1.1 Introduction

INTRODUCTION

The Manitoulin-Sudbury District Services Board (DSB) is committed to the goal of supporting an affordable, accessible, and accountable child care and early years system which benefits children, their parents and caregivers, and the broader community.

This policy and procedures manual is intended to serve as a guide based on the Child Care and Early Years Act, 2014 and the Ontario Child Care and EarlyON Child and Family Centres Service Management and Funding Guidelines as set by the Ministry of Education and the Manitoulin-Sudbury DSB.

The Manitoulin-Sudbury DSB Child Care and Early Years system objectives include:

• Planning and managing the delivery of child care and early years services, within provincial legislation, regulations, standards, policies, and directives\guidelines
• Setting policies that allow for effective guideline implementation
• Developing a local child care and early years system plan with community partners to reflect community services approach for children; establishing local priorities and outcomes
• Entering into agreements with service providers, allocating available resources in a way that can achieve the agreed- to outcomes
• Receiving and responding to serious occurrences reports from EarlyON Child and Family Centres
• Providing information and advice to the province 

Child Care and Early Years objectives reflect a system that:

• Cares for children in a safe, nurturing environment
• Supports the needs of parents who want to work
• Allows flexibility and provides choice
• Supports children and families at risk or with special needs
• Provides appropriate standards of child care and early years programming
• Fosters early childhood development
• Works in partnership with others involved in the child care and early years system