Work-Related Child-Care Centres in Canada - 2001 : Introduction

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The availability of affordable, high-quality child-care services is a major concern for many working parents. The proportion of dual-earner and single-parent families has increased over past decades, as has women’s participation in the labour force. This means that it is no longer possible for most working parents to rely on traditional child-care arrangements - e.g., with one parent in the paid workforce and one parent (or occasionally a grand-parent) staying at home to raise children. In addition, geographical mobility and the dispersion of extended families may make it difficult to count on relatives to provide care.

For parents, having access to affordable quality care for their children may directly affect their ability to enter or re-enter the workforce (e.g., after maternity or parental leave), juggle their work and family responsibilities, and pursue their career goals. Child care is also viewed as a crucial factor in enabling women to achieve economic independence and long-term financial security, and it is an important element in attaining greater gender equality in the workplace.

Child care is an important consideration in the early mental and physical development of children. Indeed, it is now generally recognized that the first years of a child’s life are crucial to the future development of cognitive and social skills. Many parents, therefore, want to provide their children with the best possible early childhood education.

Child care thus plays two distinct, yet very important roles: It allows parents to remain in the labour force and pursue their careers, and it prepares children for school and promotes their healthy development. These roles explain, at least in part, the increased need and resulting demand for licensed child-care services. Not surprisingly, the creation of more high-quality, affordable child-care spaces is a key demand of many sectors of Canadian society, including unions, antipoverty groups and child-welfare and women’s organizations.

However, there are still too few child-care spaces in Canada - let alone affordable spaces - to satisfy demand, and existing child-care options in some communities may be inadequate or too inflexible to meet the needs of working parents. Establishing work-related child-care services is sometimes viewed as a solution - albeit a partial one - to these problems. A number of businesses and organizations have recognized that it is in their interest to establish and support child-care centres, in or near their workplaces, to improve the recruitment and retention of employees, reduce absenteeism, and increase worker productivity while generating favourable publicity.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of current practices pertaining to work-related child-care centres. It highlights the best examples in this area, and discusses what has been learned from the experiences, both positive and negative, of the child-care centres that participated. One of the study’s main objectives is to analyse and illustrate how businesses and organizations can be involved in both establishing and operating work-related child-care centres.

The study is meant to inform employers, unions, employees, professional organizations, parents and early childhood professionals who are considering the creation or expansion of work-related child-care services, as well as researchers and members of the general public who are interested in this issue.

Definitions

Work-related child-care centres refer to services that are sponsored and supported by an employer, a group of employers, a union, or an employee group, which are intended to meet the child-care needs of employees. The role and the level of involvement of employers, unions, employees and governments in the establishment and the operation of work-related child care can vary from one workplace to the next, and can take many forms.

On-site child care, as its name implies, is a child-care centre on the premises of an employer (i.e., at a work site).

Off-site child care is a centre, program or service that provides child care in a location outside of the actual work site, although it is normally nearby. It may operate from a community building, in rented facilities, or in a structure owned by the centre or its sponsoring employer(s) or union(s).

Consortium centres are child-care centres supported by two or more employers who want to share costs, or whose individual employee base is too small to support a child-care centre on its own.

Community-based child care refers to not-for-profit child-care centres and services located in community settings, operated by parents or agencies in the community they serve.

Private, for-profit child-care centres are commercial child-care facilities, run as businesses by private firms or organizations in order to generate profits.

Family child care (also termed home-based care) refers to child-care services provided in a caregiver’s home in exchange for a fee. The caregiver, who is normally considered a self-employed worker, may or may not have prior experience and education in the field of early childhood education. Not all family child-care services are licensed.

