Family Home Child Care was introduced in 2007. Research by the Canadian Child Care Federation indicates that there are currently 170,000 Family Home Child Cares in Canada; 15,000 of those are regulated.
Why approve Family Home Child Cares?
The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development Services offers approval options to Family Home Child Cares under Agency licenses (and approval is optional and totally voluntary) as:
- It gives parents the option of formal child care service in a home-like setting, where care is monitored to ensure it meets established standards.
- It provides another option for child care for parents eligible for assistance with fees (families with one child who earn less than $62,731.00 may be eligible for subsidy).
- It supports parents who are employed or training for employment (through offering subsidies to parents actively looking for work for 6 months).
- It promotes children’s health, safety, and well-being.
There are numerous communities and sub-communities in both Annapolis and Lunenburg Counties; yet there are limited licensed day cares to service the families and the children who live in our communities.
Approved family home child cares are subject to monitoring by the agency as well as the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development Services. They also have the resource of a certified Early Childhood Educator to assist them with program support, menu planning, play groups, a lending library, and consultations. Consultants are also there to support families through networking, parent advisory committee, and newsletters.
Approval through the agency can also mean more affordable quality care options to families, as subsidized financial support is available to eligible families in an approved family home day care.
It is said that it takes a community to raise a child; Family Child Care enables children to be raised in their communities by their communities.
Why has Family Matters The Annapolis County Resource Centre become an agency?
It enables us to support the families and communities we live and work in through providing more quality and more affordable care for their children. We are helping to support families to stay in our communities and are encouraging families to move to our communities by giving them more options for quality care for their children, making economic growth more viable.
By creating an agency that considers the whole family – as an individual, as a family, as a citizen and as a community member; a positive impact is created as we work together.