Licensed private home daycare

[kassiemom]

Hey
In ontario can a private home daycare provider be licensed with the ministry if they are not with an agency? and where can i find this information?

[BlueRose]

NO in Ontario a private home daycare can not be licensed through the ministry. They have to join a licenced home daycare agency. It is the agency that holds the licence NOT the provider or her home daycare.

[babydom]

What blue rose said. Answer is no

[kassiemom]

is this something they were fighting for in Bill 10?

[cfred]

CICPO was fighting for it for a couple years. We even had several meetings with the Ministry of Education, agency reps, licensing reps, municipalities, etc. We were not able to secure independent licensing directly through the ministry. They cited cost as the main issue: They would be forced to pay even more inspectors for our oversight. Safe to say that the Liberal Government will never offer licensing. We were, however, successful in selling them our Cooperative idea which is, for the moment, on the back burner as we focus on other, more pressing things. The Ministry lifted the cap of 1 home visitor to every 25 agency providers, which was the key clause we were looking to change once licensing was squashed. This means that an agency has the freedom now to offer different models with varying degrees of oversight at less cost. Whether or not they will take advantage of that, we can't say, but it's possible now. We did hear of Compass coming out with more a more financially attractive model, but I wouldn't hold my hopes up too high for anything from Andrew Fleck. Their rep was not terribly receptive to the idea, lol. Sooooo, the point is, if cost is the issue, keep an ear to the ground as things may be changing in the agency arena.

The biggest fight right now is making sure that independent providers are considered in childcare issues at the federal level, which is what we're starting to campaign for currently. We're moving toward a national framework and should be included in those discussions if we wish to remain viable.

[Peacefulbird]

Hi I new at this. But I must say I'm happy to be part of this forum. About agencies and Icp's friendly packages. I found a good one here in Ottawa. My fees are $225 a month. Obviously not like Compass but at least more affordable in comparison to Andrew Fleck's rate. I'm very happy with their service. It is a partnership. My friendly Icps package comes with other benefits as well.

[cfred]

Hi Peacefulbird! Do you mind if I ask what agency you're with? During the meetings, we had Andrew Fleck, Today's Family, Compass and a couple others whose names escape me. The best offering I saw was from Compass, which I heard about from an ICP on FB who'd been waffling back and forth on the agency issue, panicking over Bill 10. I think she is paying $100/mo which is damn good from an agency. So far as I understand, they were still sending monthly visitors, so they must have been doing it at a loss which, to me, speaks volumes. I liked that rep quite a lot...she also apologized directly to us for maligning ICPs publicly. I nearly cried $225 is much better as well. Would you be willing to describe your package/terms? We'd be very interested to hear what progress has been made since our last meeting in Spring and the direction agencies are moving in.

[Peacefulbird]

Yes absolutely I can describe it. I'm just in the process of writing a letter to ccprn to be published with all the details.

[cfred]

Oh? CCPRN is awesome! We attended the Ministry meetings with in alliance with Brenda and Doreen who were a lot of fun, quick on their feet and when necessary, had a very sharp tongue. We both presented on the same day as well. I thoroughly enjoyed working with and getting to know them. If you want to, you can forward the info to us at cicpoottawa@gmail.co m . I think the whole executive committee would be interested.

Thanks