New Brunswick’s Action Plan for fiscal year 2022 to 2023

Initiative 1: Grow New Brunswick early learning centres and homes – designation

The designation program ensures that children benefit from overall improved quality services, including inclusive practices for children with additional needs and social inclusion of cultural minority groups. Parents whose children attend a designated facility benefit from a low-fee policy that makes child care more affordable and accessible.

Designated facilities are required to meet quality criteria which include but are not limited to: implementing the low-fee policy through a subsidized fee grid; operating within the market fee threshold; improving their capacity to serve all children including those with disabilities and diverse needs through the implementation of inclusive policy and practices; creating annual quality improvement plans and assessments; participating in on-going professional learning; and working with government on data sharing. Designated facilities receive operational funding for preschool services and improved parent subsidies.

Figure 1 – Text version

The designation program for New Brunswick’s early learning centres is made up of the following criteria:

• low-fee policy which includes parent subsidies, market fee threshold, and grants: infant and quality
• parent committees
• inclusion policy
• professional learning
• guidelines for language acquisition and cultural identity learning environments (Francophones)
• ECD portals (aka registry)
• quality improvement plans
• quality assessments

Operational grants

Funding is provided monthly to designated facilities as part of the designation model. Operational grant amounts are determined based on monthly enrolment data provided by the operators of designated facilities.

New Brunswick Early Learning Centres receive an operational grant of $2.50 per day per enrolled preschool space and $10.00 per day per enrolled infant space (0 to 24 months). New Brunswick Early Learning Homes receive $2.50 per day per enrolled space (0 to 5 years).

The operational funding is used to offset associated costs of designation, support the facility’s quality improvement plan, and maintain infant spaces. This monthly operational grant is provided to increase the quality of care while keeping costs to parents low.

Parent subsidies

The Parent Subsidy Program provides financial support to low- and middle-income families and is based on a sliding scale (between $37,501 and $80,000) which considers child care fees, the number of children under the age of 5 not attending school and the total annual gross household income.

Families with a total annual gross income of $37,500 or less have access to free ELCC services at a designated facility. Those with multiple preschool children under the age of 5 will not pay more than 20% of their gross household annual income on child care.

Transitional Funding is a one-time grant that provides support to newly designated facilities through the transition period between a parent’s application for the Parent Subsidy Program and when the first payment is received to support initial operational cash flow.

The focus of fiscal year 2022 to 2023 is to maintain the gains and grow designation to ensure more families have access to affordable, quality and inclusive child care. These initiatives will be jointly funded by the Governments of Canada and New Brunswick

Action 1: Increase the number of designated facilities

New Brunswick will increase the number of designated facilities to 565, which will include 5 First Nations designated facilities. Federal funding will primarily be used to support the creation of new designated facilities and the low-fee policy (parent subsidies and operational grants).

Action 2: Review the market fee threshold

The market fee threshold provides the limits allowed for fee increases for designated facilities. This fee grid is based on the average fees charged by facilities and includes consumer price index adjustments. The market fee threshold provides a predictable fee grid for families and greater consistency across the province in the management of child care fees. The first market fee threshold was introduced in 2017 and was updated in May 2021. New Brunswick will review the market fee threshold in fiscal year 2022 to 2023.

Table 1: Current market fee threshold effective May 2021

Initiative 2: Inclusion

New Brunswick currently provides ELCC licensing upon the request of operators within First Nations communities. New Brunswick will collaborate with First Nations organizations and communities to better understand their needs and establish a plan for ELCC services for Indigenous children.

Action 1: Expand the wage support for early childhood educators to include licensed First Nations facilities

The Wage Support Program for early childhood educators (WSP-ECE) is a wage enhancement program administered by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development to support operators of licensed ELCC facilities with the recruitment and retention of trained educators. Program eligibility is based on an educator’s level or training and qualifications.

