Ontario Caregivers - daycare announcement due today

[Fun&care]

Your agencies charge $10/day/child???? That's obscene.

In AB our agencies are funded by the gov't through child and family services; it's really the only reason it actually works. I pay them $70/month, and $40 of that is insurance. It basically works out to $10/child/month, and I only have 3 kids (not including my own). I believe the agency staff is paid by the government, with the agency fees mainly going to admin stuff. They also run 6 PD trainings a year.

We're limited to 6 including our own kids, 2 under 2, 3 under 3. It does result in a lot of 1 year olds without care, but we still have non-accredited day homes with no restrictions on ages. One of my neighbours runs one and she's got mainly under 2s.

We also have levels of accreditation based on education and experience, and the government pays top-up wages to providers with agencies, up to $6.62/hr of time you have kids in your home. We also get $2500 (meant to be spent on things for the program, but it's not monitored) after the completion of one year (for the first two years), and a bonus for returning to child care after being gone for some period of time - it didn't apply to me so I'm not sure what the time frame is. I need to do a lot of work (submit meal and program plans, have monthly visits, attend PD), but the extra money FAR outweighs the extra hour it takes me a week.

Bottom line is if the government it going to go ahead with such tight restrictions, they need to cough up some incentive programs. They're going to have A LOT of providers jumping ship as it just won't be financially beneficial or feasible at all. What happens to the economy when a significant number of parents need to quit because they can no longer find or afford childcare? Not a good situation.

I may have been misinformed about the 10$ per day but I did read in an article from I think the globe and mail that said agencies take up to 30% of your pay. I agree completely that they need to cough up some incentive programs and I mean ASAP, instead of working AGAINST us like we are the enemy or something.

There is absolutely NO support out there for us, we have to find our own support when starting up and in the duration of running our daycares and now out of the blue we are being SLAMMED... for what...instead of being offered help and much needed support and guidelines.

You always hear everywhere that kids are the most important thing in the world and that their first six years are the most important but they sure don't give a crap about the people who care for them.

[Artsand crafts]

I may have been misinformed about the 10$ per day but I did read in an article from I think the globe and mail that said agencies take up to 30% of your pay.

When I worked for Wee Watch they charged parents $42 (for under 3yo) and they paid me $30.

[cfred]

When I worked for Wee Watch they charged parents $42 (for under 3yo) and they paid me $30.

Yes. I looked into Wee Watch and Hopscotch. Both charged me about the same....for things I already have in place! They offered me insurance. When I indicated that I already had appropriate insurance, their retort was that I wasn't covered for sexual abuse charges. Ummmmm, excuse me??? Yes I am luv. Well, what about First Aid/CPR? Yep, got that too. Wait....training? Well, I figure my ECE diploma might cover that. Toys and equipment? Yeah, kinda got that covered in my first decade in the industry. All I needed was help getting clients when I first moved into a new area. Turned out I didn't need them and now am turning people away. Their fees are outrageous and not remotely justified! And anything I've heard about their service isn't great. I've interviewed people who said my daycare was far superior to anything they saw through either of those two agencies. They indicated that it was just someone's living room with a few toys. I'm trying to understand how this is better....aside from the inspections.

Can you get licensed here without an agency? Is it even possible? I'd rather do that than go with them.

[Artsand crafts]

Yes. I looked into Wee Watch and Hopscotch. Both charged me about the same....for things I already have in place! They offered me insurance. When I indicated that I already had appropriate insurance, their retort was that I wasn't covered for sexual abuse charges. Ummmmm, excuse me??? Yes I am luv. Well, what about First Aid/CPR? Yep, got that too. Wait....training? Well, I figure my ECE diploma might cover that. Toys and equipment? Yeah, kinda got that covered in my first decade in the industry. All I needed was help getting clients when I first moved into a new area. Turned out I didn't need them and now am turning people away. Their fees are outrageous and not remotely justified! And anything I've heard about their service isn't great. I've interviewed people who said my daycare was far superior to anything they saw through either of those two agencies. They indicated that it was just someone's living room with a few toys. I'm trying to understand how this is better....aside from the inspections.

Can you get licensed here without an agency? Is it even possible? I'd rather do that than go with them.

Wee watch does not even offer home daycare insurance anymore. The "equipment" they lend (limited amount of gates, playpens, highchairs) anybody could get at a fraction of the price at Kijiji.

A client quit on me, because she needed to use back up care occasionally (for personal reasons on my side) when I worked for Wee Watch (they accommodate kids in other home daycare when a provider is not available). She told me she could not send her kid to those places, not even occasionally, because of the poor quality of care. So she ended up hiring a nanny.

My "training" was someone reviewing some parts of the manual they left with me. Nothing that is worth to be called "training" really

Inspections were just a lady asking what I did with the kids for the past month so she could fill out a form to be given to the parents. No safety inspections, the only safety inspection they did was pushing the button of the fire alarm almost every time they came.