Licensing

LICENSING

A license is required under the Child Care Licensing Act to operate a childcare program such as TOPP KIDS.

The Child Care Licensing Regulation sets out the minimum standards that must be met in a licensed facility based childcare program to ensure that the health, safety and developmental needs of children are met. A good way to get an overview of licensing requirements is by reviewing the Facility Based licensing regulations and a past licensing report from your program.

Alberta Education & Child Care Ministry license, monitor and issue enforcement actions. It is the responsibility of the Program Coordinator to ensure proper training is provided to educators to ensure a safe and healthy environment for all program participants.

Program renewals will be the responsibility of the Operations Manager and CEO.

HOW TO PREPARE FOR AN INSPECTION

You may be more comfortable with a licensing inspection if you have some understanding of what to expect. The purpose of an inspection is to determine whether your program is complying with the legislation. TOPP KIDS standards are built to meet and exceed licensing regulations. To make sure you are always ready for an inspection, ask your educators daily, “If an inspection were to take place today would we be ready?”

REVIEW THE INSPECTION CHECKLIST FORM

You may wish to review the appropriate “Inspection Checklist” form used by licensing officers during inspection visits. This will allow you to be familiar with what licensing officers will focus on during an inspection. A copy of the checklist is available online and in training materials. The licensing officer will also leave a copy of the checklist at the end of the inspection, or forward one to you, when completed. You may wish to speak to your educators about the licensing inspection in order to ease their minds about the process. It is important for educators to be familiar with the regulations and understand what the licensing officer may be looking for. They should feel free to speak with the licensing officer and to ask questions. Speaking openly with staff about licensing may help them feel more comfortable with their licensing officer and the inspection process.

REVIEW PREVIOUS INSPECTION VISITS

Review the previous Inspection Checklist or Inspection Visit Summary that is provided by the licensing office, if there has been a previous visit. Review your programs most current licensing inspection and address opportunities to improve best practices or rectify non-compliances if needed.

HAVE CHILDREN’S AND ADMINISTRATIVE RECORDS READY

Your licensing officer will request a list of all children enrolled in the program and primary staff employed with the program. License holders must make their records available to the licensing officer. They will select a random sample of records to inspect from this list. Typically, a licensing officer will review 10% of your available files (i.e.: 60 children =6 child files) and all staff files.

CHILD REGISTRATIONS CAN BE FOUND IN THE FILING CABINET

Staff Records can be found in the filing cabinet and on Google Drive Attendance Records can be found on TIMESAVR (Staff and Child)

WHAT TO EXPECT DURING AN INSPECTION

During an inspection, licensing officers will record notes, complete observations, ask questions, review records and postings and speak with the Program Coordinator or designated supervisor in charge. Once the licensing officer has completed the inspection, he or she will determine whether the program meets the requirements and will explain his or her findings. These findings will be noted on a report that will be provided to the license holder. If your program and premises meet all the requirements, the licensing officer will review the results with you at the conclusion of the inspection. The licensing officer will either leave a copy of the report or forward one to you at a later date. Display your copy in a clearly visible and prominent place on your program premises, designated on the Parent Board. If your program does not meet all the requirements, the licensing officer may take enforcement action. The licensing officer will determine the appropriate enforcement action and notify you in writing.

SUPPORTING A LICENSING INSPECTION

As a licensed program, we are subject to licensing inspections by Child Care Licensing staff. Inspection visits are intended to ensure all licensed childcare programs adhere to the Child Care Licensing Act and Regulations. Generally, we will receive 1-2 visits in a year. Half of the visits will be scheduled in advance and half will be unannounced inspections.

BE PREPARED – COMMON LICENSING VISIT TOPICS

Often, when a licensing officer visits, they look for common mistakes that can easily be avoided. Some of which include the following:

• Educators or children not signed in correctly
• Number of children is wrong / Educators not counting correctly / Educators have different numbers
• Ratio of children to leaders is not correct
• Behaviour guidance does not match brand standards
• Educators not knowing the emergency procedures
• Medications expired or forms not filled in properly
• Field Trip Forms not filled in properly
• Educators or child files not up to date or information missing
• The current collaterals not posted (fire, health, insurance, previous licensing report, any licensing exemptions, license certificate, emergency contact numbers, and after hours phone number (at the door))

The first thing a licensing officer will ask every staff member is: “what is your number (of children in care) and what are the emergency procedures?”

