FORT FRANCES — The social services board in the Rainy River area is drafting a new guiding document for child care and early years services and wants to know what people expect.
The District of Rainy River Services Board is developing a five-year children’s services plan and, as part of the consultation process, is inviting comment from parents, caregivers and other members of the community through a public survey, the organization announced in a media release.
Tanis Fretter, the service board’s children’s services and income support manager, told Newswatch in an interview the new document will replace an existing one she called “currently outdated.”
“A lot has taken place within the … system provincially and locally since our last five-year plan, so we're really looking forward to having a new document to inform our strategic direction for the next five years,” she said. Some of those changes, Fretter added, include the board now directly operating child care spaces and programming, as well as the implementation of the Canada-wide early learning and child care agreement, which she said has lowered fees at licenced centres.
“We're looking for input from the community and from families to help influence our direction going forward and where we should take the system in the next five years,” Fretter said.
The plan “will help shape the future of child care and early years services across the Rainy River District,” the service board’s release said, adding that it will encompass things like licenced child care, provincial EarlyON programming, resources for special needs programming, child care fee subsidies and waitlists, and future growth planning.
“It's always really important to have community feedback,” she said of why the consultations are taking place now. “Our services, obviously, are delivered to the community — we’re a community-oriented organization — and so any time you're revisiting a plan or programs, it's really important to have the input from the people who are most directly impacted by your services.”
“In this case, obviously, parents and caregivers of young children are the significant group who receives the services through our programs.”
Submissions to the survey will be anonymous, the board said.
The services board is working with consultants with the Beam Group to develop the plan. Fretter said they will take the survey responses and consolidate them to help inform the strategic plan’s creation.
The plan is expected to be presented to the board for approval in October, Fretter said; should that happen, it would be released publicly shortly after.
The survey closes Aug. 31.
