Agenda Index City of Vancouver

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

TO:

Standing Committee on City Services and Budgets

FROM:

Director of Social Planning

SUBJECT:

2001 Childcare Grants Allocation - Report 3 of 4

 

RECOMMENDATION

GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS

COUNCIL POLICY

Council established the annual civic childcare grants program on October 23, 1990, as part of the Civic Childcare Strategy. The overall objectives of this grant program are:

· to support the viability, accessibility and quality of existing childcare services;
· to assist childcare initiatives in high need areas;
· to encourage and support efficient, coordinated administrative services required for a childcare system in Vancouver;
· to lever other sources of childcare funding whenever possible.

Approval of grant recommendations requires eight affirmative votes.
PURPOSE

The purpose of this report is to recommend approval of:

BACKGROUND

On March 15, 2001, City Council approved the 2001 Operating Budget-Interim Estimates which included an adjustment that limited the inflationary increase for the City Grants programs to 1%. Consequently, the 2001 budget for Civic Childcare Grants is $682,700 which is 1% higher than last year's. On June 7, 2001 Council approved 10 City-wide Childcare Support Services grants totaling $184,680 as listed in 2001 Childcare Grants Allocation report 1 of 4. This was a portion of the total proposed grant for city wide childcare support services. At this time, Westcoast Childcare Resource Centre, the cities central support, information and referral organization for licensed childcare providers, parents and the City of Vancouver, was phasing out the Childcare Financial and Administrative Services (CCFAS) program. This program has been funded by the City of Vancouver in previous years to provide financial and administrative supports to stand alone non-profit childcare organizations.

The Board of Directors of Westcoast passed a motion at their February 28, 2001 meeting to dissolve the CCFAS program by June 30, 2001, because the program was not cost effective and was only serving a small portion of the childcare community. Notification to organizations involved in the program was sent out with a transition plan to assist programs in minimizing the impact of this change. Request for the City's portion of funding for the April to June period was deferred by the childcare coordinator until a dialogue could occur with Westcoast to determine an alternate plan. This report includes the proposed plan for the remaining portion of the City-wide Childcare Support grant that had previously been directed to CCFAS.

DISCUSSION

City-wide Childcare Support Services Grants

Westcoast Childcare Resource Centre is a non-profit consortium of services for families, children, care providers, and childcare organizations that provides networking, training, consultation, information and referral services. The programs offered by Westcoast include Multicultural and Diversity Services, Childcare Inform, Resource and Referral. Westcoast is integral to the stability, quality and accessibility of childcare in Vancouver.
The City wide Support Services grant category was established in 1992 to fund the basic infrastructure that is integral to developing and maintaining a viable, effective, high quality childcare system in Vancouver, including:
- financial and administrative consultation services for childcare boards and staff,
- information and referral services for parents seeking childcare,
- information, consultation and training regarding ESL, multicultural and diversity issues in childcare settings,
- ongoing in-service training and networking opportunities
- information and resource materials for those designing, building and opening new childcare services.

In June 2001, Westcoast's Board of Directors phased out the Child Care Financial and Administrative Services as Westcoast had incurred a significant financial liability maintaining the services. Community organizations were notified and a wind down plan process was established. The program closure was completed by June 30, 2001. Typically the childcare coordinator would have requested approval of the funding for the CCFAS program in the first grants report, however, there was a desire to examine how best to redirect this portion of the grant to further the goals of financial sustainability.

As a result, the Childcare Coordinator met with the executive directors of both Westcoast and Vancouver Society of Children's Centres to develop a plan for this year. Much information has been gathered over the past five years on sustainability both in practice and in research. Rather than reinvent the wheel, it was decided that there would be a benefit to reviewing the lessons learned over the past five years, examine the financial implications of sustainability and identify new approaches to operating and financing childcare services.

The second area that was identified for redirection of the CCFAS funding was the significant gaps in supporting childcare providers in serving the broad multicultural needs of families and children using regulated care. Westcoast Multicultural and Diversity Services (WMDS) offers resources, information and training to chid care providers that promotes culturally sensitive, anti-racist and anti-bias practices in childcare. While the city has funded WMDS the demand for service has far exceeded the programs ability to meet the growing demand, given limited staffing. Redirecting a portion of the CCFAS funding to determine 3 to 4 best practice sites in each network as models for other programs along with additional training sessions will strengthen caregiver's skills working with diverse populations.
The City Childcare Coordinator is seeking approval to release funding for the portion of service delivered from April 1, 2001 to June 30, 2001, document effective strategies for financial sustainability based on lessons learned over the past three years, and enhance services for the Westcoast Multicultural and Diversity Services from November to March 2002. Activities and outcomes are set out in Appendix I.

CONCLUSION

This report recommends approval of :

1 City-wide Childcare support services grants totaling $64,983
This leaves $24,070 still remaining in the 2001 Childcare Grants Budget for allocation o grant categories which are reported in November/December (see Appendix II).

