One-off Childcare for family with no support network

[Querent]

We're parents of a three year old and my DW has had ongoing health problems for quite some time. The main one of these is an extreme form of migraine attack. On many occasions these attacks are so bad that I have to stay home from work to look after our son.
Although my work has been accommodating to some degree with me doing this, I have had a number of comments at various times along the lines of "my husband never did that for me, I just had to get on with it". I am also required to take Annual Leave each time as the very small amount of Parental Leave we are allotted gets used up pretty quick.
We are in a situation now where it's looking like I might not have enough leave left to cover the rest of the year.
We have no support-network of family or friends who can step in and help out on these occasions, so I was wondering if there was anything like a service which could be used on an ad-hoc basis for childcare. I am thinking of the 'Mother's Help' type of thing.
We're on a pretty low budget as repeated attempts at DLA for DW have fallen on stony ground so we exist on my wage and the part-time evening work that DW does. Whatever service would have to be affordable.
Any ideas??

Agencies offer temporary and emergency nannies but the problem might be if you get different people each time or you don't get to meet them first.

where are you and what hours are you most likely to need?

yes Fab, that is one of my concerns with the ad-hoc nature of it

Hi madusa, i'm in Essex and i'm not sure. If at least a good portion of the day was covered then I think that would be sufficient. Probably 4, 5 or 6 hours?

You might be able to find someone local who, for whatever reason, isn't looking to work full-time but would usually as either a perm or temp nanny.

If you say roughly where you are (county or nearest large town) then someone may be able to help from here.

Hi frakkin Colchester is the nearest big town.

should i post something specifically in the Colchester MN?

Does your DS go to pre-school/nursery? Perhaps if he did, they could offer extra sessions in an emergency. Also then your DW would build up a network of friends, who might be able to help. I live in a Forces community and a lot of us have no family close by, so we all help each other out.

he goes two mornings a week to a pre-school. i don't think it's the kind of situation where they could do emergency cover.

Could you look at different nurseries instead?

the preschool itself might not do emergency cover but you could ask the manager to ask the staff if anyone would be interested in giving you their number for extra work in an emergency.

i guess it's worth a try weegle
may do fourarms