Promoting Quality Child Care
in Licensed Home
Child Care settings
Who are we?
We are a network of not-for-profit agencies that operate Licensed Home Child Care programs in the Ottawa area. View our mandate.
What is Licensed Home Child Care?
It is child care that is provided in the homes of providers affiliated with and monitored by licensed agencies. Home-based child care is the preferred option of many families, as it offers them a great deal of flexibility in their child care arrangements, and provides their children with a warm, nurturing family setting with a low caregiver-to-child ratio. Care is typically available to children from infancy through twelve years of age, and is offered in the neighbourhoods in which families live, or is enroute to their workplaces or schools. In addition to its convenience and flexibility, licensed home child care is a very affordable option for parents in comparison to centre-based care. Providers affiliated with agencies are also able to care for children whose parents are in receipt of fee subsidies from the municipality, via the agencies’ purchase-of-service agreements with the City of Ottawa.
Home child care providers must, at a minimum, adhere to the requirements of the Child Care and Early Years Act, 2014 (CCEYA). In Ontario, licenses are issued to agencies by the Ministry of Education. Individual caregivers are not licensed.
In addition to facilitating the initial matching process for parents with providers, it is the role of agency staff to enforce the CCEYA; provide support, resources, guidance and training to providers; monitor the quality of care in the day care home, and act as a partner with parents and providers in promoting safe and stimulating child care environments in which children thrive. In addition to the initial provider screening and approval process, ongoing child care arrangements are monitored through unscheduled home visits and regular safety checks of each day care home.