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Hi,
My sisters and I were looking into opening our own daycare and have been attending workshops on how to set up a childcare facility. We are still in the very early stages of research and planning. Any recommendations on where to start? For example, start off with a small home daycare and then expand into a centre?
:confused:
In Ontario we are allowed 5 children in care no matter how many adults are on the premises. Without further information that's all I can tell you right now. I know some of the other providers on this forum have worked in large centres and will have wonderful links for you when they get here.
Ya hard to offer advice when we do not know what province you are in - as momof4 mentioned in some Provinces in a home setting you can only have 5 kids regardless of the number of adults whin would severely limit the income if two of you were wanting to work together and live off that - you would have to open a centre in Ontario to taken in more than 5 kids...however other provinces allow a home to be licensed and have more children ??
In Alberta you can have a group family day home, which you need a license for, but then you are allowed to have 10 kids and 2 staff in the home. I've been looking into starting that.
We're looking to open on in Ontario, more specifically in Toronto or Mississauga. We ultimately want to open a centre in the long run but thought of opening a home daycare to start off in the mean time and get better/more experience
If your sister is hoping to actually RUN your centre based program eventually my advice is that when she graduates she goes to work in a LICENSED CENTRE to gain experience .... while anyone can OWN a centre in Ontario in order to be approved by the Ministry to RUN a childcare centre in Ontario you have to have a minimum of TWO YEARS of supervisory experience ... unfortunately they are not going to count HOME BASED expereince because it is vastly different to the skills needed to operate a centre!
IME she would need to graduate and go to work in the centre environment and work up to some sort of leadership role in a centre that can offered 'reference' to her ability to not only follow the DNA regulations but to mentor and lead and direct other staff to do it, to be able to lead, direct and supervise ALL aspects of the program from the cook in the kitchen to working with ALL age groups the centre will serve, proof to be able to effectively act as a resource to clients and resolve conflict that may arise and so forth, these are all things she would have to be WELL EXPERIENCED IN before being approved to RUN your daycare by the Ministry otherwise you would have to hire an RECE that WAS approved by the Ministry which will considerably increase the START UP COST for you both and reduce your profit so to speak!