WHEN MOM MUST WORK:
FAMILY DAY CARE AS A WELFARE-TO-WORK OPTION

5.0 Policy/Program Options

A human resources approach is required to make family day care a successful welfare-to-work transition, offering both sustainable employment and quality child care. The following sets out policy and program options that meet these goals.

Child Care Policy Options

Under current conditions the child care sector provides limited opportunities for experiments in welfare reform. However with public investment the sector holds tremendous labour market development potential. To produce viable employment opportunities, yielding quality care, substantial investment is required. A Canada-wide system of child care and development could be a national project within the current federal/provincial/territorial discussions of a National Children's Agenda

Quebec has provided a large-scale model placing home child care within a comprehensive child care and development system which will simultaneously expand employment opportunities and address the growing demand for child care. Commendable strides have been made in a short time frame, however, expansion of the service has been hampered by the low earnings and poor working conditions in the field. This points to the imperative need for programs to address these issues.

On a smaller scale sustainable employment and quality care in family child care could also be developed on an incremental project basis, as illustrated in the New York, and to a lesser extent the Manitoba, pilot projects. Existing child care centres and training programs can be used creatively and effectively as the Windsor and Boston models illustrate. Any of these initiatives could be expanded or modified to local needs as demonstration projects.

Whatever the size of the initiatives options should address issues around training and education requirements and support to caregivers.

• Develop family child care projects that test models of employment including ones that offer providers: employee status and/or protections; adequate earnings and benefits (i.e. health, dental, optical, vacation, illness, disability, pension); adequate and reasonable hours; and job security.
  
  
• Develop projects that test other models of remuneration. These might include designated operating grants for food, programs and supplies and payment schedules that are determined by factors other than the age of the child.
  
  
• Develop training and education programs designed to promote quality care, ensuring these programs are accessible to recipients who freely chose and are personally suited to the field. As a minimum, programs recruiting recipients to work in family day care should include:
  
  
  
  • a screening process including criminal and health screening of the applicant and other members of the household;
    
    
  • a literacy and numeracy assessment;
    
    
  • an orientation providing a frank overview of the demands and limitations of the field and assistance in developing realistic expectations for the future as a child care professional.
    
  
  
• Training and education programs must address the requirements of child care work as well as the needs of recipients. Training programs should provide:
  
  
  
  • stipends to cover additional costs associated with training i.e. transportation, school supplies, etc.;
    
    
  • access to quality care for their own children;
    
    
  • basic math and language skills and/or preparation for high school completion or secondary education;
    
    
  • training in the appropriate official language to convey at least emergency communication competency;
    
    
  • knowledge of child development; curriculum development and teaching methods;
    
    
  • content appropriate to the developmental needs of the children served i.e. children with special needs, infants, toddlers, pre-school and school age;
    
    
  • training to appropriately serve a multi-cultural community;
    
    
  • training in communication skills with parents and other adults;
    
    
  • information on licensing requirements; how to access system and community supports and small business skills;
    
    
  • a combination of both in class and significant practicum experience under qualified supervision;
    
    
  • a credential that can be applied to further college-level study or job advancement.
    
  
  
• Working conditions and ongoing support once the provider is in the field including:
  
  
  
  • financial and technical assistance to upgrade homes to meet safety and quality standards; and to purchase or access equipment and supplies;
    
    
  • continued access to training;
    
    
  • economic rewards, through differential pay scales linked to levels of training and type of service provided;
    
    
  • access to extended health benefits for themselves and their families;
    
    
  • ongoing mentoring by experienced providers; or other formal peer support and assistance.
    
  
  
• Develop the capacity of family day care agencies and family resource programs to extend information and activities related to the early development of children into the community, to assist caregivers and parents, and to promote the development of support networks.
  
  
• Involve and build partnerships with community leaders, programs and local systems of child care in the development and implementation of local plans for the expansion of licensed quality child care and employment opportunities in regulated family child care.
  
  
• Ensure there is a market for the providers' services by supporting the capacity of the parents to access quality care options for their children. Subsidy availability for parents, or low cost care as in Quebec, were essential factors contributing to the success of the models that produced sustainable employment and quality care.
  

Welfare Policy Options

The development and operation of child care programs is generally outside of the expertise of welfare departments. Nor should preparation for employment in the occupation of child care be any different for recipients than for anyone else. However, systems of welfare do have a more constructive role to play in the development of human resources.

The workfare approach ought to be abandoned outright. Reforms should; ensure a modest but reasonable minimum income; address barriers to transitions to self-sufficiency; reward work effort and support risk-taking in the labour market; follow best practices in welfare-to-work programs; invest in early childhood development; provide access to longer term opportunities for skill development; and address stigma and negative public misconceptions about welfare receipt.

It is unknown how many recipients are engaged in self-employment in home child care. However, welfare departments may be uniquely situated to reach out to providers and assist them with developing longer-term career paths into formal child care occupations.

• Poverty depletes social and human capital. Increase welfare benefit rates and index them against inflation.
  
  
• Extend basic drug, optical and dental benefits on a time-limited basis to recipients who exit welfare for work. Develop provincial programs outside of welfare to extend basic benefits to lower income earners.
  
  
• Develop more generous earnings exemptions so recipients keep more earnings.
  
  
• Simplify welfare rules, particularly around self-employment, and work toward common provincial policies.
  
  
• Ensure welfare-to-work programs are voluntary; have adequate resources and provide recipients with supports; provide an early, accurate and mutual assessment of needs; provide multiple options - including those that are longer-term; and are evaluated.
  
  
• Make post-secondary levels of training and education such as early childhood education an option in welfare-to-work programs and develop appropriate supports.
  
  
• Take a stand against welfare bashing, and provide the public with accurate information regarding the welfare system and recipients.
  
  
• Develop outreach strategies to recipients who provide informal family childcare to assist if the recipient so chooses in developing career plans that include training and education and would bring them into the formal, licensed sector.
  

Related Income Security, Education and Labour Market Policy Options:

Neither the child care sector nor systems of social assistance operate in isolation. The human resource approach actively involves and invests in other systems to provide social protection, support families and children, and develop skills and the labour market.

• Employment Insurance, not welfare, should be the first line of defence against disruptions in earnings. EI should be expanded to provide more adequate levels of earnings replacement and broader income protection against current employment risks and realities, including: longer unemployment; part-time employment; intermittent employment, and self-employment; and, maternity and parental leave.
  
  
• Recognise the additional income needs of families with children, and prevent disruptions in earnings because of family related events. Increase child income benefits (e.g. up to $4,000 per child) and end the clawback of the child benefit supplement from welfare. Develop a system of assured child support. Develop income alternatives to welfare for single parents with very young children.
  
  
• Raise the basic wage floor through a series of increases to provincial minimum wages to assure earnings above the poverty line. Index minimum wages so they are adjusted regularly (e.g. to the CPI) and don't erode in value.
  
  
• Develop earned income supplements as a complement to (not substitute for) an adequate wage floor. Ensure ease of access both in terms of earnings thresholds and administration.
  
  
• Make employment and wage provisions under provincial labour codes fully applicable to in-home caregivers.
  
  
• Extend basic drug, optical and dental benefits to lower income earners.
  
  
• The growing personal responsibility for the costs of tuition and attendance in training and education programs is a barrier for recipients and for low-income earners. Develop outreach strategies, financial and child care supports to make appropriate training and education affordable and accessible for recipients and low-income earners, including post-secondary programs for occupations like early childhood education.