Funding Agreements with Child Care Operators

The City of Greater Sudbury enters into funding agreements with licensed child care operators in order to assist eligible families with their child care costs and for the purpose of distributing funding to eligible operators. Funding agreements ensure child care operators are in compliance with municipal and provincial guidelines and legislation and that the City has quality child care options for families.

All child care operators with a funding agreement with the City of Greater Sudbury are required to:

Accept families receiving childcare fee subsidy;
Receive services with Child and Community Resources for the provision of Special Needs Resourcing supports;
Participate in the Early Years Planning Network;
Contribute to and participate in the Continuous Quality Improvement model with the City of Greater Sudbury;
Maintain and submit accurate data as requested by Children Services, which includes workforce data, waitlist management, changes to operating capacity, reporting on vacancies, provisional licenses, serious occurrences and plans for expansion;
Submit yearly audited financial statement or random auditing requests for compliance and;
Participate in the Annual Service Contract Review.

All funding agreements ensure child care operators are in compliance with municipal and provincial guidelines and legislation.

New Funding Agreements

To align with the Ministry of Education’s directed growth and expansion plan and our funding allocation, the City’s current focus is on expanding child care spaces with operators with existing funding agreements.

At this time the City of Greater Sudbury is not entering into new funding agreements.

For more information contact:
Miranda Mackie
Manager, Children Services Section, City of Greater Sudbury
705-674-4455, extension 4279
miranda.mackie@greatersudbury.ca

Existing Funding Agreements - Information for Agencies

Governance

To create a responsive, high quality, sustainable child care system in Greater Sudbury, not-for-profit corporations are required to have a high-quality governance model that is in compliance with Ontario's Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (ONCA)

Board of Director Structure

The board is comprised of at least five directors.
No board members are employees of or relatives of employees of the corporation.
The board composition rules and member names are available in a publicly accessible area.

By-law Requirements

Clear job descriptions outlining roles and responsibilities of the board members.

Signing authorities require a minimum of two signatures, one of which is a board member.

By-laws clearly define:

Criteria for members’ qualification;
Guidelines for membership suspension/termination;
Decision making process for member motions and voting power;
When and how the election, appointment and removal of members will occur.

Policy Requirements

There are written policies and procedures:

Of job descriptions outlining roles and responsibilities of the board members;
That demonstrate signing authorities require a minimum of two signatures, one of which is a board member;
On conflict of interest, code of conduct and complaints;
Confirming board members serve without remuneration;
To ensure an accurate return is filed with the Canada Revenue Agency within six months of year end.

Also:

Board meeting minutes must be accessible to the general membership;
Board meeting attendance is sufficient for quorum.

Documentation Requirements

These documents will be submitted to the City of Greater Sudbury on request:

Constitution of Incorporation
By-laws
Letters Patent and/or Articles of Incorporation
Conflict of Interest policy
Names of all board members
Minutes for the Annual General Meeting
Board-approved budget
Directors and officers insurance policy

Funding Agreement Default

The goal of the child care services management is to maintain funding agreements with child care programs. However, there may be occasions when an operator finds they are in default of their funding agreement. These will explain what a potential default is and what action the City of Greater Sudbury will take to fix it.

These events shall constitute funding agreement defaults:

Knowingly providing false or misleading information
Breaching any material requirements of the Agreement
Changes to operations which effect eligibility requirements
Changes in ownership or centre closure
Arrangement for the benefit of creditors is made
An event of Force Majeure has continued for a period of 60 days or more

Corrective Action

Child Care Services Management will work with programs to ensure that required standards are realized by providing the child care operator with an opportunity to fix the default. The City will inform the operator of the particulars of the default and provide a period of time in which to fix the situation.

If any of these defaults have occurred, the City may at any time take one or more of these actions:

Initiate any action necessary in order to facilitate the continuation or provision of services
Suspend payment of funds
Reduce amount of funds
Demand repayment of funds
Terminate agreement.

Appeal Process

Any decisions made by child care system support may be appealed by writing to the director of Childrens and Home Management Services. The child care operator should specify the reasons why they do not agree with the decision. The director will review the appeal and respond in writing within 10 days of receiving the written appeal.

Appeals are to be submitted to:

Miranda Mackie
Manager, Children Services Section, City of Greater Sudbury
705-674-4455 ext. 4279
miranda.mackie@greatersudbury.ca

Termination of Funding Agreements

Either party may terminate the funding agreement in whole or part with respect to the delivery of any particular service upon 90 days’ written notice to the other party. If the agreement is terminated in part, all obligations with respect to delivery of all other services continue in full force and effect.