What's happening at CRRU?
In the coming days CRRU will be releasing the first of seven papers from our new series Moving from private to public processes: A series on creating child care in Canada (2022). The series includes an overview and seven short topical papers covering key aspects of designing effective child care expansion strategies in Canada. The series is based on a longer CRRU publication Moving from private to public processes to create child care in Canada (2020), and has been revised and re-developed in a more accessible series format to reflect current Canada-wide ELCC policy developments.
The CRRU office is temporarily closed to ensure the health and safety of its staff. The CRRU team can be reached at contactus@childcarecanada.org
Featured
Is financialisation putting childcare provision in England at risk?
Nursery World, 27 January 2022
and
Acquisitions, mergers and debt: The new language of childcare
UCL Social Research Institute, 27 January 2022
This UK study charts the changes in childcare provision over the past 20 years. In particular the study looks at: (1) the market reach of the private sector, (2) extent to which the sector recognizes questions of social impact and accountability, (3) financial structure and practices of medium to large child care companies, (4) location of private and public child care provision in relation to indices of deprivation; (5) accounts of frontline child care managers about access of provision to vulnerable families and the involvement of staff and parents in nursery policy making. Amongst several key findings, the authors find that the private-for-profit childcare company sector is characterized by acquisitions and mergers and indebtedness and that borrowing for acquisitions has not contributed to a growth of child care spaces.
Related news release:
Nursery sector risks being damaged by large corporate takeovers
University College London - News, 27 January 2021
Can national, affordable child care help end the pandemic's she-cession?
Big Story Podcast - CityNews Toronto, 26 January 2022
Ontario still hasn’t shown how it would spend child-care funding, federal minister says
Global News, 27 January 2022
Research, policy and practice
Armine is wrong about Doug Ford
Childcarepolicy.net, 30 January 2022
In this paper, Gordon Cleveland responds to a recent Toronto Star column and provides and analysis into how the current proposed federal funds are enough to take steps in making Ontario making child care both affordable and accessible in the next five years. Cleveland estimates that the net cost of lowering fees on existing spaces to $10 a day will be just over $1.5 Billion, but over the next five years, offering existing child care spaces at $10 a day will ‘spend’ only about one-half of the cumulative total of $10.2 billion that Ontario will receive from the federal government over that time. Cleveland’s analysis suggests that the federal government is offering provincial/territorial and Indigenous governments enough money to go a long way towards building an affordable, accessible Canada-wide child care system.
La difficile naissance des CPE
Le Devoir, 29 January 2022
Following the release of the Cabinet's deliberation minutes, former Minister of Education Pauline Marois unveils the trials and tribulations associated with the conception and development of Quebec's 25-year-old universal child care policy.
How stable is program quality in child care centre classrooms?
International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy, 28 October 2021
In this paper, the authors examine the stability of quality in over 1000 rooms in licensed child care centres in Toronto. Analyses reveals that substantial instability of quality is evident across all types of ECEC centres, however, publicly operated centres were somewhat more stable and tended to have higher quality scores. The authors also find substantial variance between rooms within ECEC centres. It is important to note that none of the structural, child/family and neighbourhood characteristics examined were significantly related to stability of quality ratings. Large quality variance within rooms in centres suggest that all rooms within a centre should be assessed individually. The authors recommend that room level scores should be publicly posted as part of accountability systems and that future research should include and explore how factors such as educator training, participation in program planning, reflective practices and ongoing learning might improve stability of quality over time.
The impacts of COVID-19 on early childhood education: Capturing the unique challenges associated with remote teaching and learning in K-2
Early Childhood Education Journal, 14 May 2021
This research aims to capture the challenges and unanticipated successes associated with remote teaching and learning in Ontario early learning contexts, and to utilize findings to provide recommendations for remote learning as well as strategies for supporting in-person learning in the COVID-19 era (and post COVID-19 era). Data collection involved semi-structured interviews with K-2 teachers and parents in Ontario. Analysis revealed five themes: equity considerations, synchronous versus asynchronous teaching and learning, social and emotional effects on students, academic impacts, and effects on parents/families.
Global gender gap report 2021
World Economic Forum, 31 March 2021
The 2021 Global Gender Gap report highlights that the COVID-19 pandemic has raised new barriers to building inclusive and prosperous economies and societies and that pre-existing gender gaps amplify the crisis between men and women. Because women have been at the frontlines of managing the pandemic as essential workers and in sectors hardest hit by lockdowns and rapid digitalization, the report suggests that gender-sensitive recovery strategies will be critical in making up ground lost during 2020. To prevent long-term scarring in the labour market, leaders have an opportunity to build more resilient and gender-equal economies by investing in inclusive workplaces, creating more equitable care systems, advancing women’s rise to leadership positions, applying a gender lens to reskilling and redeployment and embedding gender parity into the future of work.
The introduction of formal childcare services in Inuit communities and labor force outcomes
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, 27 March 2019
This paper looks at the impacts of the introduction of formal child care services to 28 Inuit communities in Canada’s North. The authors use geographical variation in the timing of the introduction of childcare services in the late 1990s and early 2000s to estimate the impact of increased access to childcare. Findings suggest impacts on female labour force participation driven by multi-adult households in Quebec and possible improvements in high school graduation rates and increased participation of men in child care. The authors do not find evidence that formal childcare decreases the ability of children to speak Inuktitut and suggest plausible explanations for these findings and avenues for future research.
Child care in the news
CA: Provinces transition to publicly-funded child care with new agreements
CUPE, 26 January 2022
CA: What governments in Canada are doing and not doing to protect staff and children in child care centres
Child Care Now, 26 January 2022
CA: Curse of politics: Pre-postmortem (Hey You)
The Herle Burly Political Panel, 25 January 20222
NS: Consultation with owners of privately owned centres and non-profit staff required for successful roll-out of Nova Scotia’s universal child care system
CUPE Nova Scotia, 25 January 2022
NS: Nova Scotia is right to revamp patchwork child-care system
SaltWire, 26 January 2022
ON: Deal to reduce cost of childcare in Ontario is 'within reach,' education minister says
CTV News, 31 January 2022
ON: Union Hall: Week 22 with Carolyn Ferns and Athina Basiliadis
New Left Radio - CUPE Ontario, 27 January 2022
ON: Child care safety: 50 experts and organizations send letter to premier Ford including Sudbury Daycare
CTV News, 30 January 2022
ON: Ontario child-care operators and staff call for access to PCR testing, more HEPA filters
CTV News, 26 January 2022
AB: Alberta parents concerned over COVID-19 in childcare centers
City News Edmonton, 26 January 2022
BC: Rapid tests being delivered to support B.C. child care providers
Government of British Columbia, 26 January 2022
YT: Worker feels 'very vulnerable' as Yukon vaccine mandate doesn't apply to daycare workers
CBC News, 27 January 2022
ITL: Ending child poverty is a policy choice
UNICEF, 21 December 2021
Survey - request for participants
Manitoba ELCC COVID reporting survey
A team of six researchers from the University of Manitoba have come together to initiate a weekly ELCC survey to track illness, isolation, and facility/cohort closures through the omicron wave in child care programs across Manitoba. The researchers are asking interested facilities in Manitoba to fill out a weekly survey between Tuesday and Thursday. The survey is open to child care centres and home daycares, licensed and unlicensed facilities. To try and avoid duplicate entries please assign one person from a facility to fill it out. Results are available to the public and will be posted each Friday.
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