NON-COMPLIANCES

A Non-Compliance is a failure or refusal to comply with the requirements outlined in the Child Care Licensing Act or Regulation. TOPP KIDS was designed to exceed licensing standards. A licensing visit that results in a Non-Compliance must be remedied immediately and re-training will result for the entire team or individual based on the incident. Non-Compliances are avoidable and not acceptable. Further disciplinary action may occur based on the severity of the incident.

ACCIDENT & INCIDENTS

ACCIDENTS
Accidents and young children seem to go hand in hand. Children often fall and always seem to have bumps and scrapes. If a child gets hurt at the program a written F.I.T report needs to be completed and signed by both the Program Coordinator (or person reporting) and the parent and will then be placed in the child’s file.

If there is a serious accident that results in the need for medical attention, the supervisor will contact the parent and arrangements will be made for pick up of the child or meet the educator at the emergency facility. If a parent cannot be reached, educators must then contact the emergency contact listed on Child Profile. At this time, the situation now becomes an incident and proper documentation is required.

INCIDENT

All TOPP KIDS programs are required to report serious illness of or injury to a child that occurs while attending a TOPP KIDS program and any other incident that occurs while a child is attending a program that may seriously affect the health or safety of the child.

The 12 Incidents that require immediate reporting include, but are not limited to:

• Death of a child,
• Allegation of abuse (Physical, sexual, emotional and/or neglect of a child by a program staff member) or volunteer),
• Missing or lost child, a
• Young person involved in crime,
• Child removed from a program by a non custodial parent or guardian,
• Emergency evacuation or unexpected program closure,
• Intruder on premises,
• Illness or injury requiring the program to conduct first aid, request emergency healthcare and or requires the child to stay in a hospital over night,
• Error in the administration of medication,
• Child left on premises after hours.

As a license holder, we are responsible to report incidents immediately to licensing staff by calling the intake line. An Incident Form must be completed with the support of the Program Support Manager and submitted (with as much detail as possible from all staff members present) to your local Child and Family Services Authority’s licensing office within 48 hours of the incident or notification that a medical visit was required.

After the incident form, communication book and any further needed documentation is completed (FIT Report, photo of where the indecent happed labeled with where the child was and where staff were located at the time of the indecent), TOPP KIDS requires a “Post Shift” discussion between all educators before they leave, regarding the incident that occurred. The purpose of the discussion is to find out if there was anything more TOPP KIDS staff could have or should have done to prevent the incident from happening. This meeting then needs to be documented.

The Program Coordinator or designated supervisor present during the incident is responsible for keeping up with the progression of the Incident Report and making sure that the families involved are being taken care of. This includes calling the families periodically to see how they are doing and if we can do anything to help them. Being sincere, helpful and transparent throughout any incident and possible investigation is key.

If an incident leads to an inspection, the reports must be posted in Licensing Binder and on Parent Board.

INCIDENT REPORTING

In this section, “incident” means a any of the listed 12 reportable incidents outlined on the previous page. An Educator must report each incident forthwith to their Program Coordinator who will work with the Program Support Manager who (acting on behalf of the license holder) must report each incident to the Intake Line forthwith in the manner required by the province.

Incidents must be:

• Reported immediately to the Program Coordinator and Program Support Manager
• Reported immediately to parents
• Reported immediately to Licensing
  Child Care Connect:
  • Intake Line: 403 297-7378 Monday-Friday 8:15am – 4:30pm
  • After Hours: 403 297-2995 (after 4:30 pm Monday – Friday, weekends,
    statutory holidays)
• Complete F.I.T. report
• Complete Incident Reporting Form
  • Add pictures that clearly show where the incident happened and where educators were supervising in the room
• Send Incident Reporting Form, F.I.T. report and detailed photos to Program Support Manager for review.
• Once reviewed by the PSM, they will send documentation and report to the email given during the intake call and will CC the email to the Quality Assurance Manager and Operations Manager.

Incidents must be reported immediately to the intake line by the PSM by telephone. The Indecent Reporting Form must be completed and submitted within 48 hours of the incident or notification that a medical visit was required.