The WSP-ECE aims to:

• recognize early learning and child care as a profession
• encourage educators to participate in higher-level training
• provide funding to increase the wages of qualified educators and reduce staff turnover

The current wage top-ups are outlined in the table below.

The wage top-ups as of April 1st, 2022 are outlined in the table below.

Action 2: Expand the inclusion support program to include licensed First Nations facilities

The Inclusion Support Program (ISP) provides funding to support the full wages of an Inclusion Support Worker (ISW) in licensed ELCC facilities to increase accessibility for children with additional needs who require support to meaningfully and actively participate in the daily activities of a facility. The ISP also provides training and support to ELCC facilities to enhance quality inclusive early learning environments. There are 2 models of support.

Shared support model

The Shared Support Model allows for 1 ISW to support more than 1 child (2 to 4) based on the individual needs of all children requiring varying level of assistance. The Shared Support Model provides a balanced level of support for child(ren) to meaningfully participate and is tailored to provide individual support only during certain times, activities, transitions, and routines as required.

Individualized support model

The Individualized Support (one-on-one) is in place and reserved to support only those children with the most intensive needs (that is, those with long-term complex medical conditions). Individual support allows for an ISW to provide an individualized plan and strategies that addresses a child’s on-going, intensive needs that require specific strategies and supports most of the time in order to be actively engaged and to fully be able to participate in facility programs and routines.

Federal contributions and proposed allocations

The fiscal year 2022 to 2023 federal funding contribution will be allocated to the following priorities.

Initiative 1: Innovative professional learning

Action 1: Micro-credentialing / Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick (CCNB) experiential

New Brunswick will continue to provide onsite training to enable educators to obtain their 1-year college certificate through the New Brunswick Community College (NBCC) or CCNB as described in the Early Childhood Educator Workforce Development Strategy 2021 to 2022. To be eligible for the program, educators are required to have a minimum of 3 years of work experience with children ages 5 and under in an ELCC facility and must have completed the Introduction to Early Childhood Education course.

Initiative 2: Emergent leadership institute

Action 1: Design and prototype the administrative leadership stream

Building on the work done under the fiscal year 2021 to 2022 ECE Workforce Strategy action plan, the administrative leadership stream of the Leadership Institute will be completed and launched. The administrative leadership stream focuses on administrative duties such as human resources management, financial management, facility management with an in-depth understanding of the legislations impacting early learning and child care.

New Brunswick will digitize a Human Resources Tool Kit as part of the Administrative Leadership Stream. The Human Resources Tool Kit will provide operators with access to resources related to managing human resources, from hiring, managing performance, addressing complex human resources issues as well as building positive work environments.

Action 2: Ongoing implementation of the pedagogical leadership stream of the leadership institute

Under the fiscal year 2021 to 2022 Early Childhood Educator Workforce Strategy, the Francophone and Anglophone sectors developed content and delivery models for the Pedagogical Leadership Stream of the Emergent Leadership Institute and will deliver a prototype training module to a pilot group of operators and educators. Building on this work, New Brunswick will officially launch the Pedagogical Leadership Stream of the Emergent Leadership Institute in fiscal year 2022 to 2023. This will enhance access to other educators and operators.

• Funding for fiscal year 2022 to 2023: $176,000.

Initiative 3: Promote the early childhood educator career pathway

Action 1: Promote the career pathway as an integral part of the social marketing campaign

Building on the work done in fiscal year 2021 to 2022, New Brunswick will launch a large-scale marketing campaign aimed at promoting the ECE profession and to recruit new people to the profession. This social marketing campaign has been built from the voices of educators and key messages were tested with different groups to ensure it resonated well. As part of this social marketing campaign, there will be a call to action where New Brunswick will provide critical information and tools on the Early Childhood Educator Career Pathway. This pathway is built in such a way that it supports people entering the field and current ECEs.

Federal contributions and proposed allocations: workforce development carry-over

The fiscal year 2022 to 2023 federal funding contribution will be allocated to the following priorities.