Calls continue for the province to do more to address a workforce crisis in child care

Childcare may be getting cheaper but the waitlists are also growing longer and experts say the province needs to do more to address a growing workforce crisis in child care or risk the success of its $10/day daycare deal with the federal government.

“It used to be that we would put up job a posting for early childhood educators and we would have hundreds of applications–but that’s no longer the case,” said Lori Prospero, chief executive officer (CEO) of RisingOaks Early Learning Ontario.

More often now, Prospero said job postings tend to result in applications from as few as three or four qualified candidates.

Speaking on The Mike Farwell Show on Tuesday, she said the province has managed to add around 5,200 early childhood educators to its workforce over the past couple years but, at the same time, around 3,500 also left.

“So the workforce crisis is real and it’s having a significant impact on our ability to provide high-quality early learning and care for our children,” she said.

Workers feel undervalued

At the heart of the problem, according to Prospero, is a sense among many early childhood educators the services they provide aren’t properly recognized and valued.

“We often think of early childhood education as [simply] that care component, and certainly it’s needed because of the age of the children we serve, but there’s so much learning and richness that happens in the care and in the education that’s provided,” Prospero said.

“Brain development happens, 90 per cent [of it], between birth to age five,” she added. “So it’s a significant opportunity to really make a difference in the longer-term outcomes for children when we have high-quality early learning and care.”

Propsero said it’s an issue her Kitchener-based child care centres are now looking to tackle with a new strategy of their own, focusing on what she claims are three key areas: leadership development, workplace wellness, and a human resources growth plan.

She said the first is aimed at increasing leadership capacity while the second focuses on things like how the pandemic and current conditions are impacting overall wellbeing, engagement, culture, performance, and more.

“And then, if we think about expansion under the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) program, we know that we can’t expand without being able to meet the number of early childhood educators that are required,” said Prospero.

She said that’s where the HR growth plan comes into play.

“How can we bridge the gap of that demand and supply issue–what kind of compensation do we need to have in this field to really make a difference and to be able to not only attract and retain early childhood educators but to retain them going forward.”

Provincial wage floor not enough

In that vein, Prospero said the current provincial wage floor of $19/hour is not nearly enough to draw people into a potential career as an early childhood educator let alone keep people already on the job from leaving.

“Because we know that early childhood educators across Ontario, at about year three in the field, they start to leave… in droves,” she said. “That’s something we need to be aware of and tackle.”

Prospero said she’s advocating the province raise the minimum wage for all child care workers to between $25-30/hour, while registered early childhood educators should be compensated between $30-40/hour.

“With a grid that has steps involved, that recognizes experience, different types of education, as well as seniority and years of service,” she added.

Ministry mum on supposed new action

It was revealed in June the province had drafted, but not yet released, a new child care workforce strategy based on consultations conducted earlier in the year with dozens of groups, including advocates, experts, operators, and more.

Nearly two months later, however, and details of that new provincial strategy remain under wraps.

“We heard a number of weeks ago that the ministry was looking to boost wages of early childhood educators but, since then, there’s been no details–nothing’s been shared,” said Prospero.

She said she and other industry insiders have continued to reach out to the province for more information, but also to the federal government.

“Until we can attract and retain more early childhood educators, we’re never going to be able to deliver on the promise of building new spaces,” she said. “We need to grow those spaces at a much faster rate and the only way to do that is to actually increase the number of early childhood educators to staff them.”

“So, until the government steps up and actually addresses the working conditions and the wages, unfortunately we’re not in a position to actually expand.”