Home Child Care Support Services
Provincial Accreditation Initiative
The Elora Partnership, a consortium of licensed home child care agencies in the province of Ontario, has been working since 1999 to explore issues and think creatively about home child care. In 2002, the Partnership was funded to pursue the development of an Accreditation system for home child care providers. This is the first time in Canada "Accreditation" is being considered in home child care.
Since that time, an international literature review on Accreditation has been completed, various partnerships have been in development and project sites have been chosen for demonstration purposes. At this stage, five cities will be involved including Ottawa, Toronto, Mississauga, Hamilton and Waterloo.
Countries all over the world are concerned about quality in child care settings and many are now pursuing quality assurance programs such as Accreditation of individuals or of centres in order to promote improved care and education. Recently, both Australia and England launched Accreditation initiatives. The United States has a provider Accreditation system operated through the National Association of Family Child Care. This was developed under the leadership of Dr. Kathy Modigliani of Boston in the 1990s.
Other provinces are interested in Ontario's leadership in this project and we hope to successfully share our learning with them as we go.
Accreditation can be a wonderful signal to parents that their child care provider is committed and has expertise beyond the minimum in Ontario.
Today's Family in Hamilton is part of The Elora Partnership and is also one of the five pilot sites for this project. This is what local home child care practitioners participating in the process have to say about their involvement in this exciting Initiative!