As your child gets older their childcare needs changes. To begin with you might need a nursery or a childminder to provide you with cover whilst you’re at work, but as they get older you need wrap around care and maybe some babysitting. It isn’t always easy to find the right person or company for the job though. If you are new to your area and have no support network to turn to for advice or help then it’s harder still to source the care you need.
Childcare.co.uk is a multi-award winning online networking platform that helps connect parents, childcare providers, schools and private tutors to each other. Parents, childcare providers and tutors can create a free profile advertising their requirements or services that Childcare.co.uk publish on their website and mobile apps (available for iPhone, iPad and Android) . Unlike a traditional childcare agency they don’t charge commission fees or booking fees. Members deal direct, carry out their own checks and references on each other and negotiate their own rates. In fact, it’s possible to track down childcare or gain work without paying Childcare.co.uk a penny. Childcare.co.uk are the UK’s largest online childcare and tutors platform and have helped over 2,000,000 people find childcare, tutors and childcare work.
Now my son is at secondary school, my childcare needs are a bit different. He’s obviously a lot more independent now he’s having to negotiate up to 4 buses a day on the way to and from school. That said I don’t feel comfortable leaving him along in the house in the evening, so a babysitter (he would hate that term, but I’m not sure what you’d call it for a 12 year old) might be needed now and again so that I can meet up with friends or attend an event for work. I did a quick search and came up with numerous options for babysitting in my area. You can easily see the days they are available for work during the week, so you don’t waste time contacting someone who has a regular commitment in your time slot. You can check out reviews from previous clients and get an idea of their rates of pay. I looked for babysitters within a mile of my home and came up with 51 options to choose from – spoilt for choice.
Tutoring was the other potential use we would have for the site. As GCSEs come closer the pressure hots up in the school room and sometimes even bright children need a bit of a helping hand to help them achieve their full potential. You can search by subject area too, so it’s easy to find say maths tutors close by. The only thing is you will need to read through the profiles to see if they cover the age range or subject level that you are looking for, but you’d need to do that anyway to make sure you were picking the right one for you and your child. A search for a maths tutor within 3 miles of my home bought up 16 matches, so there is plenty of choice.
I can certainly see us using this site and it will be my first place to look when I’m needed to find a babysitter or a tutor as there is so much choice available.
Disclosure: This post is in association with Childcare.co.uk.
Sounds great, will take a look
looks like a good site x very useful x