With young children I feel you have a few options open to you, especially as you are planning well in advance:
- Local Childcare College Student
- Local nursery workers
- Local Nannies
- Local agency
- National agency
Things to try at this stage, as you have quite a bit of time are:
Postcard sized advert in local shop windows/notice boards. These days it can be hard to find places which do this form of advertising, so if you are Winchester City based, you may need to try the local villages, where there may be one local village shop that everyone locally uses.
Local NCT group - other parents with young children locally may know of reliable babysitters.
Online advertising, such as at Gumtree - think Southampton one would cover Winchester, NannyJob Babysitters section
You may find someone by searching on Google - link should give you results for "babysitter winchester uk"
(Strange thing, just did that particular search, and I come top of the list... hmm, little odd as I don't cover Winchester area. So don't assume the results will give you totally accruate info.)
Nursery and Pre-School staff can be a good source. Easier if your child already attends a group, but no harm in contacting some on the off chance. I'd avoid the big chain nurseries, as they tend to have policys about staff doing babysitting... instead look at the small local groups. You can find local nursery/pre-school contact details via searching Childcare Providers at Ofsted and via ChildcareLink
Nanny Agencies will sometimes also provide babysitters. Look in Yellow Pages / Yell.com, Thompson Local, and search using Google.
Perhaps you will find someone via Mumsnet - try posting in the Childcare Classifieds section - Nanny shares
Some local Colleges will allow parents to advertise. Winchester University does childcare courses, and have a JobShop which may be worth contacting.
Local newspapers can sometimes bring good results, though cost can sometimes be high.
Ask around at todder group, music group, swimming etc. Word of mouth recommendations are always good.
There is another parenting website (which I don't think I am allowed to mention) which allows parents to post childcare wanted adverts. Try google searching for "childcare board".
If none of that is sucessful, then try contacting the national babysitting agencies. If you don't know they are, then just type "babysitting" into Google and their adverts will usually appear.
Hope thats of help.