Finding reliable childcare with Childcare.co.uk – a review {AD} – Mummascribbles

AD – This is a sponsored post with childcare.co.uk. As always, all words and thoughts are my own. 

Looking for childcare hasn’t been at the top of my agenda for a while now, but I still remember when I was looking for a nursery when Zach was a baby. I had to go back to work when he was ten months old but I managed to phase my return, and he didn’t need to start until he was one thanks to my Mum looking after him three days a week. When it did come to finding a nursery, it was all a bit overwhelming. There were three that we could have chosen. Two were Sister sites and one was a standalone. I had always preferred the look one, purely on gut feelings about it, but the others had very good reviews and I found it really hard to choose – until I went to see the one I had always fancied and I knew that was the one.

A short time later we moved house and I had to find a new nursery. This time however, I was a bit more in the know and I used childcare.co.uk to do my research. It was a completely new area that we were moving to and so I had no idea what nurseries were around, so this website was perfect for me to find out what was on offer. And almost seven years on from that, that website is still going strong.

Childcare.co.uk is the UK’s largest online community of parents, childcare providers, household helpers, schools and private tutors.

They launched in 2009 and have been used by over 2 million people. There are two sides to the website – the side for parents looking for childcare and the side for child-carers looking for work. I obviously haven’t used it as a child-carer, but have been on there many times as a Mum looking for childcare.

You can use the website to search for a wide number of carers. Babysitters, childminders, nannies, nurseries, private tutors and schools to name but a few. It is as simple as popping in your postcode and choosing what you are looking (in this instance I was looking at childminders),  which then brings up a list of local results.

My initial search came back with 213 options to look through so I used the search filters to whittle them down a bit. I popped the distance criteria down to 1 mile away, because in reality, if I was choosing a childminder, I would want them to be as close as possible. I then looked at the other filters and chose Ofsted registered childminders initially. This combination of search criteria whittled it down to 17 results.

There are many filters on there including childminders with own car, childminders offering school pickups, and childminders who provide 2 year old free childcare entitlement. There is also a filter for childminders offering one-hour free childcare for women having smear testings. I selected this and had to expand the distance to just 2 miles before I was given a search result. I thought it was a great idea that not only do people offer this service, but that it is easily searchable too.

One key filter right now during the Cornonavirus pandemic, is the one that allows you to search for child-carers who are open for key-workers – and even those that are offering free NHS emergency childcare.

Once you have your filtered list, you can scroll through and see brief details before clicking the ‘view profile’ button. Something I really love is the minimum hourly cost on the main list, and also the response time, ‘usually responds within 15 minutes’. I like knowing roughly how long it is going to take someone to get back to me.

When you open the profile, it is full of information about the person. A summary of the skills they have, things that they offer, and particular experience they have. There is then an about me section, followed by experience and qualifications, along with availability, fees, reviews and whether they have added any of their documents to the online portal. Similar information is available when looking at nurseries and babysitters, as I am sure it is with all of the other options. It really is very thorough information.

If you are looking for childcare options then I would highly recommend using Childcare.co.uk as your first port of call. It is so easy to use and has a really simple sign up process. There are both free accounts and also paid for options depending on your level of searching.

Of course we are living in very strange times right now where not many people are thinking about childcare. However, there is going to be an end to this pandemic, the kids are going to be going back to school and nursery at some point, and childcare is going to be needed once again. Many families around the Country just received the school allocation news and with that, there will be many parents looking to organise before and after school childcare to fit around work. And of course, there are many, many amazing key-workers out there right now who still need childcare. Having all of your search options to filter through from the comfort of your own home makes it a far easier process and I am so glad that I have had access to Childcare.co.uk whenever I have needed childcare.