Sponsored Post¦ It can be difficult to find childcare in your area. Word of mouth is often a good way to find someone, but what if you don’t have other mums who use childcare in your network? You don’t want to put your child in the care of just anyone, after all. This is where www.childcare.co.uk comes in handy. You can find all sorts of childcare options in your area as well as other useful services! I found this site invaluable to find a childminder I trusted a couple of years ago when I had to return to work after maternity leave.
What is Childcare.co.uk?
Childcare.co.uk is a website that helps you to find childcare in your area, whether that’s a childminder, a babysitter, a nanny or an au pair. There are also lots of other useful services too, including nursery nurses, household help, tutors, midwives and doulas! You can also find work in childcare too. The website is incredibly popular, with over 2 million users.
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon from Pexels
How does Childcare.co.uk work?
The site is free and easy to use! There are helpful filters allowing you to narrow the results down to exactly what you’re looking for. On their profile, each service provider has a summary of their training and experience, including whether they’re OFSTED registered or not. This is followed by an ‘About Me’ that they’ve written about themselves, as well as their qualifications, availability and reviews.
Using the site
Once you’ve selected what you’re looking for, entered your postcode and what distance you want them to be within, simply look through the results. I found over 150 childminders within 5 miles of me and over 330 babysitters! As well as viewing their profiles, you can message them or like them. As you scroll down the list, you can see how far the setting is from you and their charge per hour. It also displays a brief summary and their average rating on reviews. There are options to view their profile to find out more, to message them or like them. It also tells you how soon they usually respond, so that you know when you’re likely to expect a reply.
My thoughts
As I previously mentioned, I actually used the site to find a childminder two years ago. I loved how easy to use it was and how it was so simple to find out more about each childminder. I narrowed it down to a handful within minutes!
Over 2 years later, my daughter is still with the same childminder. She loves it there and we feel happy and comfortable with her being there. Even if you know of a childminder through word of mouth, it’s a great idea to look them up on childcare.co.uk. That way you can find out more about them and get an idea of whether they’re right for your family before you’ve even sent a message!
From my experience, I would absolutely recommend this website. The amount of information it shows about services is so useful. The site covers most of the things you would want to know about someone who is going to care for your child. It is the perfect combination of useful and easy to use. It also helped to give me the reassurance I needed that my daughter was in good hands when I had to go back to work.
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post for which I have received compensation. As always, all views and opinions are honest and my own.
Cover photo by Magda Ehlers from Pexels
I don’t currently have any good option for half term child care so I’ll be definitely looking into this.