Looking for flexible, affordable & reliable childcare

[ash90603]

Hi Fellow Mums,
Being a mother myself, I have always struggled with finding quality childcare when I needed it the most. There is a massive need for quality childcare available whenever needed and nothing is being done.

I have put forward an idea of a comphrehensive chilcare app that will connect parents with all types of childcare providors (from baby sitter, childminders, to full time nurseries). All carers will be throughy verified and vetted, ofsted checked and DBS registered. Parents would be able to find the best chilcare solution within minutes through this app and can monitor their child's activities via live streaming.

However need as much public support to prove that this idea has enough supporters to be considered for funding.

Pl provide your support and vote here to make it happen: www.vmbvoom.com/pitches/flexicare

Thanks
Ayesha

[lovelynannytobe]

It should be Ofsted registered and DBS checked not the other way round.

[ash90603]

You are right. Writing while feeding the baby haha
Thanks for highlighting it.
Pl do vote for the idea :)

[IceMaiden73]

Apps are very expensive to write and maintain, so presumably you would charge a fee for the app to be used?

Have you actually costed it up, as it will run into tens of thousands of pounds

I'm not saying it's a bad idea, I just wonder how you will finance it

Also, how will you check the carers?

[BeccaMumsnet]

Hi ash90603 - we're going to move this over to our Start-Ups topic.

[purplemunkey]

Isn't that pretty much childcare.co.uk?

[purplemunkey]

Oh, missed the live streaming bit. I don't see that as very practical. All the parents would have to agree to images of their children being broadcast, no?

[ash90603]

IceMaiden73, yes you are right, Apps is an expensive business. I am proposing a web app so it's not dependant upon the operating system and can work across platforms. It can easily be loaded on the desktop as a shortcut as well and don't need renewals post every software update.

This is one of the key reasons to join the VOOM startup competition so I can get the seed funding required to implement this.

Re. Checking Carers, it will be a tiered approach. All day cares etc would be based on ofsted registeration while all childminders / nannies / baby sitters would be on our payroll. So they will be our employees with proper hiring process & training to go through so we can maintain the quality. Lastly, since I am offering flexibility in availability, need people who are willing to work over evenings / weekends on a short notice. Therefore, all the more important to have a proper staffing plan.

Please do vote to make our child at system more flexible.

[ash90603]

Hi PurpleMunkey, it's a FREE version of childcare.co.uk. I don't plan to charge any membership or booking fees. Thus need funding from such competitions to give me the flexibility to manage my costs in the initial years. Once we hit a certain number of people we will open our platforms to advertisers so it continues to be a free platform for parents and carers.

Agreed on the live streaming feature being intrusive and is subject to parents agreement. This is esp. designed keeping in mind places where one or few children are looked after. So parents have complete peace of mind abt the child's activities. All videos collected from this source will be used only for care purposes with the consent of parents / guardians and kept confidential.

Please can you vote for me and spread the word within your network. Thanks:)

[SquirmOfEels]

If you're not going to charge membership or booking fees, how will you make enough money to have enough staff actually available?

You might have to drop the 'flexible' bit from your blurb (or be really upfront about what the lead time is) and if you have to bill the parents an additional amount on top of the cost of the childcare to cover your overheads, you may find out you lose out on affordability (or at least you need to drop the nurseries and probably the CMs from your plan - who'd pay more than their normal rate just because of how they were booked?)

Sorry to sound so sceptical, but you appear to be wanting to open a nanny agency whose USP is webcams (which, for home based childcare the parents could install for themselves).

[purplemunkey]

I used childcare.co.uk to find our childminder and didn't pay anything.

This sounds more like an online agency through so I think it's something very different. I'm not really getting it to be honest, but perhaps I'm not your target market.

[nannynick]

"All carers will be throughy verified and vetted"
This part will cost a lot of money to do. Meeting the carers, checking references, verifying qualifications. You would need various people throughout the UK or whatever the area covered, so that carers did not need to travel too far to meet.

[purplemunkey]

Reading the full blurb on the link - is the concept more of a sort of Uber for childcare? There's lots of talk about 'on demand' and 'in minutes'. If that's right, I don't think I'd like to book childcare that way so I'm definitely not the target market.

[Gotheftosleep]

I don't quite understand your pitch. How will you fund the DBS checks without any income? How are you going to advertise for carers? I also think the statistics you're quoting aren't overly helpful - it's not just mothers who need childcare. I'd be more interested in statistics that show the gap in the market and how the services you will provide will capitalise on that.

[Gotheftosleep]

I do like the idea - just think you have a few holes in your business plan that you need to address!

[nannynick]

There is some demand for ad hoc care. There are some people providing that - I do for a few clients but not many. I far prefer being employed on a permanent contract.

Ad hoc care does not tend to be viable for the childcare provider, as providers usually want a regular income as they too have bills to pay. There are corporate services which do provide ad hoc care, but they are paid for by large companies who value their employees so much that they will pay a very high hourly rate so that their employee can still come in to work if their regular childcare has fallen through for some reason - take a look at Emergency Childcare.