How do you find a childminder?? Nightmare

[justfoundout2014]

I live in Kimberley, Notts and have looked on childcare.com and care.co.uk and Pacey and there don't seem to be any here! The nearest are a four miles away so no good for school drop-offs etc. There were a couple nearer, but they both said they don't do my school!

Is there anywhere else I can try. I have booked the before and after- school club but it is expensive and inflexible, so I wanted to try childminders.

Thanks

Put a post on your local 'most wanted' type page on Facebook and ask for recommendations for local registered childminders.

I had the same nightmare. I live in a small community so asked n the village shop but eventually through a work colleague. Best of luck.

Have you tried local children's centre or your Hv team? Where I live there's also a family information service who can point people in the right direction for this sort of thing, and a council maintained list of all local registered childminders where they can have contact details if they want and sometimes list vacancies. Also have you asked around at school yet, or any school parents Facebook sites or email lists?

Have you contacted Family Information Service? They will know of ALL registered childcare in the area.

Nottinghamshire - Kimberley - Childcare
Best to call Nottingham County Council Family Information Service as not all providers will be listed online and it can be hard to work out from online details exactly where someone is located. You may want to give the postcode of the school as the point from which to search, as then childminders close to the school are more likely to collect from it.

Telephone: 0300 500 80 80
Email : [email protected]
Open Monday – Friday 8:00am – 8:00pm and Saturday's 8:00am – 12 noon.

I thought (but may be wrong) that if you looked on the ofsted page you can see if their are childminders near to you. I don't think you can find out there names, but a starting point to see if there are any registered cms near you. Do you have a child already at school? They may be able to recommend someone to you. The head teacher at our school is always pointing me out to people as a cm when they ask if there are any locally!

Have you tried all of these here

I find phoning around helps. If they don't have a space they usually know someone who does!

Also here

in my experience you need to get the word out amongst friends and family. everyone you speak to, ask them if they know a good CMer and get a contact. also post on your own FB page, ask friends to share and post on all local FB selling/advertising/mum's/town pages etc. get the word out everywhere that you are in the market for a CMer and you will get something and probably a fair idea of who is being recommended and who to avoid.

oh, also ask at school and post on the school's FB page if they have one.

In what way is a childminder more flexible than before and after school care? Generally most (but obvs not all) childminders have set drop off and pick up times and where I live the before and after school care is open earlier and closes later than all of the childminders. It is also always available as opposed to childminders who will be unable to work when they are sick, have holidays etc. I'm not saying that school clubs are better than a good childminder at all, just that they might not be as flexible as you think.

my breakfast club opens at 8. afterschool club is up til 4pm for p1s and 2s and up to 5pm for p3-7. they only collect from one school and also don't feed them

Cmers will take dcs from 7am til 6.30 (or 7) some will even work around shifts. some CMers will collect and drop off to your house, collect from different schools, feed your children a snack and evening meal. most CMers work with other CMers to provide care in the event of their illness. CMers are far more flexible than my DCs breakfast and ASC.