bodgerx

My wife has a successful OfSTED registered child care business from home here in the UK. We were talking about jobs in Canada recently and she would like to setup as a childminder/carer over there when/if we eventually get PR status.

Specifically, we are thinking about Ontario or Nova Scotia.

Does anybody have any experiences of home-based child care on the forum in Canada? Views from both sides of the fence (carer/parent) welcome.

Specifically:

- Is home-based child-care as popular as it is in the UK?
- How difficult was the permit/registration process?
- Required qualifications etc.
- Is/was it a viable business (difficulty in attracting parents)?

There doesn't appear to be that much information available on this. Googling around I found this on Ontario/Hamilton... http://www.cafcc.on.ca/

We were talking to my sister-in-law who lives in the US recently and she hadn't really heard of anyone offering this kind of service - day-care centers being the norm. If this is the case, she might be interested in running a full day-care centre from a dedicated premises (licensing and qualifications permitting).

Things obviously differ province to province...any sensible/constructive comments welcome.

nikki dreaming

Hi

Not sure if you have seen this but here is a link to the wiki which covers childcare in NS. I think the bulk of this info was provided from a recent thread written by a BE member who has set up a day care facility over there.

Sorry if you have already seen it, thought it covers quite a good bit of info.

I use home based childcare here in the UK and I would like to try and find this in NS myself as I find it offers me as a working mum far greater flexibility.

Good luck

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Childcare_in_Nova_Scotia

val50

Home based child care seems very popular in NS. We have 2 houses in our road in Bedford that offer child care.
Don't know if you've seen these websites:
http://www.cccns.org/resources.html
http://www.cccns.org/NSCCA/home.html
this thread on BE also has lots of info
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=528869

bodgerx

Nope, missed that. Thank you very much.

bodgerx

Cheers for that. Excellent links.

JLT

Hi there

Recently I was working for the head office of a large childcare franchise across Canada and the US where we recently spread our wings. Check them out as they will give you tremendous support or you could even purchase a franchise from them which would enable you to develop the business as overseeing childcare professionals registered under your area of the business working in their own homes. Just an option for youy to consider
www.weewatch.com . Best of luck with it.

dbd33

I lived for years with a daycare worker. She eventually packed it in because the regulations in Ontario changed and an ECE was required (specifically I believe the rule is 1 ECE qualified person per n children, not everyone working in the daycare needs to have an ECE). Since getting the ECE required going to college for two years and she'd had fifteen years of childcare she chose to go to college and take something else.

Mrs Miggins

ECE is also required here in Alberta, but there is still a huge demand on places, although nowhere near as much as Ontario. I would recommend contacting a college that offers the ECE program, speaking to the head of the program and getting their view point, after all they will be totally up to date with both regulations and real obstacles that face employers in the field of day care in Ontario. I am sure they would be happy to talk to you, as they will always need practicum places for their students and have to build rapport with potential placements...........

Just an idea.

Mrs M x

JLT

Absolutely correct. If you work as a provider at home not in in a daycare centre there is not a need for the ECE although it looks more attractive to the parents on interview with you.

If working with an agency like WW then they have support people who all have their ECE's therefore you are able to override the local licensing regulations. Of course there are benefits to both scenarios i.e. working with the agency you are accountable to their rules & regs and also receiving added bonus cheque from the government each quarter , plus supplied equipment & support in every way even legal if needed, or simply be your own boss . Ratio is 1 to 5 children in your home of those 5 only 3 under 3 of those 3 only 2 under 2 those are the York Region Childcare regulations. Of course private daycare at home people take far more children but officially this is not allowed. A rough guide on earnings would be approx $140 each full time child in care through the Agency, so around $700 per week. Private maybe $200 each child just have to weigh up the pro's and cons. Good luck in your choice.