Children's Services Division

Children's Services is designated as the City's "child care service system manager" under provincial legislation and as such has responsibility for planning and managing a broad range of child care services. These child care services include fee subsidy, wage subsidy, family resource centres, special needs resourcing and summer day camps. In addition to its service management responsibilities for child care, the Children's Services Division also directly operates 53 child care sites.

The Children's Services Division also has lead responsibility for supporting the City's broader children's strategy by managing special projects, initiatives and events such as the Toronto Report Card on Children.

Mission
The Children's Services Division manages Toronto's child care system. In partnership with the community, the division promotes equitable access to high quality care for children and support for families and caregivers. Children's services are planned, managed and provided in ways that promote early learning and development, respond to families' needs and choices and respect the diversity of Toronto's many communities. An integrated approach to providing services to children ensures public value and benefit to all.

Children's Services is:

Committed to children

Supportive of families

Building community capacity

Philosophy
Children's Services is committed to the promotion and delivery of quality child care. The maintenance and continued improvement of quality care demands the recognition of an underlying philosophy upon which high standards in curriculum programming can be developed.

The philosophy espoused by Children's Services is reflective of the principles and values adopted by the Division. Children are seen as active participants in their environments, and are by nature problem-solvers. Learning then is an active process whereby the opportunity to explore and interact with the environment are key components in a child's growth and development. Underlying this is the assumption that a child's growth follows a developmental sequence that is universal, but that within that sequence, each child proceeds at different rates and in unique ways.

The programming is reflective of the need to provide stimulating and developmentally appropriate challenges for the individual child in a warm, secure environment. Staff commitment to planned programming is a fundamental necessity in ensuring quality care. The role of the teacher is that of facilitator; to provide kinds of experiences that promote active learning on the part of the child. Through the combination of planned programming, staff commitment and continued training, Children's Services can provide consistent, high quality care to best meet the needs of the active, continually developing child.