Recommendations for Babysitting Service/Agency

[BrooklynMamma]

I may be wishing on a star, but I'm looking for a recommendation for a babysitting service/agency that serves London, one that is as professional and convenient as the large/national agencies, but one that is smaller and thus more able to cater to the needs of individual families.

Though I really like the convenience of large babysitting services, I have neither the time, patience, nor interest in spending money on interviewing and training new babysitters on a regular basis. More importantly, I don't care to leave my daughter with new babysitters upon each instance that my husband and I need to step away from the house without her. I know that it is possible to request a particular sitter, time and again, with the large agencies, however I've found it exceptionally difficult to regularly book the same sitter via the larger services.

When I lived in the U.S., I lived in a very large city that had a great babysitting service that served a large segment of the city, but was still small enough to cater to the needs of individual families. When I needed a regular babysitter on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I could put in such a request, and the agency would only send over sitters for interviewing that were regularly available on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The agency also staffed its services with university students and others who had regular/fixed schedules and availability, as opposed to (as I've found with the larger agencies) individuals with schedules that fluctuated regularly, or who were only available during small windows of time each week.

In any event, I just made three bookings with one of the larger/national agencies, and three different sitters (who I've never met) have accepted the bookings. I'm absolutely at the end of my rope with this sort of result, so if anyone has any suggestions for alternative services that are able to provide more consistency in terms of babysitters, please let me know.

Thank you, in advance, for any feedback.

Why not recruit your own independently? That way you can only select those who meet your availability requirements and you're not at the mercy of an agency deciding whether they send you someone new each time?

I think with almost any babysitting service, if it's ad hoc, you can't guarantee that by booking through them you'll get the same sitter. The only way to do that is to have an agreement with the sitter which is usually against their 'rules'.

I like the idea of smaller agencies, interesting to know they exist in the US.

Some nanny agencies have an evening babysitting service, so would be getting sitter from a smaller pool of people, maybe try finding one of those.

70% bookings I through sitters are the families I babysat for before. I only take booking within 5 miles from me. Some bookings come through weeks in advance. If you have left your sitters nice comments and added them to your favourites list the problem may be either the distance or the sitters have already accepted another booking or they are unavailable/don't want to take the booking for other reasons.
I also babysit for families from childcare website. I always offer to meet before the first babysitting ... the only downside for them is they have to do the legwork ... check the references etc ... these families are very local. I think if you put a free profile there and specified you are looking for a babysitter you would get a lot of interest from local babysitters.

NomDeClavier, I'll start looking around to see if I can find any reputable, family-friendly spots that might have a bulletin board for such postings (i.e., school bulletin boards, dance/kiddie gym bulletin boards). I've relied primarily on recommendations from friends or on professional services in the past, since I'm a bit hesitant to reach out to the general public when it comes to babysitters. However, I suppose that I don't have a great number of options at this time. All of our nearby contacts have F/T nannies who usually have no additional availability during the daytime, and since the large babysitting services aren't working out for us, I think that recruiting sitters is a good option, right now. Thanks, again.

Cindy34, I didn't realize that some nanny agencies have an evening bookings service; thanks for the tip. In this case, I will also reach out to our nearby contacts with nannies to see if the agencies that they have used and trust offer an evening bookings service. This won't take care of daytime coverage, but it seems like a decent option for evenings. Thanks.

Lovelynannytobe, during our first two months in London, we did manage to find a really great babysitter through a large service (and gave her a great online review/agency feedback), but nonetheless she was only available on Wednesdays until 15:00. The other sitters that accepted bookings with us during that time also had similarly restrictive schedules (one only on on evenings after 6, the other only available on Fridays). We only ever learned/could learn of this limited availability after the babysitter showed up for a minimum of a 3-hour booking. Turned out that all were P/T nannies who only had a day or part of a day regularly available, each week, for other jobs. So, following our most recent request for three bookings that resulted in bookings with three different sitters, I've just given up on the service entirely; it is simply unsuitable for my family. I understand that not all sitters are available on all days, that some have travel restrictions, and other requirements. However, that is exactly why I'm now looking for a smaller service that can assess the availability of its babysitters and connect me with someone whose availability matches my babysitting needs. Thanks to you, as well, for the feedback.

As you are referring to daytime care (babysitting in the UK is evening care mostly) then how about asking some local childminders (they care for several children at their home, so it would not be 1:1 care unless you get lucky) if they do ad-hoc care. You can get a list of childminders from your local council Family Information Service.

Also there are some nurseries that offer pay-as-you-go sessions. Not sure how common that is but it may be something to consider. Also some creches based at gyms/health clubs/leisure centres are registered such that you can leave children there without you having to remain on site. So another possible option, though like nurseries and childminders this is care away from your home, care for multiple children, not 1:1 care.

Im on the other end of the spectrum in that Im looking for babysitting work but don't really like the large babtsitting companies as it feels a bit like a scramble for jobs that come in which are then allocated to the person that replies and says they are avaialbe first rather than the need of the family. I have also been sent to jobs by large agencies who have clearly not met the family and checked on their suitablility which has left me in awkward situaitons. I have all the relevant checks but wondered if parents still prefer to go through an agency insetad of replying to a card posted on a noticeboard by a professional like myself?