Personal Privacy - Are their laws protecting us?

[Rachael]

If you have no children from the agency in care at the moment the inspector comes to your house - ie in the evening then I would think legally you wouldn't have to let them in with the idea of your premises is now your own home and you are free to have open liquor bottles or knives or blow torches if so choose out, visible and accessible. The inspection would therefore be pointless in terms of your home as being suitable for childcare.

That's not quite right.

If you have an agency agreement, the agency is acting on behalf of the government who pays out for subsidized care. That agency is also paid by the government for over-seeing your business and ensuring you comply with the regulations.

You absolutely have the right to decline an inspection however, in doing so, you are in breach of the agreement in place and therefore an agency can revoke your registered status and that means that the agreement between the carer and the government is also ended so no more subsidiary payments will be received.

What you can do, is request these inspections happen at a mutually convenient time i.e. during business hours but that would be a request and not an entitlement. The agency should actually come at varying times - and sometimes unannounced but the unannounced visits should occur in business hours with the objective of catching a real insight into the business vs a scheduled visit where additional cleaning, and prep might take place in preparation for the inspection.

Not sure about the day care regs in every province but essentially this is a contractual issue.

A day home is contracted with the agency. The agency is a government appointment representative. They must complete inspections as part of their role and the day home has to comply with them.

What it boils down to is someone offering care to subsidized clients has agreed to provide a min level of care and a government agency is checking that criteria is being met. Refusal to participate means the agency cannot confirm wholly that all regulations are being followed and as a consequence of that, they likely will not be willing to endorse your service by having you as part of their family of day homes. The agency is responsible for ensuring all their day home meet the requirements and for acting to support and correct any short-fallings. Their failure to do so might cost them their license which is why, if they aren't able to fully inspect all they need to, they are able to cancel their agreement with you, and revoke your registered status with them.

I absolutely agree that the validity of an inspection outside business hours is questionable, but I am aware of some agencies who have too many homes for their staff to inspect in day care hours. This is why I feel that a request to the agency/inspector, that the inspection happens in business hours is valid.

There are still some elements that could be checked outside of business hours (is there a fence, is there a washroom accessible, etc).

Ask the agency/inspector, why inspections aren't happening in business hours and see what the reasons are.

But the original post was expressing privacy concerns in the private areas of the home, and the agency is absolutely entitled to look in these rooms.