What has happened to the Childcarelink.gov.uk site?

[WailingGhoshe]

I go into it and nothing comes up for our area, it does say they are changing the site (now called FIS?) Did anyone get told this was happening?

No this is definitely not a commercial system - it is a government system implemented by a contractor.

Commercial systems are defined by the fact that they have to provide what their customers want, otherwise their customers go elsewhere.

What we have now is an arrangement that provides no incentive for the supplier to provide what anyone wants - they just have to show they are providing what was written in the contract. That is why the supplier's focus is on documenting the process rather than achieving a successful outcome.

The problem with setting up a commercial system is that the government has a monopoly on the data (via Ofsted) and provides a large amount of funding directly to this project, via Local Authorities and via the Every Child Matters programme.

And they still cock it up.

I have written an e-mail to Michael Grove MP Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools & Families this morning (he also happens to be my local MP) requesting that he asks DCSF questions about this 'cock up'. If anyone else wishes to write to him, MichaelGrove.com contains his contact details.
With luck, having a Conservative MP ask questions about this may get some response from DCSF, though alas I doubt it will mean we will get a working system... as that is in the hands of the contractor and local authorities.

Oh it just gets better...

The page at childcarefinder.direct.gov.uk says:

The Google Maps API server rejected your request. This could be because the API key used on this site was registered for a different web site. You can generate a new key for this web site at code.google.com/apis/maps/.

Perhaps they should have given this out as a GCSE ICT project, it would have been done more professionally.

Don't give them ideas!

Perfect example today, a Mum stopped me on the school run, she has been trying to find childcare all week, starts work wednesday.

She asked me if I knew anybody, I only had one number, phoned surestart for other numbers, they agreed to send me by email the list.

I phoned a CM, who I know had places, although she was fine about me giving her number to Parent was livid with Surestart for giving me all the numbers, as felt it was going back to the old Vacancy Holder way, which she feels is very unfair. (It was a lot of the time, Vacancy holder only giving numbers of her friends etc,)

My arguement is till they fix this, unless SOMEONE has numbers how the hell is anyone going to get work!.

They need to get this fixed NOW.

I had a phone call from our local Family Information Service about this this morning - apparently the search facility on the new site is not working. I KNOW! I AM NOT ON THERE ANYWAY! WHEN WILL SOMEONE LISTEN TO US!

I had a call from them too HSMM, probably the same person? I also reminded her that the phone number on the newsletter was for Hewlett Packard and NOT the person we were meant to contact!!! grrr Anyway, she told me the same as you'll have told you. I told her exactly what I thought of the new system as I've been through system changes and you simply DO NOT get rid of the old system til the new one has gone live and proven to be reliable!! I told her I know it wasn't their fault but that we need to say what we think so that they can feed it all back. Honestly though, what a load of rubbish! It's nowhere near as nice as the childcarelink website!

I havn't heard anything back from Watchdog, so I have emailed the DM and linked them to this thread

I have been in touch with Tribal Group Support. They are saying that Surrey County Council has not uploaded their data to the system, thus why the system has had to pull data from Ofsted. So going to contact Surrey again.

Tribal does not offer us end users support... but they have provided an e-mail address for Direct.gov.uk support - [email protected] - so someone to direct our enquiries to with regard to the user interface, lack of ability to find provider records by type (ie no option for home childcarer) etc.

What outcome are we wanting? Clearly we want the data to be accurate and available to parents. But given that it seems as though that isn't going to happen anytime soon, and going back to the old system isn't going to happen either, what do we want local authorities to do?

Is the annoying thing about all this, the lack of information being provided to us? Would it be better if local authorities were honest with us... telling us that they didn't meet the deadline and thus will notify us when they do manage to publish the data?

Given that many local authorities do have their own systems running successfully... would it be better if the Direct.gov site just didn't provide any information at all, and instead told the visitor to call the local authority - giving the correct phone number and e-mail contact address based on the postcode / town entered?

Yes Nick, you last papragraph would appear to be the only way that would work, until they can get all the data onto the site.

