Progress Childcare ending infant care program

Progress Childcare ending infant care program

News

By: Sandra Bolan

The infant care program at Bradford Progress Childcare Centres will be eliminated as of the new year.

“It’s largely due to funding,” Progress Childcare executive director Deborah Herrington said. “It’s very expensive to run the infant care program because the staff-to-child ratio is quite high.”

The infant care program, which is for children aged six months to 18 months, has a 1:3 staff-to-child ratio and Progress is licensed for 10 infants.

“Any infant program, anywhere, never covers its costs,” Ms Herrington said, noting the other program fees make up the difference.

By comparison, the toddler program at Progress has a 1:5 staff-to-child ratio, the preschool ratio is 1:8 and the kindergarten and school-age programs are 1:10.

When the infant care program ends its run, parents of the 10 children currently enrolled in the program and those on the waiting list will have to find alternative child care, but that’s easier said than done.

“There aren’t any other infant programs in Bradford,” Ms Herrington said. “It’s really heartbreaking because it’s a service that’s needed.”

Throughout the year, the collapse of the infant care program seemed inevitable, as the centre lost $3,000 in staff funding from the province and increased its fees twice, which is something it had never done before.

In a last-ditch effort to save the program, members of Progress Childcare’s executive made a deputation to council last week requesting financial assistance.

“I find it hard to believe that the city of Bradford provides zero financial support to the only day-care centre that is offered in Bradford,” Denise Ferreira said. Ms Ferreira has two children at Progress, including one in the infant care program.

“If you do not support and care about the child care crisis here in Bradford, then we will never fix this problem,” Ms Ferreira said. “More and more parents will be forced to stay home and quit their jobs, which means less family income and less economic gain for Bradford.”

While council was sympathetic to the centre’s plight, some councillors noted it is a national crisis.

“We face enormous budgetary constraints,” Mayor Doug White said.

However, that didn’t mean council was unwilling to examine how it could help Progress. Town staff were directed to prepare a report on the town’s options.
“The only hope, honestly, would be some financial support from somewhere to keep (the infant care program) up and running,” Ms Herrington said.

Child care alternatives

With the closing of the infant care program, parents are left scrambling for alternative child care services, but those services appear to be few and far between.

“We searched for approximately nine months before we could find suitable day care,” Corey McArthur, a parent with children at Progress and a member of the centre’s board, said.

There are currently three homes in Bradford licensed by Simcoe County’s family home day-care program. However, those spots are only available to families who have applied for a fee subsidy.

For families who don’t qualify for those 15 spaces, the unlicensed sector is the only other option.

“A lot of home care providers do have knowledge of childhood development,” Ms Herrington noted.

What to look for

“Really spend time looking; spend lots of time at the prospective caregiver’s house,” Ms Herrington said, adding when you book a visit, you shouldn’t give the caregiver a specific time, but a broad timeframe for your arrival, so you see the house as it really is, not set up to look perfect.

When at a prospective caregiver’s home, look at and ask about the food served to the children, look at the home’s cleanliness and ask what the children do all day, if the caregiver is trained in CPR and if the caregiver has a plan for emergencies. You also need to know about the caregiver’s policy regarding children with the sniffles.

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