Childcare.co.uk

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I do a bit of ad hoc nannying/babysitting and have always found my families on this website. I only have the free version but this has been fine for me. Yesterday I got an email to say that someone had tried to send me a message but as I didn't have the upgraded membership they couldn't view my details. Is this a new thing they've done or am I missing something?

I used it to find a childminder last month and just had a free membership. I could see the childminder's profiles but couldn't send a message so just googled them to find their childminding Facebook page. £10 a month just to send (a limited number per day) messages?!

Now you can contact gold members for free. So as long as the other member paid the fees you can send them a message.

I think it's the way they worded 'details.' So they could, in fact, view your profile but could not see your personal details, for example, mobile number or e-mail because neither of you have the upgraded account.

It is a new thing. It's so that all can message each other, but people cannot respond unless one of you has paid membership, but they don't tell the families that you don't have membership, so people may think that you are ignoring them.

I've had one who sent me a really snotty email after they found me on childcare and messaged me. Obviously I didn't reply as neither of us had paid so I couldn't even see their message, and when they later found me on gumtree they emailed me saying that they thought my childcare profile was really good and that I could have had so much work out of them had I not been so rude as to ignore them, but now I'd shown my true colours and proven that I don't care about potential clients they will be warning all of their friends against using me and I had lost soooo much business out of them and sooo much money

its such an annoying system - i refuse to pay £120ish a year to get possible work

if a parent is looking for work then they should pay a month fee and then be able to send messages for that time

the amount of times i get the same parents viewing my profile (get an email) and then i look at theirs, often its wrong ages/hours/days etc but im not going to pay a fee to say im not interested

why dont parents pay?

I paid on my CM account. It was only £27 a year. My membership is still open and I do use it.

It's not £27 a year?!

I must admit, I was going to pay a yearly membership last year when it was £70 for the year. Got the money together over a few months and when I went to pay they'd upped it That's when I decided that I was not going to pay for it. The two jobs I got from there were both by parents who had paid for it.

It's the same with the other enquiries that I have had from there.

I got 50% discount when I signed up and once you're with them the price stays the same each time you renew. Hence why my fee is so low ;)

Ah, you must have been on there for years then!

I'm a new childminder and don't intend to pay for the website, no way...there's lots of other sources to adv for free as gumtree, facebook and even better, your local childcare directory etc etc...I think as CM we already spend too much with courses and fees to have to pay for adv...but, it's up to each one of course :)

I am a new childminder too. I think £20 a month is too much, especially when I can advertise with my local group for £12 a year, facebook, gumtree for free. I am getting quite desperate for more business (only have one wee one and he is leaving me in June). If childcare.co.uk came in at under $10 a month I would seriously consider it.

I have been notified that a few people have looked at my profile, maybe 4 in the last 7 weeks. One parent came out to visit me, though wasn't a local parent and didn't work beside me. Think she just came to be nosey. She ended up going with a nanny.

When I was looking for childcare I used my local childcare directory. I feel surely most parents would do this so I am not paying for childcare.co.uk yet.

Parents will surely get fed up with childcare.co.uk too. They can no longer contact any childcare providers through it so you would think they would find other free ways of contacting childcare providers.

I looked at the site some years ago as I was a carer for a child and wanted to decide if it was worth pursuing more work. I didn't realise the costs at the time but I would be shocked if I found that was the price for a new member. Could you not contact them and suggest quarterly charges or something if it's putting you off? Maybe it's a bad decision on their behalf but too soon for them to realise it's not popular.

As a parent I've advertised using it. Total PITA to contact people and get no response so I'd recommend either putting your contact details in your profile or stating that you are currently employed

you cant put your contact details in profile as they remove them if you dont pay membership

i then said you can find me on fb/netmums (free) and that got taken off my ad lol

They even remove hints at being able to find you elsewhere. I had something like "I'm googlable" on mine as I use my full name but it got posted without that bit.

Yes I tried to say that I was on the local childcare directory and they took it out of my profile.

I tried looking for advice from childmindinghelp.co.uk about childcare.co.uk. Some people recommended them and others didn't but childcare.co.uk answered my post as well, trying to say they were value for money as paying your membership gives you free acccess to childminding policies. I am now registered so obviously no longer need any policies. I think childcare.co.uk must been affiliated with childmindinghelp.co.uk.

Same, I even tried copying someone who had put their mobile number in their profile but something along the lines of, zero seven six three four and so on. But even that got deleted!!! They must have been on there for a few years and their profile had not been reviewed for a long time!

It is getting annoying, however I do appreciate being able to message gold member parents now! But so many don't have it.