The Saskatchewan government and United Way have teamed up to launch a website to help parents and guardians with their child care needs.

Parent Central allows parents to search for early years learning and child care services by location and provides information about availability of licensed child care across the province. The website was developed in partnership between the Ministry of Education and 211 Saskatchewan, which is an initiative by United Way.

“It’s essentially a one-stop shop where you can enter information regarding your location, postal code and what type of resource support you’re looking for,” said Director of 211 Saskatchewan Kristin Nelson.

United Way will coordinate with the centres to update the site on a regular basis with the most recent information on operation and availability.

Nelson added that having this centralized location is valuable not only to families, but to the government.

“Child care needs and that centralized waitlist will really allow data-driven decision making to guide future decisions related to child care,” Nelson explained. “The data side is really important in providing a centralized picture of what child care looks like in our province both from what’s available and from what the needs are.”

Funding for Parent Central was provided by the Saskatchewan government through the Canada-Saskatchewan Early Learning and Child Care Agreement.