I wonder if it's possible for them to do that. If DCSF gets in touch, I will suggest it.

Well I'm on there with no details but it specifically states that I have no vacancies . I am DESPERATE for work, how dare they do this?!

Please use my website to advertise you vacancies, its so much better www.findachildminder.co.uk. its totally free and if everyone uses it then maybe there will be no need for the government one!!

Please use my website to advertise you vacancies, its so much better www.findachildminder.co.uk. its totally free and if everyone uses it then maybe there will be no need for the government one!!

What a nightmare this sounds to be for parents and childminders.

Although re the politics, I started work in the public sector under a Conservative government, and came across plenty of appalling computer systems. Housing benefit privatisation was a Tory policy which the Labour government and Councils led by all 3 major parties continued with, and various private companies made a huge mess of it - some contracts did actually get returned in house or to other public sector organisations.

That said, I do agree with Athene Noctua that the old system should have been left in place until the new one was ready. I just don't think that this has been handled worse (or better) by Labour than by eg a Tory government.

Didn't the Childcare Link take over from a system where local councils maintained lists? When I started to look for a CM 2 years ago, I remembered that my friend had found one through contacting her local council 9 years before, and it all seemed to be well enough run then, with childcare inspections and registration dealt with by a team in the Council before all that went to OFSTED.

Didn't the Childcare Link take over from a system where local councils maintained lists?

Yes, in fact the data will still be maintained by local authorities.

There were two problems with the old system. Firstly some authorities had really good on-line searchable systems but others just had a 'phone number with someone on the other end who would send you a paper list. Secondly, the lack of a central resource meant that it was sometimes difficult to get relevant information. In Greater London for instance many people live near the boundary of two, three or even four separate Local Authorities so to find 'childminders and nurseries within one mile' you had to search eight different lists, some of which were searchable by postcode on line and others could be borough-wide and have hundreds of entries.

But at least it worked.

OMG, this site is awful

I just searched for a local childminder and it came up with 246

When I click on each provider, there is no info on which schools they pick up from (which is quite important to me) and no contact details - every entry has the same info - a general local authority email address and phone no. It's useless. How do I find a childminder for a particular school now? When will this site be working as well as the old one?

There is no news on when the new system will be working. LA's are aware of the issues with it and from what I am gathering they are as annoyed about it as providers and parents are.
However, some LA's own local systems are working fine... it's just the connection to the national database. So first thing to do is to contact your local FIS.

The new Government site is very poor. I found the best site to find a childminder is childcare.co.uk

I've been using it to find babysitters for a few months now. My eldest daughter was at a local nursery but the they have just put the fees up to £1450 a month! I have now found a local childminder who is excellent and charges me under £1000 a month.

I tried to use the site and found nothing when i searched! I eventually found www.childmindefinder.com and found someone on there.

I tried to use the site and found nothing when i searched! I eventually found www.childminderfinder.com and found someone on there.

Why did you need to post that twice? Looks like childminderfinder.com are just plugging their own site as they only seem to have 218 childminders listed!

Sarahlondon1. Childminderfinder is owned and run by Network Nannies. It is a new and free service that we offer asside from our main business and we dont spam forums to promote it. It is counter productive to do so and we pay to advertise our business on many other sites.

If people who use the service want to link to us, then we are not able to stop them, the same as if someone like yourself were to link to the childcare.co.uk site. Also i note that there is one childcare directory posting here that is promoting so it is a litte disappointing that you choose to attack our site. If you wish to discuss this matter further then please feel free to contact us via e-mail through our site so as to minimise disruption to this forum and its users.

Apologies to other foum users who might see this post as shamless promotion, please do not take it that way. As any business would, we like to respond to criticism from our users to improve the service we offer and to protect our business.

Please let normal service resume!

I've just checked mine again and it's still not showing my details. Some are showing the cm's vacancies etc and also there's a link that you click on it shows you a map showing exactly where they are. I have a vacancy I need to fill asap and phone calls are very few at the moment.