before and after school care problem

[Bronte]

Any advice gratefully received.
I leave for work at 7:30am and some days partner can do the dropping off depending on his work schedule. Other days he is away and we need cover at both ends of the day. So there is no regular pattern. School provides no facilities before and after and we don't live near relatives. We used a cm for the first term but she gave notice because she was really dedicated to another school run and she relied on her husband to pick up my dd.
My neighbour helped plug the gaplast year as she doesn't work and both her children attend the same school. I was then able to take over when I had my 9 months maternity leave. I paid her £5 an hour. I will have to ask her to help out again but I am not sure whether she wants to commit herself again because she has never come to me to say she would be happy to continue once I returned to work. There are 2 classroom assistants who live on our estate who might also help out.

Could you ask your neighbour how she would feel about doing it again? Tell her that it's not a problem if she can't, but thought you'd give her first "refusal"?

Would you consider an au pair? How old are your child(ren)?

I would ask your neighbour. She may not want to ask you herself, she might feel like she'd look pushy. Just phrase it in a casual way so she doesn't feel put on the spot if she doesn't want to do it.
I think your best bet would be to ask around locally for someone to do it casually, I'm sure a lot of mothers would be happy of the extra cash.
Alternatively, you could look for a local childminder, but you may find you have to pay for a set minimum of days/hours, as you will be taking up two places.

I would look for a proper childminder as long term it would be easier if you have a contract etc. Also you need to have insurance if anything god forbid went wrong. What about an aupair?

dd1 is 7,dd2 is 13 months. Thanks for the replies. I will try the other listed cm's, but it's a limited list! i had already visited one and was all set to go ahead but now she has changed her mind cos she says she really needs full time children. another cm doesn't have space at the moment.

Where abouts are you as us childminders on here know lots of other childminders.........you may be lucky!

I'm in keighley, west yorks where abundant and quality cm's are thin on the ground. I don't think we'd have the same problem if we were still living in leeds.