Nursery staff won't provide out of hours care?

Just ask them if anyone would be interested babysitting DC x date from x to x for x£/ hour. They will either tell you yes or no. And they might say would love to but can't because there is a policy against it. Not your responsability, you are just asking, for them to decide.

Just a question : you do know that you should pay more than 5£ / hour though ? The going rate is 10-15/ hour...

Just ask the manager if they can connect you with any staff who do babysitting on the side. We used a private nursery, but that’s what I did and she connected me with two staff who did. One of them became our long term babysitter until we moved away. If you go through the manager, then it’s all above board.

Our extended family have quietly used two girls for a few years, they've done weekends and the odd evening. But they're not supposed to apparently.

You need to sort yourself out and ask. Asking wouldn’t get anyone in trouble. My sister used to babysit all the time for her key children.

Babysitting pay would be more than nursery

Ahh it’s a shame this is no longer allowed 20 odd years ago i did this ( management had no issues and staff were happy to) and the parents were great and paid well (better than my nursery rate of £5 an hour!) Never had any issues and the money was much needed.

a couple of posts have mentioned that's just 'being a parent' as if life should stop once you're a mother.

totally agree, OP can just ask!

Just ask the person who you want to do the babysitting and they will say yes or no. It isn’t a big deal at all, and there is no harm in asking.

And yes this obviously, not sure why you mentioned the hourly rate OP as the babysitting would be totally separate and you’d definitely need to pay more than that

Or if you REALLY can’t bring yourself to outright ask if they would babysit, ask for babysitter recommendations. If they are willing and able, they’ll recommend themselves.

No one is “tearing her down” for wanting a night out. Just wondering why she can’t ask a very simple question of people she sees every day!

This! Our bathroom fitter from B&Q is now the person we go to for plumbing and maintenance as he also offers freelance work.

Just ask or look in your contract. It will be there. I’ve used 4 nurseries and they’ve all been different. Some can some can’t. Just ask.

people are being weird about this
just ask quietly if anyone does babysitting on the side.
you’re not employing them as the nursery worker just as someone your child knows who does babysitting in addition to their day job.
it’s not really to do with the nursery.

When I worked in a nursery, many moons ago, lots of our staff, including myself did local babysitting too. It was separate to the nursery and not just for nursery children, usually advertised locally and lots of word of mouth recommendations. Lots of nursery staff are apprentice level or on a low wage so babysitting is a useful top up.

Wowsers, a couple of very uptight posters on here. So sad to see a few women happy to tear others down for daring to want to have dinner out with a friend whilst also being a mother.

for what it's worth when my DC was at childcare (5 years ago) it was very normal and common for staff to do out of hours babysitting for cash. It was a private agreement between the parents and the employees as individuals, not as employees of the childcare company. Almost everyone I know - all different childcare companies - used childcare workers for occasional evening babysitters. Not everyone is lucky enough to have healthy, willing, local and available parents nearby to babysit. A childcare worker who knows your child and has qualifications in childcare and first aid seems an ideal babysitter to me!

Why not word it as asking for a recommendation? Ask the child's keyworker , I'm looking for a babysitter do you know anyone who you would recommend? Someone other parents use regularly or someone who works here? That way if she says oh we're not allowed to babysit for parents, you say oh I'm so sorry I didn't realise and I was just looking for any recommendation, and if she says well actually I'd do it, great.
No one upset either way

Just because something is written in a contract, doesn’t mean it’s enforceable.

I doubt the council can do much about preventing their staff from doing childcare after hours as they don’t own an employee 24/7 and presumably the employee is being paid somewhere around minimum wage?

@ThatMauveSquid As others have said, quietly ask the employee when she’s out of earshot of other staff.

Why on earth is your friend scared to use a taxi? Can you go and pick her up if it's so nearby (taking baby with you)

So you’d like someone from the nursery to babysit, but you haven’t asked, don’t want to ask and haven’t checked the T&Cs to see if this isn’t allowed.

in the nicest way possible, are you looking for advice from this thread?

They're traveling from overseas but don't feel comfortable in a taxi?

Go out for dinner if you prefer (and don't ask the policy on staff covering our of hours care, ask the person you'd love to babysitting quietly if she knows anyone who would babysit on X date).

OP are you expecting to pay £5 per hour for babysitting?

Around here, the nurseries that don't allow their staff to babysit have the rules because of nanny poaching. It happens more than you'd think! I think just ask them, you may be surprised and they may be fine with it.

I’ve asked nursery people to help babysit before on occasion. I know lots of people who had nursery staff over to help babysit on a regular basis!
I think they are usually so badly paid they are all grateful for some extra cash
poaching them to work as Nannies wouldn’t really work round here- no one has enough income for that

Don't call it "out of hours care"

Just ask if any of them also do some babysitting.

The language matters. Anyone from teens up can babysit. It makes it clear you're not asking them to work as a nursery worker, which comes with legal implications