EXCERPTS:
Brantford and Brant are working on a joint plan to set up a centralized child-care information and wait list system that includes all private and public services in the two municipalities.
The social services committee, made up of city and county councillors, has endorsed a staff report calling for the acquisition of an Internet database to contain information on all facilities, and the awarding of a contract to RBB Innovations Ltd. to put it into effect.
The database would have a $27,000 one-time start-up cost and $12,000 per year in ongoing support and maintenance.
The staff are recommending the contract be given to RBB Innovations, which has offices in Sault Ste. Marie and Owen Sound, because it has developed a system called ONEList, which is being used by municipalities, including Niagara Region, Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, London and Waterloo Region.
All of the startup costs would be covered by a grant from the Ontario government's Best Start program.
The continuing costs would be partially defrayed by charging each registered child-care agency $23 per month.
"This system will be of so much help," Brantford Coun. Marguerite Ceschi-Smith said in an interview.
"We are using automated database systems more and more. I think the parent will pick up how to use it effectively. Most who would use this system are younger and likely to be more tech-savvy. This would just be an extension of what they are used to doing."
Ceschi-Smith also said that beyond helping parents get their children registered, the database also could help social program administrators better plan and co-ordinate the delivery of child care into the future.
"I believe there are more benefits that we will come to understand better over time."
A staff report says right now both full-fee paying and subsidized parents in the city and county face "unnecessary challenges" lining up child care because there currently is no centralized database for them to use.
"The current requirement for families to research and contact each childcare agency independently is both time-consuming and archaic," the report says.
"Not only are parents limited to business hours when contacting agencies regarding space, should they wish to enroll their children in licensed childcare and secure a space, they must contact each agency individually by phone, in person, by email or visit that agency's independent waiting list."
The report also notes that local child-care agencies have no single manager to help them manage their registrations and wait lists to avoid duplications.
-reprinted from the Brantford Expositor