The Child Alliance is pleased to see the emphasis that the government of PEI has put on helping the children of PEI have a better start in life.
There is no doubt that that putting significant resources into a formal system to help our younger children learn is vitally important to their future and to the future of our province.
The plan, as tabled, is of course more of an intention than a plan. The details of what to do and how to do this have to be worked out by all concerned. The Government has asked for help and support in making this intention real.
So it is response to this request that we put forward this context and these questions.
Context: We can all agree with the overall intent to offer Quality, Choice and Access to a better learning environment to the 6,300 children on PEI that are from 0-4. Currently 2,000 of these are enrolled in some kind of daycare.
It is important to note that more than 4,000 children have little or no support. Our questions stem from the challenge of this group.
What is the Goal - What does Success Look Like? How do we measure Progress? The plan currently has no measurable goal for what success might be or what all this investment is for other than to have a better system.
What does “better” mean and what is the “problem” that we seek to address?
We respectfully urge all concerned to establish such a goal. Here is a suggestion.
In BC, the Government has been clear. The problem there is that 30% of the children enter the school system unable to learn and unable to behave. This group is largely lost from the start. By 6 it is an exceptionally hard task to change a child’s wiring. Also, the size of this group at 30% is so large that it disrupts the enter system putting all the other children at risk. It is this large group that comes from the most vulnerable part of society that is the focus. The core of the problem of this vulnerability is found in the family. For Parents, not any institution, are the main driver of their children’s development. This is not simply a problem of poverty. Middle class children make up most of those in this group. The most critical years are from conception to aged 2.
The BC goal is to reduce this 30% to 15% and then to 10%. Such a goal enables all the organizations and all the resources to find ways of collaborating in a common cause that can be measured.
On PEI we have exactly the same numbers. About 30% of children arrive in school not being able to learn and cope. They have the same disruptive impact on the other 70% of children who arrive being able to learn and behave. This is the kernel of both our problem and our opportunity.
The child’s trajectory for development is set by the age of 2. So the battleground then is the family. The key issue is how well or not parents can cope and parent.
We don’t see any of this in the plan so far. We are concerned that at the core of the plan is a focus on a worthy cause, that of building an excellent daycare system. We are concerned that in the excitement and in the potential achievement of succeeding the noble goal of having a much better Daycare system that we miss the strategic lever of the vulnerable.
Key questions for us fall out of this context:
- How inclusive will this be? 4,000 children were not in any program before. It is these children that are the most vulnerable. What is the approach to this vulnerable group going to be? Many of these parents have no financial resources. Many are unemployed and cannot get employment. Our approach has to extend beyond access to daycare and early learning - what is the full continuum of support that this group need?
- What about parents? There is a provision for them to act as advisors but there is nothing in the plan to support them as parents. Parents are the key shapers of a child’s ability to learn and to develop. 0-2 is the key time. What is the plan?
- With the focus on setting up the Early Years Centres, what is the allocation of funds from the new resources to the parts of the system that has the most impact - 0-2?
Our Offer - The Child Alliance does more than talk. We have been instrumental in attracting resources from off PEI to help Island families and children.The government has made the financial commitment. The government has asked for ideas and support.
We offer to work across the Island to bring forward the best goals for the work and to design a measurement system that works from outside the system to keep the system accountable.
What is the Child Alliance?
It is a group of people who believe that bettering the lives of the youngest members of society is the most important work of our time.
Our work is to raise understanding about what this means and how best to do this.
Our goals are:
- To build a coordinated continuum of support for children from Conception to age 6. The emphasis is on healthy child development and most importantly on working to increase parents capacity to parent effectively
- To promote responsibility for healthy child development across a web of community that is broader than government alone - a web that connects non profit groups, business and the broader community and members of the public to government.
- To be advocates for children - to put our children first in the competition for attention and resources
- To develop a framework that would enable us to put our attention on prevention rather than on remedial action
CHILD ALLIANCE ADVISORY COMMITTEE
CO-CHAIRS:
Hon. Marion Reid - Former Lieutenant Governor & Chair of the Premier’s Committee on Family Violence, Former Speaker and MLA for PEI, Former Teacher
Frank Zakem - Former Mayor of Charlottetown and City Councillor, Former President of Holland College
MEMBERS AT LARGE:
Dr. Kathy Bigsby - Pediatrician at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, PEI
Verna Bruce - Associate Deputy Minister (retired) Dept. of Veterans Affairs, Chair of the Vanier Institute of the Family, Former DM of Health and for Higher Education for PEI, (Co-chair - Board of Dir. - CHANCES Family Centre)
Senator Catherine Callbeck - Senate of Canada, Former Premier of PEI
Tom DeBlois - Business Community
Wayne Easter - MP Malpeque, Former Solicitor General for Canada, Parliamentary Secretary for Fisheries and Oceans, Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture and Agri-Food with special responsibilities for the Rural Secretariat, and is currently Agriculture Critic.
Dr. Brian MacMillan - President of Holland College
Hon. Margaret McCain - Former Lieutenant Governor Province of New Brunswick, Co Author of the Early Years Study
Ray Murphy - CEO Murphy’s Pharmacy
Dr. J Fraser Mustard - Founder of the the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Author of the Early Years Study
Research Contact - Robert Paterson - Former SVP HR for CIBC, Former Senior Advisor to the President of the CIAR (Dr J Fraser Mustard), President of The Renewal Consulting Group
Senator Dr. Marilyn Trenholm - Senate of Canada & former Lieutenant Governor; Province of New Brunswick, Former Minister of State for the Family and Minister of State for Family and Community Services - NB
