What is everyone doing re childcare if working shifts?

[MrsBronte]

I work full time and my partner works shifts, 4 days on / four days off. Our 3yo DD attends nursery 4 days a week, 10 months old DD is at home looked after by my mum. That will not be an option in September so I was wondering if there are childminders/ nurseries out there that are flexible enough to accommodate my OH shifts ie so we only drop our DD2 to the childminder/nursery when he is working ? Then there's one day a week that we will sometimes need ( depending on oh roster) childcare for both DD's.
How's everyone managing the childcare? I'm finding it increasingly difficult alongside working full time , often having to leave the house at 6:30am in the morning. It stresses me out and makes me so anxious. I want the best for my DD's but at the same time thinking perhaps I need to look at finding a job closer to home ( commuting to London, hour each way, 5 days a week)

Any advice would be much appreciated.

You will need to ring around locally. Some cm's will charge you all week some just for time used it depends on what they need to earn and if they are happy to have a quieter day. But yes you can find someone generally. Nurseries tend to charge full time.

Thank you for responding . I think I'll start approaching childminders now so that I can find someone suitable come Sept .

I have two DC, and have always had to arrange the childcare we needed for me to work; my DH works shifts but we've never been able to find childcare that accommodates them. So when I worked three days we paid for three days nursery, despite not needing any days at all some weeks. It's soul destroying. The DC are both at school now, and we still pay for after school care we don't need, just because we need it some weeks. Over the nine years of childcare we've paid for so far, I think we've paid for at least a third more than we actually needed. Thousands upon thousands of pounds.

I hope you can find someone who will accommodate shifts!

Appin it seems like we will be in the same boat. All of the childminders I'm contacting say no to flexible hours/fee paid for weeks where my DC doesn't attend. I made an appointment on Friday to see a newly opened forest nursery which offers flexible hours so I am really hopeful this will be exactly what we are looking for.

As a childminder it is really impossible to offer the flexibility you require as it would leave a vacancy the rest of the week.
Around here I know some nurseries will accommodate shift patterns but you have to shop around

Yes, you're right. The more I'm looking into childcare options around here, the more I can see how difficult it would be for childminders to offer what we want. I didn't realise nurseries provide flexible hours but off by chance I saw a flyer for this new nursery at my local hairdressers and made an appointment to view it. It's really hard to think I might have to be paying for what I don't need if you know what I mean. Having two kids , mortgage etc things are tight as it is, despite the fact we both have decent wages. Maybe we are missing a trick or two. I don't know.

My childminder is fab. I only pay her for the days I use and because of shifts that means I can go 5 weeks without using her and still book them in whenever I do need her

I had to retrain into a job with more regular hours as it was impossible to make it work childcare wise

It does depend on the child-minder there are several near me who want a quieter day some weeks and others who take children on funding who are happy to send their children on different days as its more for respite having a shift and a child like this allows a cm to fill a full time space.
Some a winding down and only want one or two children and effectively be part time.

Thank you everyone for your replies.
I have now signed my DD1 to the nursery which provides flexible hours and specifically caters for people who work shifts, NHS staff etc. DD2 will join her after summer , she's still little so will keep her at home until Sept when I'm back to work after the summer holidays ( teacher ). OH will look after them both on his days off . Sounds like a perfect plan on paper, but let's see how it will all pan out when the time comes.