There are changes coming next year to Children’s Early Years care in Erin.
Luisa Artuso, director of Children’s Early Years division of Social Services, appeared before Erin council on Dec. 12 to discuss how those changes will affect families.
As of Jan. 1, the “consolidated municipal service managers/district social services administrative boards” of Wellington County will be managing and governing new EarlyON child and family centres in the county, said Artuso.
“The province is no longer managing it themselves and they are giving it to us and they’re opening up that envelope to say here’s what we would like those programs to be,” she said.
These centres will replace the Better Beginning Better Futures program and Ontario Early Years Centres.
The core and secondary services of EarlyON will be:
– engaging parents and caregivers;
– supporting early learning and child development;
– making connections for families; and
– hosting specialized and integrated services for children and families.
In order to move forward with the EarlyON service, a retro-fit of Erin Public School will happen by next fall, Artuso explained.
“A couple years ago we submitted an application with the Upper Grand District School Board to take a look at new capital funding allocation. We were successful in obtaining funding to retro-fit Erin Public School,” she said.
“So with that, will come 49 child care spaces.”
Currently, Erin has 70 child care spaces for a population of 355 children under four, which is 19.7 per cent. This includes 31 non-profit and 39 for-profit spaces, 40 of which are for preschool ages and 30 for toddlers. There are no current spaces for infants.
The county is aiming for 40% of spaces for the population. The retrofit of Erin Public School would boost the percentage to 33.5, or 119 spaces. Of this, 80 would be non-profit spaces. There would also be an addition of 10 spaces for infants and a total of 45 toddler and 64 preschool spaces.
The retrofit would see East Wellington Community Services relocate to the new space from its current location in All Saints Anglican Church.
“The idea of them being located in churches is not what the ministry wants to see,” said Artuso.
“They want them to be in publicly available spaces, so with this, we’ve also received funding to have an EarlyON program attached to these child care spaces.”
When asked by councillor Jeff Duncan about the process, Artuso said other boards are terminating past agreements with Ontario Early Year Centres.
“We took another approach because we thought it’s really important where the families have already developed a trusting relationship with an agency that’s local, we didn’t want to disrupt that,” she said.
Artuso said Children’s Early Years will be starting a consultation process early in the new year.
“We need to ensure that what we’re providing in these spaces is reflective of what your community wants,” she said.
