Thursday, January 1, 2015
Executive Summary
Background and Methodology
While over a third of parents in the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph (WDG) area rely on Unlicensed Home Child Care Providers (UHCCP) to care for their young children, little is known about the support and training needs of this unique group of care givers. In order to determine the training and support needs of UHCCPs in WDG and to inform program planning, Wellington-Dufferin-Public Health (WDGPH) administered a survey to a total of 43 local UHCCPs.
Key Findings
The key findings from the survey analyses are as follows:
- Most local UHCCPs felt they were knowledgeable of child care best practices, but still felt they could benefit from training opportunities.
- Local UHCCPs prefer accessing Ontario Early Year Centres & libraries for child care information.
- Most local UHCCPs prefer receiving child care information through online mediums.
- Timing of training opportunities is the most prominent barrier for local UHCCP participation.
Recommendations
Based on the key findings from this survey and supportive literature, three recommendations have been developed to help support the learning and training needs of UHCCPs in WDG:
- Share the findings and recommendations of this report with child care agencies within WDG.
- Consider collaborating with local child care agencies to create a WDG child care inventory of evidence-based programs and resources.
- Explore ways to use WDGPH’s website and social media platforms to expand reach of child care information to the UHCCP audience.
