One of the biggest decisions I’ve had to make as a mum of 2 has been finding the right childcare for my boys. There isn’t anything more daunting than putting someone else in charge of caring for your children.
As a working mum I know how much peace of mind it brings to have the right childcare in place that isn’t going to let you down. To have a one stop site to go to is amazing and shows how far childcare provision has come over the years. Over 1,800,000 people have used Childcare.co.uk to find childcare or childcare work since they launched in 2009.
What is Childcare.co.uk?
If you haven’t heard of Childcare.co.uk before, it is the UK’s largest online community of parents, childcare providers, household helpers, schools and private tutors. They make the task of finding the right support for you easy. The list of specialised carers is vast, you can choose from babysitters or childminders through to nursery nurses and private midwives, with a bit of everything in between.
So, what can you expect when you visit the site?
What struck me most was the large range of services you can get. I tried the search function which is where you put in what you are looking for, which for me was ‘babysitters’. Now you state within how many miles of your postcode your search can cover, then you have the filter button which for ‘babysitters’ bought up a huge list of different types of babysitters. I was so surprised that there were so many! On offer were; 24hr babysitters, male, female, hotel babysitters, babysitters with special needs experience as well as babysitters with newborn experience, the list went on and on. What this really helps with is not thinking that you have found the right person only to be told that they don’t have the specialist experience that you are looking for.
This is ideal to use if you have friends visiting too. For our wedding in May we have lots of relatives making the journey from other parts of the UK and from Germany. This service is ideal for our friends and family to enjoy our weekend wedding and make the most of travelling without any stress. Imagine being able to go to a family wedding for the day with the kids and then have a babysitter come to your hotel so that you could also have an evening out with the grown ups, it’s a win win for the whole family. I gave it a thorough testing with different requirements and it kept coming up with a wide selection and availability.
It is free to sign up for an account and to make it even more user friendly you can download the app from either the apple app store or google play. Most of my planning comes when I’m on the move and my phone is where everything gets done so an app is crucial to me.
What do you think of Childcare.co.uk? Have you used them before? What are your experiences of arranging childcare? I’d love to hear your views.
Collaboration post
It’s so hard finding good childcare isn’t it! This is a great resource for many parents #kcacols
what a wonderfully useful site xx #kcacols
This sounds like such a good idea for babysitters! #KCACOLS
I have never actually used this service but sounds great. There is nothing more important than finding the right fit for your family. #KCACOLS
Sounds a great service for when you need a helping hands X #kcacols
we were lucky enough to be able to switch out working schedules around and have local grammies so never had to go through this but I can imagine it would be very stressful. Looks like a great service #KCACOLS
This is a really good idea, I just had to do a lot of research myself when my daughter went to nursery! #KCACOLS
I’m lucky that I don’t need to worry too much about baby sitters or child care any more as my girls are older now, but I can see that it’s a great resource #KCACOLS
It all gets a bit easier the older they get doesn’t it:)
i hadn’t even heard of this site before reading this post but will definitely be checking it out as it sounds great! #KCACOLS
I’ve been close to using this site in the past but have been very fortunate to find excellent childcare by word of mouth and ‘suck it and see’. Great to have something like this as a back up though. #kcacols
I used childcare.co.uk all the time to advertise vacancies when I was a child minder#kcacols@_karendennis
I’ve never used this kind of service, but it sounds like a great idea! #KCACOLS
When you put someone else in charge of caring for your children, you want the best. Childcare.co.uk sounds like a service I can trust.
#kcacols
It’s always great when you find great child care #KCACOLS
Getting reliable childcare is so hard and is one of the reasons I went self employed! It’s great to know there’s a stress free alternative to hand.
#kcacols
Yes it’s a real tough one when you are working.