By AVIS HOPKINS

HUGE WAITING lists,
poor inspection and
staff shortages are

plaguing North Shore
day cares.

Over 500 parents are on
day care waiting lists ac-
cording to estimates sup-
plied by Ministry of Human
Resources officials, and the
shortage is making some of
them desperate.

“I get mothers coming in

crying because they can't
find good day care for their
child," says Babs Black, co-
ordinator of day care ser-
vices for the North Shore for
the Ministry of Human
Resources. (MHR).
“When they can’t find it they
get desperate and put their
kids into unsatisfactory
places.”

Kim Wallace, president of
the Northshore Daycare
Association agrees with her.

Some home day. cares are
overcrowded, she said, but
parents are desperate and
don't do anything about it.

Parents will also face a
financial squeeze. next year,
with day care fees expected
to go up by about 20 per cent
and subsidies paid by the
government increasing by
only 10 per cent.

The problem in a nutshell
is poor funding compounded
by “a poor public attitude”,
said speakers in a group of
about 20 day care
professionals who met to
discuss the condition of
North Shore day care.

Many day care centres
can't even be properly in-
spected for lack of staff, said
Clay Hill, Community care

coordinator for the North

Shore.

- “We are hopelessly behind

in trying to ensure each (day

care) situation is a good

one,” he told the meeting.
He described how about

70 day care centres are”

“glossed over” in year-end

inspection reports, with
MHR administration being
told the centres are
“alright”.

_ There are 24 group day
care centres for children
aged three to six, two for
children under three years,
27 licenced, family daycare
homes. and 100 registered
homes on the North Shore.

Each group day care has
an average waiting list of
about 20 parents, said Black,
and there is a. waiting list
running -from between 50
and -80 all the time for the
under-three daycares.

Family day care centres
are full with the exception of
five spaces at present in out
of the way homes, she ad-
ded.

Kim Wallace estimates
each one gets an average of a
calla day from parents.

There is potential for~
many more family day cares’:
on the North shore, said:
Wallace, but many women:
don't know how to go about .
getting started.

Black said she had tried
earlier to get more family
day cares on the North Shore
but there no one seemed
interested.

But family day cares do
cost more than group day
cares.

A mother earning net pay
of $795 a month with a child
in a three to five-year-old
group day care will receive
at most a subsidy of about
$200 a month from the

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government to pay for an
average fee of $220 a month.
In a family day care, she
would receive a subsidy of
$160 a month and pay an
average fee of about $330.
Subsidies are granted on

the basis of wage
number of children.

Day cares are also losing
staff because of low wages
and lack of professional
status said one member of
the meeting.

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