Child Care

At the City of Surrey, building strong, vibrant, healthy communities is at the core of what we do. We believe it all starts with providing our children with the support and care they need to thrive and grow.

With more and more young families moving to Surrey, access to high-quality child care is more important than ever. We are contributing to the social and economic well being of our City, and helping to create a better future for everyone who lives here.

Child Care Room at Cloverdale Recreation Centre

Child care facilities

Learn how to set up a child care facility in Surrey.

Child care in BC

In BC, child care initiatives are led by the Ministry of Education and Child Care. In 2018, the provincial government launched ChildCareBC. This program is created to better support BC’s working families with more affordable access to quality child care spaces.

Although child care in BC is the responsibility of senior government, the City of Surrey and its leaders have always understood the crucial role it plays in the healthy development of our communities, and they continue to take action.

Our commitment to child care

Our commitment to prioritizing child care support services has helped to establish Surrey as a leading family-friendly municipality. We have been able to expand child care programs and services in Surrey by working with community and senior government agencies.

Child & Youth Friendly City Strategy

The Child and Youth Friendly City Strategy was adopted by Council in 2010. The Strategy identifies actions for the City to take to promote the healthy development of young people. The strategy focuses on engagement, physical environment, and civic services.

Strategy vision

The strategy envisions a community

Where children and youth are valued community members and actively contribute their time, ideas and perspectives to civic life
That promotes social connectedness
Where children and youth feel safe, have freedom of movement, green space and opportunities for play and imagination
Where all children and youth are able to access enriching and engaging programs and services that promote their healthy development regardless of their family’s income or background

How we make a difference

To help address the increasing demand for child care spaces in Surrey we continue to:

Establish partnerships with non-profit organizations to deliver quality, affordable, and accessible child care
Align partnerships with provincial priorities and programs
Roll out Surrey’s community Childcare Action Plan
Help identify childcare site feasibility
Provide leadership and support to Surrey’s Community Child Care Task Force

Child care at City facilities

City of Surrey & Alexandra Neighbourhood House opened the first ever full-day child care program located within a community recreation centre in 2010. Today, this program provides 108 full-day and part-time spaces for children up to the age of 12. In 2021, it became part of the province's program to offer child care at $10 per day.

Building on the success of the child care initiative at Kensington Prairie, the City of Surrey supported the creation of child care at the new City Hall in partnership with the YMCA. This program now offers 37 spaces and provides full and part-time options for families.

Other child care at City facilities include:

Elgin Centre (20 spaces)
Don Christian Modular (16 spaces)

Surrey Community Child Care Task Force

The City of Surrey co-chairs the task force with the Alexandra Neighbourhood House. The task force supports a strong universal system of early care and learning in Surrey.

Several members of the task force continued to apply for, and receive, the ChildCareBC New Spaces fund, and it is estimated that we collectively added 289 new child care spaces in Surrey. Additionally, 500+ new child care spaces were created in Surrey Schools for ages 5 and up.

Additionally, members of the task force are continuing to participate in the ChildCareBC New Spaces fund through the Province of BC. Since 2018, the Province has provided funding to create 2,842 new licensed child care spaces in Surrey and the total funding amount is $34,475,529 administered via the new spaces fund, start-up grant and UBCM programs.

Community partners include

Surrey School District 36
Non-Profit Child Care Operators
Fraser Health Licensing
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Metis Nation of BC
Options CCRR
Ministry of Education and Child Care

New and continuing afterschool programs

The City operates licensed afterschool programs at:

Maddaugh Elementary
Woodward Hill Elementary
Edgewood Elementary
David Brankin Elementary
Boundary Park Elementary
Martha Currie Elementary
Cedar Hills Elementary
Clayton Heights Elementary
Cloverdale Ball Park Children's Centre
Ellendale Elementary
AHP Matthew Elementary

What's next

We will maintain and grow partnerships to provide more quality child care in Surrey. Our efforts are paying off as we see more announcements for funding and child care spaces.

More than 325 new licensed child care spaces at City facilities

In 2021-2023, we received $18.2 million in joint Provincial and Federal Funding. This is helping to create approximately 325 new licensed spaces at City of Surrey facilities over the next five years.

These include:

Kensington Prairie Community Centre – 2022/23
Elgin Centre – 2023
Surrey Sport and Leisure Centre – 2025
Don Christian Recreation Centre Park – 2024
Bridgeview Community Centre – 2025
Strawberry Hill Hall
O’Siem Village at Hawthorn Park – 2025
Chuck Bailey Recreation Centre – 2025
New Newton Recreation and Aquatic Centre – 2029

Indigenous-based programs

$4.4M will go to the redevelopment of child care spaces at Chuck Bailey Recreation Centre. This will be an Indigenous based program operated by Métis Family Services.

Funds went to an Indigenous based program at Newton Community Hall. This is operated by Fraser Region Aboriginal Friendship Centre Association.

Child Care Policy and Planning Review

In 2022 we finalized the Surrey Community Child Care Action Plan and the Child Care Policy and Planning Review.

These strategies will guide us to create more affordable, improved, accessible child care spaces across our City.

Surrey Community Child Care Action Plan

We received two $25,000 grants to engage in child care planning activities from the provincial Community Child Care Planning Program. The resulting Surrey Community Child Care Action Plan was recently adopted by Council to share with the community.

The purpose of creating the action plan was to:

collect information regarding the child care needs of the community
create an inventory of existing child care spaces
identify space creation targets over the next 10 years
identify actions that can be taken to meet the new spaces targets

The action plan was shared as part of the grant requirements with the BC Ministry of Children and Family Development to help inform future investments in child care space creation through funding programs such as the Child Care BC New Spaces Fund.