Yangcheon-gu Operates Year-Round Night-Specialized Overnight Emergency Care Childcare Centers

Lee Gi-jae, Yangcheon District Mayor, spending time with children

Emergency nighttime and overnight childcare (7:30 PM to 7:30 AM the next day) for urgent cases such as business trips, overnight work, and accidents, addressing childcare blind spots

Nighttime childcare centers capable of overnight care expanded significantly from 1 to 24 centers, improving accessibility

Consultation and application available at any public daycare center in the area, with one-stop linkage to childcare centers offering overnight care

Available year-round for infants and toddlers aged 12 months to under 6 years

Yangcheon-gu (Mayor Lee Gi-jae) announced that starting from the 16th, it will promote the 'Yangcheon-style Overnight Emergency Childcare Centers' together with 85 public daycare centers in the district, providing overnight childcare services at 24 of these centers to ensure parents can confidently receive childcare services even during emergency situations at night.

The 'Yangcheon-style Overnight Emergency Childcare Centers' is a signature project of the 8th elected administration and is a specialized program unique to Yangcheon-gu, somewhat differentiated from the ‘Hub-type Nighttime Childcare Centers’ and ‘365 Open Childcare Centers’ currently operated by Seoul City.

There is a difference in operating hours compared to Seoul City's Hub-type Nighttime Childcare Centers (weekdays from 4 PM to 10 PM) and 365 Open Childcare Centers (7:30 AM to 7:30 AM the next day, up to 24 hours). In particular, there are a total of 11 365 Open Childcare Centers in Seoul, and Yangcheon-gu operates one workplace daycare center at the district office.

Reflecting the on-site demand for childcare services that can be trusted even during nighttime in urgent situations such as sudden overnight work, business trips, accidents, or hospitalization for dual-income or single-parent families, and after gathering opinions from directors of public daycare centers in the area, the Yangcheon-style Overnight Emergency Childcare Centers have been significantly expanded.

First, to eliminate childcare blind spots, nighttime care (19:30 to 07:30 the next day) is provided year-round on a regular basis.

Second, the number of operating institutions has been balanced and expanded by region, greatly improving accessibility. Since the only 365 Open Childcare Center operating in the area is the Yangcheon-gu Office workplace daycare center (located in Sinjeong 6-dong), and residents in Mok-dong and Sinwol-dong had difficulties using the service late at night in emergencies, the district expanded nighttime care centers by region to ▲9 centers in Sinwol-dong, ▲7 centers in Mok-dong, and ▲7 centers in Sinjeong-dong.

Third, convenience of use has been enhanced through collaboration with all public daycare centers. When applying for admission consultation at any of the 85 public daycare centers nearby, a system has been established to connect children in a one-stop manner to childcare centers (23 centers) that offer nighttime care.

Yangcheon-type Overnight Emergency Care Daycare Center Location Map

The service is available for infants and toddlers aged 12 months to under 6 years residing in Yangcheon-gu. Operation methods include advance reservation (by phone) or on-site registration. For weekday use, applications must be made by 7 PM on the day of use, and for weekends, by Friday in advance. Each child can use up to 80 hours per month, and the childcare fee borne by families is 1,000 KRW per hour. For safety reasons, children admitted cannot leave between 10 PM and 7:30 AM the next day, and use is restricted if the reason is not urgent, such as travel or entertainment.

The district plans to open an application window through the district website bulletin board so residents can easily apply for the service via the internet or smartphones in the future.

Meanwhile, on March 16, the district will hold a collaboration declaration ceremony for 'Yangcheon-style Overnight Emergency Childcare' with 85 directors of public daycare centers at the Yangcheon Digital Media Center and officially begin operations.

Lee Gi-jae, Mayor of Yangcheon-gu, said, “The recent low birthrate problem is serious, and especially during the early childhood period when care is most needed, it is urgent to solve the childcare gap where there is no proper place to leave children.” He added, “Through the Yangcheon-style Overnight Emergency Childcare Centers, we will strengthen the public nature of childcare and accelerate the creation of a childcare environment that parents can trust 24 hours a day.” Furthermore, he stated, “Based on this project, we will do our utmost to contribute to solving the low birthrate problem and to create an educational city Yangcheon where both parents and children can be happy.”