Pace of ECE recruiting in Lambton County not matching demand

There has been “slow but steady” progress recruiting much-needed additional child care workers locally but the pace isn’t keeping up with the need, says Lambton County’s children’s services manager.

Article content

The county is designated by the province to manage child care and early years’ services in Lambton, and it is overseeing efforts to add and staff another 573 child care spaces locally by the end of 2026 under a deal Ontario signed with the federal government.

Article content

“We’ve seen about an eight per cent increase in new child care staff,” said Melissa Fitzpatrick, Lambton’s manager of homelessness prevention and children’s Services.

“That equals about 125 new early childhood educators,” she said. “Sadly though, the pace at which we’re having new staff join us is not keeping up with the number of staff we need to open new spaces. We still need approximately 200 more.”

Lambton formed a community task force to help recruit and retain staff in the local child care sector which, as of the beginning of this year, had 58 licensed child care sites with space for 1,879 children up to age five.

Article content

“We’ve done numerous career fairs,” Fitzpatrick said. There was also a social media and video campaign, and a high school career day that attracted 170 students.

A county report said 575 individuals participated in recruitment initiatives, such as career fairs, since the start of the year.

“Hand in hand with that is doing what we can to ensure the retention of the staff we currently have in the system,” Fitzpatrick said.

“We’re trying to make sure people are aware that ECE is a profession. . . a calling,” she said. “We’re really trying to elevate it.”

It has hosted professional development days, including a recent one in Point Edward that attracted 440 early learning professionals, the county said.

The task force is also working with Lambton College to help current child care workers earn early childhood educator certification, Fitzpatrick said.

Article content

It’s also “continuing to advocate for better wages provincially,” she said. “Wages is definitely the most critical factor.”

There remains a gap between what qualified ECE workers earn in licensed child care centers and what they can earn working in a school board setting, Fitzpatrick said.

It’s “the same credentialing and pretty much the same type of work but yet quite a disparity in wages” which “can be quite disheartening for the licensed childcare sector,” she said.

A report last month released by the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care and the Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario said the province’s $19 an hour wage floor for registered ECE workers is the third lowest in Canada.

“The Ontario government needs to show they care about ECEs and child care workers by immediately raising wages,” Alana Powell, with the provincial association, said in a news release.

Article content

“That is the only way that we can retain ECEs in the sector, re-attract those who have left and recruit more skilled educators to the field.”

The county said 20 qualified ECE workers are expected to graduate in early 2024 from a one-year fast-track pilot program at Lambton College.

An Ontario Works partnership with the college that has seen four participants graduate and find jobs as full-time ECE workers in licensed child care in Lambton, with more currently enrolled.

Fitzpatrick said Lambton College, this fall, had its largest first-year ECE class in recent years with more than 60 students, compared to about 40 previously.

“The college is really a terrific partner in recognizing the need to add more early childhood educators to the sector,” she said.

Article content

Fitzpatrick said the county is on-track to meet this year’s local target for adding additional licensed child care with 131 new spaces expected to open.

The largest is 50 infant, toddler and pre-school spaces Lambton Rural Child Care is expected to open in Corunna by the end of the year or in early 2024.

Spaces are also being added at Mooretown-Courtright Public School, Sacred Heart Catholic School in Sombra, St. Michael Catholic School in Bright’s Grove and Kiddies Korner Nursery School in Brigden, the county said.

“It hasn’t been easy,” Fitzpatrick said. “There’s not a lot of capital (funding) being offered government from the province or the federal government. . . so it has been a little bit of a challenge.”

Fitzpatrick said efforts are also being made to increase local licensed home child care spaces with 30 added so far.

[email protected]

Article content