Message from the Minister of State for Child Care and Accountability Statement
As Minister of State for Child Care, I am pleased to present and report on progress and achievements for 2005/06 related to
child care.
Child care is vital to meet the needs of thousands of B.C. families, and quality early childhood development contributes to a child's long term success in life. Child caregivers come in many forms — from grandparents to Early Childhood Educators, from family caregivers to teachers and parents themselves.
Ensuring that our children — our youngest citizens — have every opportunity to thrive is dependent on families, communities, and partner organizations working together. I am always heartened by the commitment of ministry staff, our service and community partners, and the strong start they give our children.
This government is committed to the development of a high quality, accessible and sustainable early learning and child care system that meets the needs of children and their families in all parts of the province.
By increasing families' choices in early childhood development, we support them to grow strong and resilient.
Child care plays a key role in contributing towards government's Five Great Goals and contributes to making B.C. the best-educated, most literate jurisdiction on the continent and supports healthy development for young children and their families through public awareness, services provided through child care centres and collaborative community-based strategies.
Significant progress has been made to provide B.C.'s families with a range of quality, accessible, affordable and safe child care options that meet their diverse needs and support healthy child development.
In 2005/06, we undertook a strategy of building a strong working relationship with the federal government — a collaborative approach — to achieve the best possible child care arrangement for B.C. families.
Child Care accomplishments during 2005/06 included:
- Enhanced the Child Care Subsidy program to support low and moderate income families to meet the costs of quality child care so that more families are eligible to receive subsidy and more families receive an increase in their existing subsidy.
- Increased access to quality child care spaces, with over 79,000 government funded licensed child care spaces in B.C. through the Child Care Operating Funding Program.
- Increased supports for eligible licensed group and family child care providers serving children under six to help meet the day to day costs of providing care, including staff recruitment and retention.
- Established six new Child Care Resource and Referral Programs in the province, bringing the total to 43 programs and two provincial agencies serving over 300 communities across the province. The new Child Care Resource and Referral Programs are in Courtenay, Gibsons, Elk Valley, Kitimat, North Peace and Walnut Grove and surrounding areas.
- Funding approval for approximately 1,500 new spaces under the Child Care Major Capital Program.
- Professional development for Early Childhood Educators and encouraging more people to enter the profession through bursaries to educational institutions.
Other accomplishments:
- Provided funding for the Provincial Atlas of Child Development, a community planning tool that maps the readiness to learn of B.C.'s children by school district, community and neighborhood. The Atlas was developed in partnership with the Human Early Learning Partnership, a consortium of four B.C. universities and ministry partners.
- Continued to implement initiatives such as the Early Development Instrument (measuring readiness to learn), community asset mapping and Success By 6®, that equip communities to make informed decisions about their communities and complement existing community services. There were 96 priority communities identified (based on work done with the Atlas).
- Piloted 10 Seeds of Empathy sites in communities across B.C., including four Aboriginal sites.
- Provided new supports for families of young children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder including new regional key worker services and new assessment, diagnosis, education and support services, in partnership with the Ministries of Health and Education.
I am the Minister of State for Child Care and, under the Balanced Budget and Ministerial Accountability Act, I am accountable for the following results:
- Produce a draft Family Friendly Workplace strategy and action plan for consultation and present it to the Provincial Child Care Council.
- With other ministers and as a member of the Canada Northwest Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Partnership, develop a plan for B.C.'s role in the promotion of research and evaluation in Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder prevention and support which is consistent with priorities identified in the provincial Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Strategic Plan, and present it to the Government Caucus Committee for Social Development.
- Develop a plan in collaboration with the Ministers of Advanced Education and Health to increase the number of skilled and qualified behavioural interventionists for children with autism in B.C. and present the plan to the Government Caucus Committee Social Development.
These strategies and plans were developed and presented to the Government Caucus Committee for Social Development, and implementation is ongoing.
Honourable Linda Reid
Minister of State for Child Care
June 30, 2006
