.