Assessing the Need for the Project

One of the first roles of the planning committee will be to assess the need for the project and its feasibility. The Committee may gather information to answer the following questions. The findings should then be summarized in a report for future board members, funders, bankers, etc.:

  • The need you are addressing
  • The methods you will use to gather the information
  • The results of your data collection activities
  • The service gaps
  • The challenges and issues
  • Conclusions and recommendations

First, you should describe the size of the potential 'market' for services. Include number of children 0-6 within a reasonable travel distance of the program. Include the number of mothers in the workforce. Identify which demographic group has the greatest potential for recruitment.

Also, you need to identify other similar programs in the vicinity - or in your catchment area. Describe each program and the ways in which it competes with your proposed program. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of the other programs. This exercise can be carried out in the form of a more formal "needs assessment".

There are many times when conducting a needs assessment is an important step in the planning process, but it is not always necessary. A good needs assessment takes considerable time and money. You probably do not need to conduct a needs assessment if:

  • One has been conducted in your community recently
  • There is no or little child care in the community and there is a high labour force participation rate of mothers with young children
  • Your child care branch or local planning group has identified your community as lacking in services
  • You are developing an after-school program in your school, and there are no other after-school programs in the community
  • You are developing a program in a new community targeting young families
  • Significant growth and development is expected in the area that will attract families

Conduct a formal needs assessment if:

  • You are not sure what the main need is, or there is a difference of opinion among stakeholders
  • You want to ensure community support for the project
  • You need to define identified need to your potential funders
  • You want to identify the need among specific population(s), such as young parents, children with extra support needs, Aboriginal children, children of new immigrant families, or children whose first language is neither English nor French
  • You want to meet the needs of working parents - perhaps those that need non-traditional care - and need to find out about work patterns among different groups of employees
  • You want to get an accurate picture of what services parents are currently using, how much they pay and what hours they use them
  • You need demographic information on families and children
  • You need to garner political support for your project
  • You need to prioritize the elements of your project when you have limited resources or capacity

Conducting a formal needs assessment

If you are going to conduct a formal needs assessment, you will want to start your planning with as much relevant information about your community as possible. A needs assessment involves collecting relevant information about the community as well as the specific unmet need for child care. The information you collect and analyze will help determine the feasibility of establishing different types of ELCC programs.

Information sources for a needs assessment

There are a number of key components to a needs assessment - the extent to which you employ any one of them depends on available resources and your reasons for conducting the needs assessment. Your funders may specify what needs to be included in your needs assessment. If your budget allows, you may want to hire a consultant with experience in conducting needs assessments and analyzing survey data. In most situations you will want to collect both quantitative and qualitative information.

If you are developing your own survey, it is worth hiring someone with expertise in survey design and analyses. You will pose your questions quite differently if, for example, you are trying to determine whether there is a need for a school age program in a particular school, whether you want to know if there is a demand for flexible child care that operates outside of regular operating hours, or if you are assessing the need for child care in general.

You will need to be clear about how you define the community to be surveyed and how it will be conducted (by phone, by mail, or distributed at locations where parents of young children are likely to be, such as schools, libraries and community centres).

There are two main kinds of information to gather - quantitative and qualitative

Gathering quantitative information

Types of information you might collect include:

  • Demographic information, such as the number of children under 12, by age group, the percentage of mothers in the labour force, projected population growth or decline, family incomes. Much of this information may be gathered from census information. See Statistics Canada information for your community: http://www.statcan.ca/menu-en.htm
  • School Board enrolments and projections
  • The supply of child care and other early childhood programs, as well as information on location, fees, hours of operation and waiting lists.
  • Major employers and their hours of operation and employee profile/demographic
  • Location of schools and their policies on use of vacant classrooms
  • A list of the major non-profit organizations that serve children and families
  • Provincial or local organizations, who may have surveyed existing child care programs and have information relevant to your project
  • The specific child care needs of your target population (usually done by survey)

Gathering qualitative information

Qualitative information is important to get the views, opinions and attitudes of various stakeholders, include potential parents, community members that may be impacted by the new program and service providers. You may want to determine support for or concerns about the project; understand parents' views about various types of programs; understand what qualities are important to them in a program, as well as gathering information from other ELCC programs that have undertaken similar projects. Typical ways of gathering this information includes:

  • Key informant interviews
  • Focus groups
  • A public forum

You will be able to use a lot of the information that you gathered in your initial "information gathering" exercise. After you have compiled all of the above information, you will be in an excellent position to complete the report providing strong conclusions and recommendations to community partners, licensing officials, local governments, funders, bankers, or anyone who needs to understand your case.

When your needs assessment is complete, you should have a good idea of the numbers and ages of children you plan to accommodate and the type of program you plan to offer.

Resources

Some resources for conducting community needs assessments can be found at:

Some examples of needs assessment reports include:

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