OMG - Childcare Link will be listing Home Childcarers soon

[nannynick]

As some of you may know, one of my pet projects over the past few years has been trying to get childcare providers such as myself listed on Childcare Link.
Post arrived today - my local County Council have sent me a letter, with tear off slip for Opting-In to being listed on ChildcareLink.
Went on ChildcareLink website, still no search option, but at least there does seem to be progress.

If you are wondering why this is important... over the past couple of years, parents who look for childcare quite often use the online ChildcareLink to conduct the initial search. If you look through archives on here, you will see posts from parents saying they have contacted all the childminders on the list, but none have a space... then they get told that ChildcareLink is a sub-set list, so to get the full list they need to call their local council. I feel it is clear that many parents look on the net first... so being listed on ChildcareLink can help boost enquiry numbers.

A step in the right direction then Nick.

Great news

Good news nick is this just in your area or nationally?

I agree CIS is often parent's first stop, so it's important all options are there for them to see.

No idea alas. The iChIS website is still showing current release as version 4.7, so not sure how Surrey have managed to get the database to handle home childcarers. Will wait and see what happens.

Having done a bit of nosing around iCHis website research, it appears to me that LA's are to implement their own database systems. "Having established their own FIS information systems, each LA will be asked to make their (non-confidential) data available to a centralised system via automated data transfer" (FIS Database Procurement Briefing Note, May 2008)

Thus this implies to me that soon Surrey will be managing their own database of Childcare providers and will be able to publish a sub-set of that data to a national portal, which I suspect will retain the ChildcareLink.gov.uk domain name.

I am trying registering with Ofsted at the moment and they asked me if I wanted to be on a local searchable database.

Am in Bristol, do you reckon this is the same thing Nick?

Could be a connected thing. LA's are supposed to have their own system established shortly linking into the new national system later during 2009.
It is quite possible that your LA has got their system already up and running and have a trial of making some of that data publically accessible.

Update: my entry on Childcare Link has gone live... I now officially exist!

Are you sure?

I always thought you were a figment of my imagination

Childcarelink has always listed child minders for the tyne and wear area (well for as long as I can remember??)

Juney, Nick is a Nanny - so it is a big step forward

As a nanny/babysitter in previous years my local CIS has refused to list me... no reason given. Now with Childcare Act 2006 changes, they have to list ALL forms of childcare - so to meet that obligation, Surrey CC have now managed to find a way to list me on Childcare Link - under category Home Childcarer.
The ChildcareLink system is being replaced next year with various local databases all linking into a central database - which should be accessible from direct.gov.uk (I expect they may point childcarelink.gov.uk to the same database - as the domain name is well known by parents). Anyway, probably more than you want to know.
End of the day, it's about the fact that nannies, babysitters are getting the same free publicity as childminders and nurseries.

Ohh sorry, totally misread it hehe. That's fantastic news though :D