City of Kamloops says move to nix deal with child care operator unrelated to Ralph Bell inspection infractions

Earlier this year, Inquiring Little Minds had undergone an inspection by Interior Health licensing after complaints made in January about staff conduct at their Ralph Bell location. According to a publicly documented inspection report, the licensing officer identified four non-critical infractions of the Community Care and Assisted Living Act.

The report’s observation notes detail a complaint alleging “a staff member put a young child who is not in the process of toilet training, on the toilet against their will and forcefully held them down by their wrists. The child began crying and the staff member did not let go of the child’s wrists until another staff member came into the washroom and told them to let go.”

The report goes on to state another complaint “alleges a staff member aggressively pulled a young child by the wrist to bring them back when they wouldn’t sit for circle time.”

Other remarks in the report note some minor injuries have taken place at the facility without being logged.

And finally, another complaint “alleges a staff member working in the facility does not have the patience, is easily frustrated, does not take direction and does not provide adequate care and supervision to young children in care.”

Each of the allegations detailed in the observation notes of the report were substantiated by the licensing officer, based on facility documentation, staff interviews and observations while on site.

When asked if the city’s decision to go in a different direction was related to the Interior Health inspection at Ralph Bell, the city’s corporate services director, Dave Hallinan, said it was not.

“No, not at all. We didn’t look at any of the other relationships the vendor had with anybody else in the community,” Hallinan reiterates. “This was really front and centre — the engagement or lack or engagement with us and the inability for us to seem to get clarity and timely information as to where we were in the process so that we could actually help communicate that to people so that they would know what to do and by when.”

Hallinan says as far as the city is aware, no families who had expressed interest in switching to the Lorne Street child care facility have lost spots at their pre-existing day cares as a result of the delay.

“Right now, we’re not hearing of anyone who has lost daycare space,” he says. “Nobody had planned to move and had already pulled the trigger to exit (their current child care arrangements). Right now, we don’t believe there’s anybody who has been disrupted at this point.”

Another operator has not been selected at this time and the city doesn’t have a set date for when the Lorne Street location will be operational, but Hallinan reiterates the city is trying to have a quick turnaround.

“We’re providing a space where we don’t have to wait for construction. They can simply come in and put their things together and let us know when the turn on date is so we can make sure that the communications are timely enough so parents can do what they need to do to make the change if they need to.”

CFJC Today reached out to Inquiring Little Minds for comment but did not hear back by publication time.

by Dylana Kneeshaw

City of Kamloops says move to nix deal with child care operator unrelated to Ralph Bell inspection infractions

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