Inclusive Child Care Strategy Document: Where All Children Belong
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The BC Ministry of Education and Child Care BC Inclusive Child Care Strategy document, Where All Children Belong, was released in June 2024.
The Government of BC Inclusive Child Care resources and supports web page was updated on August 28, 2024, and includes links to a range of resources:
Where All Children Belong, released in June 2024, outlines the Government of BC’s Inclusive Child Care Strategy, the ChildCareBC Vision for Affordable, Quality, Inclusive, Culturally Safe Child Care, the Legislative Foundation for ChildcareBC, and the government’s Engagement Summary, and Guiding Principles for B.C.’s Inclusive Child Care Core Service.
The Engagement identified three themes of barriers to inclusive child care as a core service:
Inequity of access to child care: Families are having difficulty finding and accessing care that meets their unique needs.
Exclusion of children with support needs: Children with support and complex needs are being disproportionately excluded from child care in comparison to their peers without support needs.
Limited support for an inclusion- and equity-focused workforce: The child care workforce is not well supported to deliver inclusive, culturally safe child care to families and children of all backgrounds and abilities.
The Inclusive Child Care Strategy
The Inclusive Child Care Strategy places children at the centre. The Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care Framework asserts that “children hold a sacred place in the cultures of Indigenous Peoples. With that comes a sacred responsibility to care for them.” Family, community and culture are critical to children’s well-being and belonging. Early childhood educators and other child care professionals care for children within a broad range of ages, stages, identities, needs and cultures, supporting their development and inclusion through play-based learning. To enable this important work, child care professionals must also be well supported.
This strategy is focused primarily on licensed child care but recognizes intersections with other early learning and care settings. It identifies the foundational building blocks needed to achieve inclusive child care as a core service, including:
A set of guiding principles which government will use to inform current and future ChildCareBC initiatives.
Three interrelated long-term goals each with multiple areas of focus and early actions:
Child care as a core service enables equity of access for all families and children.
The child care work force is supported and empowered to deliver equitable inclusive care.
All Children Belong.
A plan for updating and refreshing actions and reporting on progress towards the strategy’s long-term goal.
The Principles for Inclusive Child Care include:
Child and Family Centered
Valuing and Supporting Child Care Providers and the Child Care Workforce
Meaningful and Effective Communication and Collaboration
Actively Responsive to Diverse Identities
Culturally Safe, Anti-Racist and Anti-Ablist
Evidence-Informed
Supporting Continuity of Care
Action items identified under the three Inclusive Child Care Strategy goals are as follows:
Goal 1: Child care as a core service enable equity of access for all families and children
Empowering child care providers to deliver equitable, inclusive child care.
Examine options through the $10 a Day program to enable child care providers to deliver quality, inclusive and culturally safe child care.
Support providers in developing and implementing an inclusion policy for their program.
Enabling equitable availability of child care programs.
Continue to enable growth of child care spaces in the province and work towards a future state where licensed child care spaces are built where and when they are most needed using a data-informed approach to funding.
Explore opportunities to enhance accessibility and inclusivity in the physical, social and cultural environment.
Examine barriers to accessing child care services for families who may experience inequity such as Indigenous families, newcomers to Canada, racialized families and parents with disabilities.
Making child care affordable for all families.
Continue to support BC families with reduced child care fees.
Examine barriers to accessing existing affordability programs for families experiencing inequity.
Supporting distinctions-based child care.
Collaboratively plan with Indigenous Peoples to enable equitable access to inclusive, culturally safe child care for First Nations, Metis and Inuit children and families.
Goal 2: The child care workforce is supported and empowered to deliver equitable, inclusive, culturally safe care.
Supporting a skilled, diverse and stable workforce.
Continue to support programs and initiatives that work to improve compensation and working conditions for child care professionals.
Support recognized post-secondary programs to embed inclusion and cultural safety in early childhood education and care programs.
Explore updates to the BC Child Care Sector Occupational Competencies related to inclusivity and cultural safety.
Continue to support programs and initiatives that enable representation of families and communities in the child care workforce.
Supporting reflective practice and capacity building.
Develop a quality guide/tool to support reflective practice and continuous improvement among child care professionals.
Increase access to quality professional development and mentorship opportunities, including but not limited to training in cultural safety, anti-racism, supporting children’s mental health, understanding and responding to children’s behaviours and providing trauma-informed care.
Continue to enable Supported Child Development (SCD) and Aboriginal Supported Child Development (ASCD) programs to increase their emphasis on capacity building in partnership with child care providers.
Goal 3: All children belong.
Understanding the experiences and outcomes for families and children.
Explore options for understanding the experiences and outcomes for families and children participating in child care.
Enabling full inclusion of children with support needs.
Continue to work with MCFD to provide inclusive child care supports through SCD and ASCD while examining what barriers families are experiencing in accessing these services.
Collaborate with other ministries to identify strategies for inclusion of children with complex medical needs.
Explore opportunities to strengthen inclusion and cultural safety in school-aged child care (before- and after-school care).
Collaborate with other ministries to explore barriers to and opportunities for access to appropriate after-school care for children and youth over the age of 12.
Strengthening transitions between child care and school.
Develop a provincial approach for strengthening supports for transition from child care to kindergarten and beyond for children with support needs.