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Best Start: Helping Young Children Get the Best Start in Life
We want the best for Ontario's babies and children. That means making sure they get the best possible start in life.
That's why we've launched Best Start. It's our plan to strengthen healthy development, early learning and child care services during a child's first years. We want children in Ontario to be ready and eager to learn by the time they start Grade 1.
The goals of Best Start
Best Start is Ontario's strategy to expand quality and affordable child care and invest in children's healthy early development — all in a convenient and easily accessible location for parents. We are working with our community partners — school boards, public health units, child care and children's services providers, and municipalities — to make sure that:
- many more children and parents have access to services and supports, regardless of individual economic or social circumstances
- pre-school, junior kindergarten, senior kindergarten, quality child care, public health and parenting programs are integrated into a seamless system that supports families and children
- early and on-going screening of Ontario's children to identify potential issues, needs and risks is strengthened
- early learning and care hubs are centrally established in Ontario's communities to provide families with a single, integrated, seamless point of access to services and supports based on local needs and available resources.
Our plan for Best Start
A plan this ambitious requires us to get there in steps, as we develop our long-term strategy – one that will be implemented over the next 10 years.
Ontario achieved significant progress in 2005–06 in implementing its Best Start vision. Municipalities have already received sufficient funding to create almost 15,000 new licensed child care spaces and a significant number of new subsidies to assist parents with the cost of licensed care, in addition to 4,000 subsidized child care spaces created in 2004-05.
To support the Best Start vision, Ontario signed the Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) agreement with the federal government that was to provide Ontario with $1.9 billion over five years. Best Start was to fund 25,000 new licensed child care spaces by 2007–08.
Regrettably, the new federal government has given notice to terminate this agreement, taking away $1.4 billion intended for child care spaces and fee subsidies for working families. Without sustained federal support, the province cannot enhance and expand the child care system as originally planned. As stated in the 2005 Budget, "Without these federal transfers, Ontario will not be able to move aggressively in investing in this important area."
Given the elimination of federal ELCC funding after 2006–07, Ontario will use the final federal payment to support the child care system. The government will allocate $63.5 million per year over the remaining life of the original agreement, from 2006–07 to 2009–10.
The province will also work with municipalities to continue to urge the federal government to reconsider and honour the ELCC agreement.
Other components of Best Start include:
- In November 2004, Ontario eliminated restrictions on child care subsidies for parents with RRSPs and RESPs. Now, we are going to develop a new way to determine eligibility for child care subsidies based on income. By moving to a sliding scale income test that municipalities will use to decide who is eligible for a child care subsidy, more families will be able to access child care.
- Plans are under way for a proposed new College of Early Childhood Educators to establish high professional standards for quality child care and early learning programs.
- We established the following expert panels to guide the implementation of Best Start:
- The Expert Panel on the Enhanced 18-Month Well Baby Visit has drafted a report that will provide the basis for a strategy to support a standardized developmental assessment for each child at 18 months of age in Ontario.
- The Expert Panel on Quality and Human Resources is looking at professional education, recruitment and retention of qualified early childhood education professionals and ways to improve quality licensed and informal child care.
- The Expert Panel on an Early Learning Program is developing an early learning framework for preschool children that can link to junior and senior kindergarten learning programs, and ultimately become a single integrated learning program for children in preschool and junior and senior kindergarten.
- Enhancements to Ontario's ongoing prevention and early intervention programs means we can identify babies at risk early and help families get the advice and services they need to give their newborns the best chance for healthy development and to help children with language and hearing disorders develop the communication skills they'll need to succeed in school.
Showing the way
Best Start is an ambitious plan. To help us with its development throughout all of Ontario, we are accelerating Best Start implementation in three communities: Hamilton's urban east end; the rural areas of Lambton and Chatham-Kent; and the District of Timiskaming.
Initially focusing on these three model Best Start communities will allow us to learn and share best practices that will guide us as we implement Best Start over the long-term.
Ontario is building a system of early learning and child care that will give our children the best chance at future success. That system is Best Start.
For more information on Ontario's Best Start, please see:
For More Information
Ministry of Children and Youth Services
Early Years Programs Branch
800 Bay St. 6th floor
Toronto, ON M5S 3A9
Telephone: (416) 325-5315
Fax: (416) 325-5349
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