Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/shared-services-promotes-quality-child-care/5023222/
We can all agree that a robust, high-quality early care and education environment that centers on meaningful interactions helps children and families thrive. Yet we also know the economics of high-quality care presents challenges to both families and child care providers. Providers can pour extensive time and resources into a program to cover all the facets of quality, but the cost of this care would be out of reach for most families, especially those who need it most. Conversely, what a family can generally afford on its own restricts providers’ ability to dedicate the resources needed to build a high-quality program. A proven solution to this economic challenge is shared services, which makes quality care affordable by freeing up time and resources so that providers can focus on building strong relationships with each child.
Shared Service Approaches
ECE shared service models are exactly what they sound like: groups of home- and center-based child care providers coming together in a coordinated manner to improve efficiencies, drive cost savings, and enhance programmatic offerings. These models are centered on keeping child care programs small and intimate where it matters — cultural relevancy, neighborhood proximity, child-family-staff relationships — and making them big where it counts — revenue ...