Press Room

Attracting and Keeping Staff
by Elaine Ferguson

There is a major crisis in child care — finding and keeping qualified staff. In Nova Scotia, Child Care Connections’ environmental scan identified five root causes of our retention and recruitment crisis.

Training
. low enrollments caused by raising tuition;
. professional grants no longer available;
. training programs less attractive to high school students looking at career options;
. lack of accurate and attractive information about the requirements of training programs and about the rewards of a career in early childhood education;
. increased complexity of early childhood studies curricula has stretched training programs – for example, demand for specialized training (infants, school-age, special needs) impacts the core level.

Policy
. lack of clear vision on the role and goals of early childhood care — the foundation of good policy;
. policy focused on targeted "at-risk" populations;
. policy does not acknowledge that early childhood care contributes to the growth and development of all children.

Profession
. no professional association to provide a public presence for child care;
. no professional association results in no career structure, salary scale or focal point for child care practitioners.

Work Place
. low wages and minimum benefits are acknowledged contributors to the difficulties of attracting and keeping qualified early childhood care centre staff, a result of the financial fragility of early childhood care centres;
. parent fees are the primary source of income and variable enrollments which compound centres’ financial vulnerability;
. working conditions and the nature of the work expected affect job satisfaction. Expectations are increasing but salaries and benefits are not;
. increased numbers of children with special needs;
. increased amounts of multi-tasking and unpaid work time;
. increased workloads and higher stress resulting from staff turnovers and growing numbers of part-time children.

Social Attitudes
. low status and lack of respect given to early childhood care practitioners;
. low value placed on both children and women's work as caregivers;
. raising children perceived as a private family affair.
These overall attitudes must be acknowledged and addressed if attitudes toward early childhood care practitioners are to change.

Quebec
In the province of Quebec, the current major personnel problem is getting enough people trained to meet the exponential growth the child care sector is now experiencing. I spoke with Francine Labrie, a fellow CCCF board member, about the Quebec situation and about the way many of the factors we identified were addressed in her province.

? Child care is recognized as an essential service, and the government supports this in its family policy and other policies, each centre de la petite enfance (CPE) is independent and managed by a board of parents.

? Child care is supported as a public priority with $5 per day universal child care. [The crisis in Quebec is not enough spaces or trained personnel to meet demand.]

? Institutions that train child care practitioners are supported and training is accessible. Cégep training is free. Under certain conditions, professional development is free to workers with three years of experience.

? Although child care workers do not have parity with public sector workers, they do receive a fair wage. These increases in salary and the fact that two thirds of staff must have a diploma are the result of government recognition and policy.

. Higher wages mean that child care practitioners are recognized as professionals. Most importantly, they consider themselves and the students to be professionals.

Advocacy
The results of our environmental scan were presented to Nova Scotia's Minister of Community Services in August 2000. On the basis of our work, retention and recruitment were identified as a priority for decisions on allocation of the Early Childhood Development Agreement money. Our scan was reinforced by the results of the You Bet I Care! (2000) study. As well, the focus of our Parade of Promises Proposal was how the ECD money should be spent.

In May 2001, Nova Scotia’s Our Children: Today's Investment, Tomorrow's Promise was released, outlining a vision for its early childhood development services. Within this vision, stabilization of the child care delivery system is one of three priority areas. this recognizes the important role that child care plays in early child development services systems. Our voices were heard and some of our concerns were addressed. Some have yet to be addressed.

The challenge of retention and recruitment of qualified early childhood care staff is a complex issue caused by the interaction of many factors, each factor having an impact on other factors. What, on the surface, may seem a simple problem is quite complicated,. A closer look reveals systemic barriers that hinder the early childhood care sector from taking its rightful place as an essential public service. This project has taken us further along in our journey towards recognition. It has provided insight into what we can do and what needs to be done to address the retention and recruitment crisis, and to confront the systemic barriers that those who provide early childhood care and education face.

Elaine Ferguson, MA, is executive director of Child Care Connections-Nova Scotia, a community-based development organization for child care in Nova Scotia. She was a founding member of the CCCF and is currently serving as a CCCF board member.