Service System Plan Background

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”.