I read somewhere that there's a movement to have private home daycares to become licensed, without them having to join agencies....what's the scoop on that? It's individual licensing.
Is that still being pursued?
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I read somewhere that there's a movement to have private home daycares to become licensed, without them having to join agencies....what's the scoop on that? It's individual licensing.
Is that still being pursued?
I know that this is not your question Betsy. But it can be done Saskatchewan does it. They lic. the invidual and we do not work with agencies.
What province are you in? Some provinces have this (Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, I believe Nova Scotia) but most don't. In Ontario, for example, the only way to be "licensed" is to work for a licensed agency. The agency holds the license, not the provider. There's no other way to get any sort of license in Ontario. This is one of the things that CICPO (the Coalition of Independent Childcare Providers of Ontario) was arguing for when Bill 10 was being debated in parliament. Agencies are not the same across the province; some are for-profit, some are non-profit, some are good, some are, well, not. They also take a large cut of the provider's income (usually around 30%) and set the rates the provider can charge. We were asking for individual licensing monitored by the province, but the Liberals didn't listen.
Currently, CICPO has been in talks about possibly launching a "co-op" type licensing model, where we essentially create our own agency, obtain a license from the government, and charge providers the smallest amount possible. Providers would then be able to be "licensed" without having to fork over 30% of their income, and would still have the autonomy to set their own rates and policies, etc.
Whether or not the Liberal government will allow this to happen remains to be seen, and if it does, it won't be for a while. As of now, our only options in Ontario at least are to remain private or work for an agency.
Crazy Eight....the Coop is still on the table. I'm attending the meetings with the MOE, agencies and others from CICPO. We're presenting at the next meeting on Oct 15th! We'll know more after that, but the Ministry is interested. I'll keep everyone posted :)
and we do it here in BC tooQuote:
Originally Posted by dodge__driver11
Manitoba is like that too. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by dodge__driver11
Ontario is so far behind! No licensing available for independents. The most we can hope for is the Cooperative. And believe me, the agencies are fighting it!
That's really too bad, I can tell from this forum that a lot of you want to be licensed, and I totally understand. I wouldn't want to give away that much income to an agency either. I really appreciated our system after reading everything here about agencies.
A few months ago, a few of us throughout the province had an opportunity to sit down with consultants hired by the province, to get our opinion on how to create more licensed childcare spaces. They did ask how we would feel about agencies. :(
I'm in Ontario. Yes, I think that's the one I read about - CICPO.Quote:
Originally Posted by CrazyEight
So it's still on the table! That'd be great.Quote:
Originally Posted by cfred
Oh yeah, it's very much still on the table. Hopefully our presentations are swaying...fingers crossed! I think they will be and we've put a lot into them. We're working together with CCPRN (Child Care Providers Resource Network) and attending the meetings with them as well...they have some clout. This working group (and these meetings) came about because of CICPO. The ministry was interested enough in our idea to put this group together and I"m thrilled to be part of it. We've come a long, long way since last year at this time!
I'm cheering for you guys!!Quote:
Originally Posted by cfred
Can I ask how much it costs to be individually licensed in Saskatchewan and other provinces that do this?Quote:
Originally Posted by dodge__driver11
Don't ask that....you might spontaneously combust. It's very low, if I remember correctly
It doesn't cost anything to be licensed in Manitoba. It takes anywhere from 6 months to a year, and along the way you may have to incur some costs, like upgraded smoke alarms, etc, but the actual license doesn't cost anything.
Gah....jeez....I didn't need to hear that. We asked the Ministry for a system like other provinces. Nope...flat rejection. Ontario is broke and childcare isn't a priority. They blew the whole wad on FDK which is a MESS! They invested in the completely wrong program. Sigh....oh Liberals....so, so misguided.
The ONLY reason they're paying attention to CICPO's cooperative model is because it is self sustaining. We can get the job done, within ministry standards, without costing them or the taxpayers anything. That's the main reason we're being heard. It's a solution to the problem of bringing in more licensed spaces that is more appealing to more ICPs without burdening the province.
Lol! I was just curious to see what other provinces are doing. I know we had quite the conversation yesterday about the cost of the co-op in Ontario, but I know each province can be completely different... I was just interested to see the cost in other provinces. I wish we were able to do something like that here.Quote:
Originally Posted by cfred
Me too. It's depressing, really. We see other provinces that are able to carry the program beautifully. It really is a shame that we can't do the same here. We asked for that and backed our demands with cogent arguments. They really couldn't be argued. But, there's no money. They've made it abundantly clear that they won't help us. We can only help ourselves, hence the Cooperative. It's not exactly what we want, but it's another option, that's still better than the one that's out there, for many. Maybe Ontario will get it's shit together some day...but it won't happen with Liberals in office...in particular, Wynne's Liberals.
We've learned so, so much about the government, this industry and the media in the past 18 months...it's really crazy how the whole thing works....and sad.
It does not cost anything to be licensed in BC and may take up to 6 to 9 month to upgrade after inspections of your home from Fire Dept and daycare inspections from the health dept who also do the inspections during the year so you know them when they come by to inspect and it only cost $20 a year to belong to a group that parents may call to let them know what daycares have a spot available in their areaQuote:
Originally Posted by superfun
Quote:
Originally Posted by cfred
Just curious about the last meeting?
There is no cost Betsy.
http://www.education.gov.sk.ca/adx/a...e+Brochure.pdf
Hi Betsy! The meeting last Thursday went very well. The video made the head of Early Years cry and not one person took their eyes off the screen. It painted a very good picture of the kind of providers ICPs are and the level of quality CICPO represents. Heidi's presentation of our research data and pitch for the Cooperative also went well and drew out lots of discussion. We also brought to the forefront the fact that ICPs aren't joining just avoiding agencies because of the high fees, but also because there's a significant amount of anger and mistrust. We were maligned, deliberately, to the public and the media and were categorized with the illegals. I have to say, the reaction was perfect. The head of early years assured us, in all seriousness, that the Ministry does NOT feel that way about ICPs. An agency head apologized to us for being one of those who were maligning us. Even the Deputy Minister had nothing but respect and kindness. Of course, we still don't see eye to eye with everyone there and probably never will with some, but there was real conversation and respect. We have been invited to the next level of meetings :)Quote:
Originally Posted by betsy
I will warn you though, that during one presentation, though I can't name names, it was brought to our attention that our conversations on FB are, indeed, being monitored. If any of you are on any of the daycare FB pages, be mindful that conversations are being monitored by those opposed to what we do. Part of a conversation I had with an ICP was read aloud, to show that CICPO is telling people not to join agencies....which we're not. I simply suggested, to a panicky ICP, that she has to do what is right for her and her family, but that she doesn't need to make any big decisions right now and we'll know more about the Coop soon. BUT, we know exactly where we stand with this group, which is probably a good thing. Clearly, we have their attention.
CICPO is currently expanding and we've just recruited 2-3 new ladies to the core team, so it's all looking up. The next meeting is at the end of November. At that time we start getting more into the nuts and bolts of everything...regulat ions, etc.