New home NO childcare in town

[ChildcareChildWhere]

Am I being unreasonable to be completely perplexed that entire towns can have basically NO childcare provisions?!

We have had an offer accepted on a house that has two local schools within walking distance. I naively thought that all towns/cities would be well equipped with childminders/private nurseries. However, it appears that there is only one childminder (who is obviously fully subscribed), and a nursery about 3 miles away that doesn’t pick up in the area after 3pm.

The school nurseries themselves seem great, but only one of them has a breakfast/after school club and even then I’d need to be home before 4.

I would have a 40 minute (ish) commute on the days I’m not WFH so would effectively be in the office from 09:15-14:45. Then have to make up the time once I’d picked little one up.

How on Earth are people supposed to work? No holiday clubs either.

have you looked for a setting closer to where you work?

He’s in a setting close to where I work at the moment, but he turned 3 in January so can start a school nursery. He’ll be starting reception next September so we’ll be in the same position then. Although maybe our current private nursery could be an option for the holidays!

Nanny?

You aren't unreasonable but it is the case.

Have you made enquiries with the childcare department in your local authority as they may be able to guide you.
The local authorities are aware of the falling numbers of childminders. Since Covid so many childminders in my area stopped & the council have not been able to replace them. The income can be very uncertain which isn’t easy when every bill has gone up & needs paying. Maybe your area can’t support a nursery if there is already school nursery provision or perhaps there was a nursery but it closed due to having staffing issues/high expenses

In your situation, I wouldn't bother moving him for the school nursery. I know you will have the same problem for Reception, but at least you have longer to try and sort something and also consider where to put first preference for Reception. Plus holiday childcare can be tricky at 3, as some holiday camps don't take until 4 or 5. Do the schools offer wrap around? Do they finish at 4pm? That seems very early if so, hardly worth having!

We didn't move DD to the school nursery for exactly this reason, she stayed at the private nursery till reception year and then went back there for holiday club until she was old enough to go to normal holiday clubs which usually require kids to be in year 1 or older.

Have you already moved or are you still looking? I wouldn’t move to an area if there is no childcare if you’re dependent on it for work, it’s one of the first things we looked at when deciding on our area. If there’s no childcare then you don’t have many option for preschool or when at school for during the holidays, you will have to use childcare out of the area and not use the school nursery, or try and negotiate with your, and DHs if you have one, job.

It's all those people who started working from home 3/4/5 days per week and didn't need afterschool care - they've reduced the demand so much, it's not worth the expense, intrusion and hassle for people.

Is there a local Facebook group for the town that you could join and ask, see if there's something you've overlooked? There must be other people with this issue in the area, not everyone can wfh, or would wfh with a young child anyway.

Does the school you have been allocated have breakfast/after school clubs? Not all of the ones round here do.

Id ask on Facebook but also ask the school themselves, they might know.

I struggled when DD came out of nursery as there was no CMs in our area which went to our school and school did no wraparound. I was saved by someone opening up as a CM at that point.

I know a lot of the CM I went to playgroup with 15 years ago have all retired. I can understand why people don’t want to do it though, lots of work and having your house taken over. My old CMs house looks like a nursery, her own children are teenagers now and it’s hard to balance their needs with all the small children coming and going.

We live in a place with not much in the way of childcare options. We're lucky that we do have a breakfast/ASC that comes to our school (though we don't use it) and runs a holiday club. But it's pretty much the only holiday club for miles and miles. Some people drive 50 minutes from a distant town to use it, as there is literally nothing else anywhere. There seem to be very few families like ours around here with two working parents and no family help. Everyone is a SAHM or works very PT or grandparents do everything. Whether than is a cause or an effect, I don't know.