Methodology

The data and information presented in this study are drawn from a series of interviews with directors of child-care centres in all regions of Canada. Interviews took place from April to July 2000. The ministries and agencies responsible for child-care services in each province and territory were contacted at the beginning of 2000 in order to compile a list of work-related child-care centres in Canada. A sample of centres was drawn from that list. The sample was not entirely random. Some centres were included so that the sample would both incorporate examples of the many types of organizations that sponsor work-related child-care services and, to some extent, reflect the regional distribution of work-related child-care services across Canada. After being contacted by telephone, 51 child-care centre directors were interviewed. The questionnaire used appears at the end of the present document. Some of the study’s methodological limitations should be noted:

The list of work-related child-care centres in Canada was produced using a number of sources: the provincial ministries responsible for child-care services, in most cases, but also, in some provinces, the regional offices of those ministries or child-care associations suggested by the ministries. It is possible that some work-related child-care centres were missed. Moreover, when contacted by telephone, some directors indicated that their child-care centre was not linked to a workplace, or that the relationship with the employer had ended. That may also be the case with some child-care centres on the list which were not contacted. The figures presented on the number of work-related child-care centres in Canada and their geographic distribution are, therefore, more an approximation than the product of an exhaustive survey.
Given the method by which the sample was selected, quantitative data presented in this study should not be considered statistically significant or representative of all work-related child-care centres in Canada.
Unless otherwise indicated, the information provided (including information about sponsoring organizations and government programs) is based on interviews with the directors of work-related child-care centres. However, in some cases, representatives from sponsoring organizations were contacted for specific details or further information and government sources were consulted.
Some questionnaires were not fully completed by the child-care directors interviewed. The data gathered were, nevertheless, included in the analysis.

Comments on the Scope of the Study

A few words of caution concerning the scope of this study are in order:

This study does not purport to present an exhaustive picture of work-related child-care centres in Canada. Despite the effort made to describe a wide range of experiences, some realities and some issues may not have been captured in the analysis.
Work-related child-care centres represent only a small portion of child-care centres in Canada. The study does not try to draw a comparison between work-related child-care services and community-based or private child-care services. Some researchers and child-care advocates consider that work-related child care, from a public policy standpoint, is not an answer to the child-care situation in Canada, because it is a discretionary, individual response to a societal issue¹. . The present study does not address this issue.
Child care is a provincial/territorial responsibility. This means that a patchwork of regulations exists across Canada, and that Canadian child-care centres can operate in very different legislative contexts, depending on where they are located. The environment in which child-care centres operate also changes over time. Accordingly, each example in this study must be considered in its specific provincial and historical context.
A work-related child-care centre is not the only way that an employer or a labour organization can help its employees or members with child care. Other possible approaches include referral and information services and financial assistance; these and other measures, although mentioned, are not dealt with in great detail in this study.

Organization of the Study

The study consists of three main chapters. The purpose of the first two is to synthesize information collected from all interviews conducted during research for this study. The third chapter offers much more detailed analyses of a number of individual work-related child-care centres. More specifically:

Chapter One provides an overview, in general terms, of the work-related child-care centres analysed as part of this study. It also identifies some of the advantages and disadvantages linked to work-related child care, from the perspective of both employers and employees.
Chapter Two examines a number of issues associated with work-related child-care centres, such as the conditions that can stimulate or hamper the start-up process, the types of support that can be offered by sponsoring companies and organizations, and the specific needs and expectations of clients.
Chapter Three contains 14 profiles of work-related child-care centres across the country. These profiles outline the context in which each centre was established, and the role that sponsoring employers and others played in the process. The subsequent involvement of employers, unions, employees and governments in the operation of individual work-related child-care centres is also described. Through concrete examples, this chapter focuses on the unique characteristics of these services.

Key findings and lessons learned can be found in the study’s conclusion.

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¹ Jane Beach, Martha Friendly and Lori Schmidt, Work-Related Child Care in Context: A Study of Work-Related Child Care in Canada. Occasional Paper No. 3. Toronto: University of Toronto, Centre for Urban and Community Studies, Childcare Resource and Research Unit, 1993, p. 21). resume