BY JOY FANG

CHILDCARE centres are pitching in to help parents juggle work and family demands.

Some are increasing their capacity to take care of more children. Others, like the Cherie Hearts Preschool in Temasek Polytechnic, are extending their opening hours on weekends.

Why are the centres taking these steps? To make sure working parents maintain a healthy work-family balance and, in the case of some companies like OCBC Bank, to support employees in line with the Government's goal of encouraging more working parents to have children.

Over at OCBC's in-house childcare centre in Chulia Street, parents are grateful that there are now more places. The centre - set up in January 2007 as a partnership between OCBC Bank and The Little Skool-House - recently increased its capacity by 19 to 112 due to overwhelming interest, said Ms Jacinta Low, head of the bank's human-resource planning and employee communications.

There are now 110 children using the centre's services, and many of them are children of OCBC's employees, who pay heavily discounted rates.

Ms Swanie Khoo, 33, an assistant vice-president in group human resources at OCBC, said having an in-house centre takes a lot of pressure off families. In the past, when both her children were at different childcare centres, she often had to juggle her work to 'meet their timeline'.

She said: 'It was a lot more stressful knowing I had to rush to pick up the kids when I'm stuck in a meeting.'

Cherie Hearts Preschool in Temasek Polytechnic recently extended its Saturday opening hours from 2pm to 3pm - at the parents' request.

'Some parents need more time because they wish to work or run some errands on Saturdays,' explained its principal, Ms Susan Chua.

Some centres are even prepared to help parents who are affected by the financial crisis.

Ms Rabiatul Adawiah, the managing director of Learning Vision, said: 'We want to help parents ride out this economic downturn together. Meanwhile, their children's education and learning opportunities must not be compromised.'

For more my paper stories click here.