to ask how you find childcare?

[tooquiet]

I'm a childminder who is looking for new mindees....AIBU to ask where you would go if you were looking for childcare, so that I know where a good place would be to start advertising!

Local council website ,local paper and play groups :)

maybe netmums local?

Another vote for local council website.

Also ask around friends / school gate.

Families Information Service first of all, put a free ad up on childcare.co.uk, put flyers up in your dr's surgery, local children's centre, library, school noticeboard, toddler groups, leaflet drop your school's catchment area.

Do you have a website, OP? The first way I looked for childcare in my area was online (while breastfeeding!). If someone had a website with Ofsted details easily accessible, that made me a bit more reassured. And info about fees/activities/opening hours and so on. I ruled out a number of places that didn't really suit me online (for example, I was able to see immediately that some people only minded 9-5 which wasn't possible for me) before narrowing down my list to a few people to call and visit. It's pretty easy to put together a basic website these days so perhaps worth a try if you don't have one?

Ok thanks for the tips, will try advertising in those places and the website idea is definitely a good one :)

Hi, I am a CM.

Local FIS, childminding forum.co.uk and childcare.co.uk are good. Most of my mindees through the years have been through word of mouth. Personal recommendation is always best. But you need to build a reputation of course. Have a website - looks professional and is very handy when handling inquiries. Pop everything on there, including photos of your home setting.

All the very best! :)

I found my childminder in the school playground.

netmums, can you advertise on Mumsnet local?, childcare.co.uk, adverts in the library (where I found mine), sometimes the LA holds a list of all the CMs in the area that they can send out to parents.

Oh yes, and a good website (you can set a free weebly website up) with photos of the environment etc.

Good luck.

I found mine in the playground as well.

Make sure your existing parents know that you have vacancies and mention it to people you chat to on the school run - I don't think you can beat word of mouth and personal recommendations.