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Appendix I

A. Child Care Financial and Administrative Services

April 1, 2001 - June 30, 2001

Outcome: Successful transition of full cycle accounting services for 13 stand alone parent managed child care programs to local accounting firms in public practice

Activities:

April:
1. Provide accounting services for 3 Centres (City Hall, Creek view and L'Ecole Bilingue) through to April 30, 2001 including payroll, payables and preparation of monthly financial statements. Prepare for one Centre's year-end financial report.
2. Finalize plan and provide written confirmation of next steps to the 10 Centres who terminated services with CCFAS effective March 31, 2001.
3. Copy current fiscal year/year to date accounting files to diskette and make available to each Centre immediately. Gather and box current fiscal year books, records and source documents prepared and maintained by CCFAS and arrange for pick up by a designate of each Centre.
4. For the 3 Centres that will terminate services as of April 30th, copy current fiscal year/year to date accounting files to diskette. Gather and box current fiscal year books, records and source documents and arrange for pick up by a Centre designate.
5. Respond to queries about CCFAS service as per the contract with centres in effect since September 1, 2000, as well as termination of services, transition matters and required arrangements.
6. Redirect to each Centre all bank statements, notices from Canada Customs and Revenue agency (CCRA) and other suppliers mailed to Centres c/o CCFAS.
7. Adjust invoices for CCFAS services for January to March 2001 where full services were not provided.
8. Review unpaid invoices and sent out final notices advising Centres of payments that were in arrears for CCFAS services that had been provided.
9. Begin internal `wind down' of CCFAS including administration of personnel matters in accordance with Westcoast's Personnel Policies and Interim Collective Agreement.

May:

1. Respond to queries and problem-solving related to past CCFAS services as needed.
2. Complete the year-end financial report for one Centre and draft the accompanying year-end reports (e.g. charity return) for presentation to the Centre for review and sign off.
3. Cull through and organize all past years Centre financial records archived at Westcoast.
4. Redirect mail sent to Centres c/o CCFAS.
5. Respond to letters received from some Centre Boards of Directors on behalf of the Westcoast Board.

June:
1. Arrange for pick up all archived files from Westcoast by a designate of each Centre. Assist with the loading of boxes.
2. Redirect mail sent to the Centres c/o CCFAS.
3. Complete final work with CCFAS office files and the last steps in winding down the service.
4. Review CCFAS fiscal year end work for Westcoast.

The second part of this grant will look at re-thinking financial sustainability.

B. Re-Thinking Financial Sustainability

Introduction
Over the past few years, considerable work has been done looking at financial sustainability issues in the child care field, and advocating for significant actions at the provincial and federal levels. The change in the Provincial Government, the state of the economy have changed the landscape.

The proposed project is aimed at:
1. Reviewing the various studies and practices of financial sustainability over the past few years
2. Clarifying the financial sustainability challenges facing child care services over the next few years
3. Identifying new, perhaps radically new, approaches to operating and financing child care services
4. Developing actions that the Child Care Administrator's Network might undertake.

The project is directly linked to one of the key issues raised in the City's strategic child care plan.

Changing Landscape
Over the past few years, there have been significant changes in the landscape of child care services that impact financial sustainability.

· Landlords (for example, school boards) have move to capture increased rental revenues.
· The previous provincial government initiated Child Care B.C., and began its implementation in the area of school-aged child care. The new provincial government has indicated that it will not continue this strategy.
· Council has recommended that a strategy for winding down the childcare endowment fund which provides subsidies for infant/toddler programs be developed.
· Caps on government programs have meant it has been very difficult to initiate new child care programs.
· The Munroe Accord has raised the benchmarks for child care salaries and benefits. For those organizations under the Accord, this has meant it is impossible to start new child care programs.
· Changing labour market conditions has meant new demands for longer program hours, and for weekend child care services.

Proposed Project
· This limited project is aimed at bringing experienced child care managers together, particularly from the organizations operating larger numbers of child care services, to re-think what might be done differently over the next few years.

· The project will be facilitated by Gavin Perryman, who was involved with most of the financial sustainability studies of the past few years.
· Time lines: October 2001 - January 2002.
· The Vancouver Society of Children's Centres will be the administering agency for the grant.
· The Child Care Administrator Network's request to the City of Vancouver .

Financial Sustainability Project

Description
· All members of Childcare Administrators Network (CAAN) will participate in three full days of work, facilitated by an outside consultant, and a summary report will be drafted.
· First 2 day workshop will use 3 CAAN member agencies as case studies: YWCA, VSOCC, and Collingwood (please note: Collingwood not 100% confirmed yet).
· We will review these agencies' actual operating budgets for their child care operations. We will look at the past 5 years' financials and the 5-year budget projections. These 3 agencies cover the whole continuum of services, infant to school age and family places.
· Participants in the first two days will use the actual budget numbers for these three agencies to:

· Participants will be asked to take these ideas away and explore them in their own organizational context and bring their information back to a third session in January. The strategies will be reviewed, reconsidered if necessary, and concrete actions will be identified.

C. Westcoast Multicultural and Diversity Services

Introduction
Westcoast Multicultural and Diversity Services (WMDS) offers resources, information and training to child care providers that promote culturally sensitive, anti-racist and anti-bias practice in child care programs for children 0-12 years of age. WMDS has served the childcare community for over 20 years with a province-wide mandate funded by the B.C. Ministry of Community, Aboriginal and Women's Services and Vancouver-specific responsibilities funded by the City of Vancouver.

