Parent Central website to provide families with info about child care

Families looking for information about child care in Saskatchewan now have a website to help them find it.

On Wednesday, the Saskatchewan government and the United Way announced the creation of an online portal called “Parent Central.” It has details about licensed child care, programming and services for children up to six years of age.

“211 Saskatchewan plays an important role in helping everyone, especially our most vulnerable, learn about available community services and how to access them,” United Way Regina CEO Robyn Edwards-Bentz said in a media release.

“COVID-19 has demonstrated that accessing quality child care, as well as parenting information and services, is imperative for all. We are proud to partner with the Ministry of Education’s Early Years Branch to launch this portal. Whether it’s through the phone, website, text or chat, 211 is there to help when you need it the most.”

The website allows people to search for early learning and child-care services by location and gives them details about availability of licensed child care in the province.

The United Way is tasked with getting child-care facilities to update the website regularly with the most up-to-date information.

The government funded Parent Central through the Canada-Saskatchewan Early Learning and Child Care Agreement.

In the 2021-22 budget, the government promised to create 176 new licensed home-based spaces and 51 new licensed centre spaces as part of its four-year commitment to create 750 new licensed child-care spaces in the province.