Child Care and Early Years Service System Plan (2024-2028)

The City of Ottawa Children’s Services is in the process of updating the local Child Care and Early Years Service System Plan for the next five years (2024-2028). This plan will act as a road map to identify priorities and set-out actions to meet the vision of an accessible, affordable, high quality, equitable and inclusive Early Learning and Child Care system by addressing local needs.

What we hear during engagement opportunities, as well as through a review of demographic and service data, will help to establish the strategic priorities for our city to respond and better meet the needs of children and families in Ottawa. It will also ensure a strong foundation for the future as child care and early years initiatives continue to evolve and align with the on-going implementation of the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care system.

The development of the Children’s Services Service System Plan is aligned with the City of Ottawa Strategic plan (2023-2026) and specifically supports the strategic objective to "Simplify access to social services to support those in need, including housing, employment and child-care services."

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Child Care and EarlyON - Service System Plan Survey

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CLOSED: The surveys have now ended. Thank you to all who participated.

As Children’s Services works to update the Service System Plan it is important that we hear from parents, families, and caregivers and those expecting a child. Feedback will help identify community priorities, strengths, challenges or gaps, and areas for action.
Your feedback will help ensure we are setting appropriate priorities for the next five years. The survey can be accessed and completed using the links below. The survey will remain open until April 10th, 2024.
We are committed to ensuring that all participants can access and complete this survey. If you require accommodations, please email childrensservices@ottawa.ca by adding “Caregiver Child Care and Early Years Survey - accommodations” to your subject line.
Share your experiences in a family focus group

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CLOSED: This discussion has concluded.
The City of Ottawa and Children’s Services want to hear from you! Help shape child care and EarlyON services in Ottawa.  
Together with several different partners across Ottawa, Children’s Services is working to coordinate focus groups to hear from parents and caregivers about their diverse experiences and needs related to child care and EarlyON services.  
At this time, Children’s Services is looking to learn more about the child care and early years experiences from the following population groups:
- Parents and caregivers of children aged 0 to 12 with special needs
- 2SLGBTQ+ parents and caregivers with children aged 0 to 12
- Francophone families, parents and caregivers of children aged 0 to 12 
- Parents and caregivers of children aged 0 to 12 with disabilities
Please check back as more focus groups are added!

If you are interesting in participating in a focus group, please email ChildrensServices@ottawa.ca, and include in the subject line: “Family Focus Group.” 
Service System Plan Background

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The Provincial Government previously established four priorities to guide the continued transformation of the child care sector across Ontario. These included: Access, Affordability, Quality, and Responsiveness.
The City of Ottawa’s 2019-2023 Service System Plan (SSP) was designed to make progressive improvements in each of the priority areas and included ten strategic priorities to ensure both families and service providers in Ottawa were supported to give children the best start in life. The SSP provided priorities, actions, and a roadmap for how our City would support the local child care and early years sector.

Along with many other sectors, the child care and early years community was significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, as priorities shifted to respond to urgent and dynamic needs. Throughout the height of the pandemic, the SSP’s priorities became important pillars to ensure that families were supported during unprecedented times. More information on the progress that has been made since the implementation of the 2019-2023 SSP, including COVID-19 impacts, can be found here.
Since the approval of the 2019-2023 plan, the Province has updated their guiding priorities to include a fifth element: Data and Reporting. This will help ensure that the work of Consolidated Municipal Service Managers, like Children’s Services at the City of Ottawa, is guided by evidence-based decisions. The Province has also renamed the “Responsiveness” priority to “Inclusion”.