Outcome
Culturally sensitive child care environments with high quality multicultural anti-bias, anti-racist program content for all Vancouver children and their families.

Outcome Indicator
Increased number of Vancouver child care environments that reflect the diversity of families and cultures of children in the city, and where staff are respectful of, knowledgeable about, and have the competency to implement culturally sensitive, anti-bias, anti-racist programming.

Proposed Year One Activities
Westcoast envisions the WMDS City Community Development Coordinator as an on-going position within the agency as are other city-funded staff positions. The short time frame remaining in the 2001-02 fiscal year limits the scope of work that this new staff person will be able to accomplish by March 31, 2002. However, the consultation and planning processes are intended to set the stage for additional intensive and far reaching activities with child care programs and caregivers in the second year and beyond.

Activities November 2001 - March 2002
1. Engage Vancouver child care providers in an intensive community consultation process through Network child care meetings and focus groups to obtain information about their needs related to culturally sensitive, anti-bias, anti-racist program planning and implementation.
2. Determine 2-3 "best practice" sites in each Network of Vancouver to act as models for other child care providers.
3. Plan delivery of 3 multi session diversity training series for child care providers throughout Vancouver.
4. Plan a set of 3-4 program enhancement sessions for implementation in 2-3 child care settings in each Vancouver Network.
5. Implement 3 multi-session diversity training series involving at least 50 child care providers from throughout Vancouver utilizing the identified "best practice" sites as training venues.
6. Implement the set of program enhancement sessions with 2-3 child care settings in each Vancouver Network.
7. Acquire additional resource materials to meet identified borrowing needs.
8. Provide ongoing support to Vancouver child care providers as they strive to implement anti-bias practices and programming.
9. Evaluate the impact of the additional training and mentoring activities on anti-bias programming in Vancouver child care settings through written surveys and a focus group with participants.

Proposal
Westcoast Child Care Resource Centre proposes an eighteen month project to be implemented in two phases to create a step-by-step tool for use by stand alone child care programs n Vancouver in an explorative process to determine the feasibility of forging stronger administrative and/or managerial relationships with other stand alone child care programs or with larger multi-service organizations. This document would also define and describe ways that larger organizations in Vancouver are currently supporting some stand alone child care programs.

We further propose that once this document has been developed in draft, 2-4 pairs of programs be recruited to pilot the Tool through a facilitated process, and provide feedback towards it final form. The availability of such a Tool may well prompt larger organizationsto offer administrative support to stand alone programs in their Networks and/or encourage stand alone programs to seek new administrative relationships with larger organizations.

Project Outcome
A tested Tool for use by stand alone child care programs and/or multi-service organizations who provide child care services to utilize in determining future directions for developing sustainable and effective administrative and/or managerial relationships.

Project Implementations: 18 months October 2001 - March 2003 (funding for April 2002 to March 2003 will be request in the 2002 Civic Childcare Grant submission).
This project would be implemented over an 18 month period that extends across two funding cycles. A Steering Committee of 6-8 individuals will be struck to guide the work of the project. These individuals will each bring to the project a keen interest in moving towards creating more feasible administrative structures for stand alone child care programs and/or a particular area of expertise in child care administration and management. Westcoast will contract with an independent consultant with the required child care background, experience in developing user friendly print materials and expertise in group facilitation for the duration of the Project. The Steering Committee will have input into the selection of the Project Consultant.

The first phase, to be implemented between October and March of the 2001-02 fiscal year, will result in a working draft of a Tool to explore administrative and/or managerial options that is built upon existing research and the work of earlier projects. In addition, Phase I will include:

· A review of the financial sustainability studies of the past few years.
· A two-day workshop, focussing on the concrete realities of 1-2 child care organizations, as case studies, and on identifying potential strategies of the future.
· Analysis of the potential benefits and drawbacks of the financial sustainability strategies by each participant in the context of their organizations.
· A one day workshop to re-consider the strategies, and develop concrete action steps.
· Development of a final report.

The second phase, to be implemented between April 2002 and March 2003, will engage 2-4 pairs of stand-alone child care programs and/or multi-service organizations in a facilitatedprocess to test the Tool in a "real life" context. This process will result in changed administrative and/or managerial relationships for the participating groups to provide essential feedback regarding the effectiveness of the Tool. The Tool will be disseminated to all Vancouver stand-alone child care programs and multi-service organizations that provide child care services at a day long information forum in March 2003.

Appendix II

 

Date of Report to Council

Proposed 2001 Guidelines

Recommended To
Date

City-wide Childcare Support

June

  

$184,680

 

November

$249,663

$64,983

Admin. of City-owned

June

$64,750

$64,750

Program Enhancement

July

$121,200

$110,700

Inner-city Childcare

July

$223,017

$233,517

Program Stabilization

As required

$5,050

  

Program Development

November

$5,020

  

Research/Policy Dev./Innovations

November

$14,000

  

TOTAL

  

$682,700

$658,630

BALANCE

    

$24,070

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