Tips to Consider when Sourcing Childcare

Keep in mind that these tips might need to be altered a bit depending on the age of your child/children but they should be a good starting point for finding the help and the care that you need.

• Check references

No matter what, check the references of the applicants. Find out who they’ve cared for before, see what ages that they have experiences with. From there you can see if it’s possible to talk to the other families that they’ve worked with. Do what you can to get a vibe and a feeling about their level of care.

• Be realistic about what you can pay

Finding the balance between paying a decent amount for childcare and paying too little can be tough. You don’t want to overpay but you don’t want to hire “just anyone” because they’re more affordable than the other options.

Be realistic about your pay scale before you start to look to hire so that you can then not set yourself up for unrealistic expectations.

• Make certain your child is comfortable with who you choose as well

If your child is old enough to talk and communicate with you, have them be a part of the childcare choosing process. Let them meet the person that you’re considering hiring and see what kind of vibe that your child picks up from them.

Children have a great instinct about people that shouldn’t be ignored. If your child feels comfortable with someone, consider that in your line of decision-making during the process.

• Make out a list of qualifications that you’re looking for

When you’re hiring someone to care for your child, it isn’t a time to just wing it and roll with it. Have a list of qualifications that are a “must” for your choice, and don’t stop until you find someone that fits the bill. Even though you aren’t there to take care of your child during certain points of the day, that doesn’t mean that you can’t find someone else who can do a stellar job like you’re wanting them to.

These simple tips for outsourcing childcare are a great place to start. When it comes to finding someone to care for and love your child as much as you do, it’s always going to be hard shoes to fill.

Childcare.co.uk

Following huge amounts of online research and asking around and taking the above into account, I have come across childcare.co.uk who are the largest childcare site in the UK where over 2 million people have used it to find childcare or a job in childcare since it was launched in 2009. That is very impressive and a firm testament to its usefulness and value.  It is super easy to sign up and no payment details are required. It has 2 main strands:

1. Search for childcare – simply pop in your post code and it will identify providers near you. Setting our reviews, experience, qualification and fees. There is also the facility to chat to carers.
2. Search for childcare job – again simply pop in your post code and it will bring up those seeking childcare near you. From there you can safely talk to parents through the secure platform. This side of the site also provides access to over 250 training courses from leading training providers.

Resources such as childcare.co.uk can prove invaluable for parents, after all leaving your most precious people can be a very daunting experience so a service which is backed my years of experience, real parent reviews and a secure platform to be able to engage with the potential carer is hugely important in my view.

The site itself is very user friendly with a wealth of other features, for example you can even use it to find a local private tutor.  Its akin to a social network for parents, childcare providers and private tutors.  Sites like these have really come into their own during the current worldwide pandemic as you can access short term/ emergency child care locally as well as the usual longer term positions.  The world is evolving, particularly in terms of ways of working and technology and sites like this are enabling us to keep pace with it, for example easily find last minute childcare in your area.

It really is worth a look and id love to know what you think in the comments below.

Note: This is a collaborative post