Weekend Child Care

[gobbledegook1]

Can anyone please offer me some advice regarding weekend childcare.

I currently work weekends and desperately need childcare, I have previously relied on my partner (whom I don't live with and is not father to my children) to do this but things aren't really going great between us right now and he say's amongst other things that it is interfering with his own ability to work and he is therefore not happy to carry on with this arrangement.

The problem is that finding a childminder in my area that will do even one day over the weekend is almost impossible and those that will charge an hourly rate over and above the hourly rate that I am being payed and for longer hours to allow for commuting time meaning that even if I were to claim the childcare element of tax credits I'll probably only be breaking even which will make it almost pointless for me to go out and work.

I love my job immensely, it has great prospects and training with the potential for more hours in the future but I am beginning to realise that I may have no other choice than to look for something else.

Can anyone offer me some practical advice?

Have tried a advert on gum tree ?
It really depends on the age of the children and what you want the kids to .
Go out about or stay at home and play/do homework?
There are loads of people that we work ends from mothers to students to nannies /au pairs wanting a bit more money
It depends on where you live as to what you have pay.

Most childminders tend to work weekdays only and if they do work weekends there is a higher hourly rate. It may be wise to advertise for a nanny/babysitter and you could select one as your main weekend Childcare and use others as back up.

Not sure how old your children are but there are some nurseries and crèches which open on weekends.

Contact your local authority and they can give you information regarding Childcare in your area.

Where abouts are you?

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll give my local authority a try.

I am in the Greater Manchester area.

My son is 4. I do have another child but push come to shove he can always stay with his Dad.

It's a difficult one. I knew a mum at our toddler group who wanted to work Friday, Saturday, Sunday when she returned to work, so she got double time on Sundays and worked 3 days, being paid for 4.

She couldn't do it, because she couldn't get childcare at the weekend.

Could you not get a nanny/babysitter for weekend days? I've previously worked Saturdays 9-4 for a family I nannied for. Try posting on Childcare.co.uk - good luck!

do you work every weekend? if so maybe see if you can get 3 nannies/carers - so that they dont work every weekend

if the childs father about?

maybe try posting on your local netmums and gumtree and see what replies you get?

How much can you pay before it makes it unviable to work?

I would suggest googling nursery nurse colleges near you and then in September asking them to put an ad up for you. Most will be under 20 and therefore the minimum wage is about £5/hour (gross)- its less for 16-17 year olds. You're not allowed to state an age in your ad, but you can always discount anyone older.

You may find someone who is very enthusiastic, and really wants the experience, but you'll need to get someone to monitor them initially.

Yes Blondes I work every weekend (plus Monday's).

We (through my choice because of DV etc) have no contact with my son's biological father and as such do not ask for any financial help from him (not that we'd get any anyway). My DP has pretty much raised my DS as his own from a baby and my DS calls him daddy although he has been made aware that he actually has 'two daddies'.

Whoever does the childcare will be required to be ofsted registered for tax credit purposes so that rules out a babysitter and I'm not sure if nanny's are or have to be?

Karoleann I am literally living on a shoe string at the minute with a lot of priority debts to pay off, as of september when my money levels out from paying off housing arrears I will have in the region of £30 a fortnight (£15 a week) to spare until all my other debts are payed off in approximately 12 - 18 months time and thats with me relying on my DP to continue to fuel my car for me. Once DS starts school in September I will have before and after school club to pay out for too, where he previously had a government funded nursery place, to allow me to continue working Monday's at a cost of £12 a week. I have searched long and hard and have found a childminder fairly locally (provided she has spaces) that will do weekends for £4 an hour which is great but thats still £36 for a day plus the £12 for school club meaning that even if I can can get childcare tax credits to cover 50% of the cost my weekly allowance will be used up in just one weekend day. So basically it is already unviable for me to work without some level of help from family imo. This government keep saying how they want it to pay to work but it really doesn't. Granted I wouldn't be able to afford to run my car on benefits but then the main reason I need my car is because I work in the middle of nowhere where there is no form of public transport, it also makes transporting my autistic son between myself and his dad a lot easier as he is not local and costs more in public transport to get to than it does in fuel. My Mum is hoping to be able to give up a days work sometime next year to take over the Monday school runs which will be a big help when it happens but isn't much help to me right now.

Having had time to look into it a bit more and think it through I have decided the best thing I can probably do right now is to enquire about the one weekend day and cut back at home to cover the Mondays and hope I can get a family member to maybe agree on the other day at least on an alternate weekend basis to free up some weekend time for my DP so he doesn't feel quite so put on and will be able to get on with his own work more readily, he will no doubt be much happier and agree with that.

Nanny can be ofested reg but this cost the nanny money and the gain (apart from a job) nothing out it and it takes a while. So get get someone reg them but you have pay for the cost of it.
So I would advertise for ofested reg nannies as blondes says not everyone wants to work every weekend but you might find some that want to work every other and one to cover holidays and sickness .