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·	Director General's Office
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·	Strategic Evaluations
·	Partnership and Continuous Evaluations
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·	Evaluation Reports
·	Evaluation Briefs
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·	Evaluation Tool Kit Series
·	Evaluation Forum Newsletter
·	From Theory To Practice

• Introduction
• Project Description
• Evaluation Approach
• Key Findings
• Conclusions

Introduction

This brief summarizes the findings of a formative evaluation study of the Transition to Supported Child Care Project, which is one component of a larger Improved Access to Child Care Strategic Initiative funded by the governments of Canada and British Columbia. The evaluation was managed by a Federal-Provincial Evaluation Working Group with provincial representation from the former Ministries of Social Services and Women's Equality (now the Ministry for Children and Families), as well as federal representatives of Human Resources Development Canada from both the British Columbia Region and from Evaluation and Data Development at National Headquarters.

Project Description

The Strategic Initiatives Program, announced in the Federal Budget of February 1994, is a five-year Federal-Provincial cost-shared program to test innovative ideas supportive of social security reform. Pilot projects selected for funding are intended to explore new approaches for improving individual labour market adjustments and attachments, and also to demonstrate innovative ways of delivering social services and reducing costs. A related, key policy thrust of the Strategic Initiatives Program was to support projects which "address the needs of children and families " in relation to overcoming barriers to employment and ultimately to assist in reducing dependence on the social security system.

The British Columbia Improved Access to Child Care Strategic Initiative was funded as a test of new approaches to:

i) improve the accessibility, affordability, and quality of child care services for families, children, and care givers; and

ii) create a more responsive, effective, efficient, and inclusive system for delivering child care services.

The Transition to Supported Child Care component specifically targets children with special needs and their families. It addresses the shift from the current separate Special Needs Day Care program to gradual integration of the children into the broader child care system. The project stresses family-centred care, shared responsibility, and individual planning in providing supports to enable children with special needs to participate in typical child care settings. Supports may include extra staffing, training, consultation, and other resources such as special equipment as required. Unlike the Special Needs Day Care Program, parents are expected to contribute to the cost of the child care spaces they access through Supported Child Care. However, a Special Needs Subsidy is available to all parents participating in the program and parents with low income may apply for a day care subsidy to assist with meeting the costs of child care spaces utilized.

As in the current Special Needs Day Care Program, eligibility for Supported Child Care will be based on documentation of a physical, communicative, emotional, intellectual, or behavioural handicap.

The budgeted cost of the Supported Child Care Transition component was $8.2 million for the transition period of 1995-99.

Evaluation Approach

The formative evaluation provided a description and assessment of program design and implementation early in the transition process. The evaluation relied upon three methods of information gathering:

i) review of program documentation and existing data sources including background reports; job descriptions; quarterly reports and news letters; terms of reference, membership listings, minutes of meetings, and products of relevant committees and sub-committees; policy statements, program descriptions, operational directives, and other documentation; and, management information and operational statistics gathered by involved provincial ministries;

ii) in-person interviews with eight representatives of the five ministries with major roles in the transition; and

iii) semi-structured interviews (ten by telephone, four in person) with fourteen representatives from the nine Ministry of Social Service regions having front-line responsibility to work with communities to organize the local transition to Supported Child Care.

The formative evaluation examined progress towards transition under five major sub-components, namely:

1) Inter-Ministerial Co-ordination;
2) Training;
3) Cost-Sharing;
4) Tools to Support Inclusion; and
5) Supports to Community Development.

Key Findings

The Supported Child Care framework evolved from a lengthy process of research and consultation with stakeholders. This indicated to evaluators that the initiative was consistent with the identified needs of the population. While not as structured as many new endeavours of this scale, Supported Child Care emphasized principles and outcomes rather than timelines and program structure.

The evaluation found that progress had been made in all of the major program components. However, progress was not as rapid as originally envisioned, nor was it consistent across all sub-component areas.

Interministerial co-ordination, the primary responsibility of the sub-committee on Supported Child Care, was found to be a strength of the transition process, particularly at the provincial level. The sub-committee was an effective and efficient vehicle with meetings providing an appropriate forum for information sharing, issue identification, and problem resolution. Sub-committee membership was appropriate and was well-linked to the larger child care community.

During the first fiscal year, considerable progress was evident in the various training activities associated with the Supported Child Care project. College-based courses were revamped to reflect Supported Child Care principles and practices. Thirteen colleges were funded to deliver such courses. Each of these colleges accessed available student subsidy funding and adopted innovative approaches to reduce barriers to education in accordance with the perceived needs of their communities. Developmental work was initiated on five Partnership Training Program Modules which provided an innovative means of creating on-going partnerships within the community to provide supports responsive to the identified needs of the target population. Progress was made towards the identification of qualifications for Supported Child Care consultants. However, despite the notable accomplishments, considerable confusion was found concerning the training activities associated with the transition process. Regional staff expressed a desire for clarification of the types of training planned by each Ministry and a need for greater inter -ministerial communication at the sub-provincial level.

At the provincial level, considerable effort was directed towards deciding how the cost-sharing provisions could be implemented. Sub-provincial respondents were critical of the length of time it was taking to achieve policy clarity in this area and emphasized the need for central direction in terms of the Special Needs Subsidy.

Considerable progress was noted in the development of tools to support inclusion with the drafting of a Support Guide, Child Care Regulation revisions, and the criteria for accessibility grants. Evaluation of the Support Guide was identified as a necessary next step.

With regard to the supports to community development, while the efforts were found to be many and varied and progress was affirmed, information sharing with regions remained a weak area at the end of the first fiscal year. This weakness was particularly evident in terms of regional respondent awareness of the components of the initiative and how they fit together. However, on a more positive note, the evaluation highlighted the contribution of the Provincial Transition Co-ordinator in providing an effective liaison between the numerous governmental and community-based partners in the transition process. Of particular note were the completion of a Transition Handbook, several newsletters, and a series of conference calls, all of which provided much-needed information to involved parties.

Conclusions

The evaluation concluded that the Supported Child Care component of the Strategic Initiative had a slow but effective beginning in British Columbia. Considerable progress was seen at the provincial and regional / local levels and, overall, the transition was seen to have been well-managed. Despite early indications that the initiative is on track, the evaluation identified several major challenges for this complex and wide-ranging project.

Because Supported Child Care is a principle-based framework, the evaluation stressed the need for philosophical clarity regarding the principles of inclusion and family-centred care. In particular, the evaluation identified the lack of guidelines to determine which of the overriding principles takes precedence in the event of a conflict between the two.

Information sharing was flagged as an area in need of further development. Regional respondents need more information about components of the transition, most notably training, where the responsibility and funds are spread amongst several Ministries.

On-going efforts were called for in the area of educating stakeholders as to the benefits of Supported Child Care. This was seen as especially crucial in a volatile fiscal environment where continuous concern exists regarding long-term funding of programs and services.

Finally, the practical implementation of the community development approach represents an enormous challenge. While respondents were nearly unanimous in their support of the community-based approach, fears were expressed about the sustainability of volunteer commitment and the possible inconsistencies in program implementation and configuration which may emerge from the transition period.

Subsequent planned evaluation activity will address the issue of outcomes of Supported Child Care in the context of (a)improving the accessibility, affordability, and quality of child care, and (b)creating a more responsive, effective, efficient, and inclusive system for child care in British Columbia.