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Hello everyone,
I am a mother of a 2 1/2 toddler and five month old baby. I would like to open a home daycare starting in January 2017 in the Brampton area.
My background is in finance, but I have experience with kids apart from my own.
How is it like to work with agencies? Any suggestions on some that I can contact?
This vary lot between provinces. In some place, an agency registered dayhome may have more child than private dayhome. In some place, an agency over rides hours and policies that dayhome operate. And in some place, agency is funded by grant and free to dayhome but others they charge a fee for service.
What I will say, not all agency equal. Some here wonderful support, cover dayhome provider if appointment in day (limited time per year), help with problem client in mediation role while other agency horrible support and often make situation worse. For example, one register provider here not get paid. Her agency offer little help other than tell her to take to Small Claim and then when the parent phone the agency instead of them pulling the contract and checking the agreement, they advised parent based on the agencies generic contact which was not what this parent had. Agency gave misinformation about late fee, and pay schedule and carer had awful time in court because their agency give wrong information to client and Judge felt it reasonable that parent was confused about their responsibilities.
I'm in NS, so it works differently. My ratio is the same, whether private or with an agency (max 6 including mine, only 2 under 18mo). I started privately and joined an agency last month. In NS they are entirely funded by the province, services offered are free to me. Parents pay me directly. They help as mentors, help with advertising, offer a lending library of programming/equipment, and I can take kids with subsidy. The cons are the huge amount of paperwork (logs for everything, lesson plans, menus, evaluations, etc), but they helped me out getting it all in place, and it's mostly to cover my butt if anything happens (I can prove what I did and what happened each day).
Agencies in Ontario vary widely by area. Some are for-profit, some are not. Some are apparently wonderful, and some, well, not so much. Currently in Ontario, a private provider is allowed 5 daycare children at one time, including her own under age 6. An agency provider CAN be allowed 6 children, including her own under 6, but it is up to the agency to decide who can have the extra child, what age they are allowed to be, if the provider has enough square footage to accommodate another child, etc. As far as I understand it is completely up the agency's discretion.
Most agencies set your rates and policies for you. The parent signs a standard agency contract with you, not one that you write. Some let you add your own policies, some don't. Some make you follow a very strict meal plan, some don't allow you to administer any medications, even Tylenol with the parent's written permission. Some lend you large equipment like strollers or playpens, some give out craft supplies, etc. There can be many pros but also many cons.
Personally, I would never work with my local agencies. Wee Watch tends to get a bad reputation, particularly in my area, leading to all but one WW provider that I know of leaving and going private. The other local agency is better run, but very strict and I wanted more flexibility in my business. They also take roughly a 30% cut of your wages, and set your rates for you. For example, they charge $39/day for an infant spot, but the provider only gets $30. The provider is still responsible for meals, toys, activities, etc. Providers receive even less from spaces with older children. Wee Watch charges $40/day for an infant, but only gives the provider $28 - a BIG difference.
One other thing to consider with agencies is that only agency providers and daycare centers can accept subsidy. So you may have to be turning clients away if you are private, because they qualify for subsidy and you can't accept it. You can inquire with your local municipality to see if there is a waiting list for subsidies to give you an idea of how many inquiries you may get that need it. In Oshawa for example, when we lived there a few years ago, there was a 2 year waiting list to even get a meeting to see if you qualify for subsidy. In Belleville you can get a meeting the following week after you call.
Thank you for the advice. I will continue to research and see what works for us. I am very much a hands on mum, and my toddler is thriving well in a play and learn curriculum that I use for her.
I might start private, with two kids and take it from there.