“My childcare centre is committed to decent work practices in ways that I haven’t seen often in our sector. We are paid well, have good health benefits, 12 sick days/year, vacation… all things that I personally consider to be the bare minimum to keep staff healthy and happy. The cherry on top is that we have daily paid planning time with our room partners and we are also “over staffed”, at least by ministry standards… which should also be part of standard practices in childcare, but as most RECEs and childcare workers know, the reality is very different.
I’ve felt the consequences of these practices in many ways. I currently work in the preschool program and before covid, we had 16 children with 4 staff (3 RECES, 1 assistant). That meant no one needed to come cover our breaks (more consistency for the children) and we were able to divide and conquer the enormous amount of paperwork that comes with childcare. When we first re-opened after the pandemic closure, we kept our cohort at 10 for the summer, which meant it was me, one of my colleagues and 8 children. Those 2 months were hard on us. There were all the changes to what we could/could not do with children, the worries that come with providing childcare during a pandemic, and not having extra staff or planning time was hard.
When the new school year started, it was decided that we would still have 4 staff (now 2 RECEs and 2 assistants) but only 12 children. Our shifts and breaks were changed to ensure we had 3 staff in the room most of the time and that myself and my fellow RECE still had planning time everyday. Our covid summer was hard, yes. But it was also a learning experience. We learned how to adapt our practice to minimize cross-contamination, we shuffled our environment and our program to promote physical distancing in developmentally appropriate ways. We’ve had just over a month with the new children and I can say confidently we’re doing amazing work.
The lower numbers have allowed us to get to know our children better, give them lots of 1-on-1 attention, make them feel welcome and make the transition into the new program easier and smoother. Planning time has allowed me and my partner to develop a closer relationship, work on our communication with each other, build on each other’s strengths and actually divide the workload so we don’t feel as burnt out. Childcare is a hard job on one’s mental and emotional health, now more than ever, but I definitely feel like these measures have helped us cope better with the stress and pressure. The biggest tell is how happy our children are. Our transitions are mostly smooth (I mean, they are children… big feelings are expected) and we’re focusing on uninterrupted free play, outdoor time and going with the flow. It’s still weird and uncomfortable to wear PPE and it’s hard to understand the children when their masks are on, but we’re doing it.
Our experience shows that investing in decent work practices for educators and childcare staff have a direct impact on children’s experiences. I love being an educator and I wish all educators in our province had the opportunity to work decent jobs and feel valued by their community. Children and families need high quality childcare and educators deserve to work decent jobs. The future is still uncertain – we don’t know how viable our program is going to be when CEWS ends or if we will go through another closure. We don’t know much, but we do know decent work and high quality childcare are possible with the appropriate funding and support.
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Patricia’s story is important – many ECEs experience decent work and professional pay, and feel valued and honoured in their communities. But, not all educators have access to these conditions. This is why our current system needs to change. Every educator deserves decent work. Every child and family deserves access to high quality programs.
Instead of addressing these issues with immediate action and investment towards building a publicly-funded child care system which ensures decent work for all educators, the regulatory changes Ontario proposed on Friday (to ratio/group sizes, staff qualifications, and others) undermine our sector and our profession. We all deserve better.
Share your story. Sign the petition. Rise up for child care. https://www.childcareontario.org/risingup