pay for childcare.co.uk or not ? ? ? ?

[eatfruit]

Hi all, it's me again

If I pay to upgrade my account on childcare.co.uk is it worth it?

Thanks in advance.

very hard to say as will depend on demand in your area. Assuming you are a childcarer then if you can see lots of parents wanting a childminder but they are not contacting you, it means you can contact them.
One of the childminder forums had a discount code last year, not sure if still available. Expect someone will post if it is.

I wouldn't, I have registered with them, but there is no checks when you register as a childcarer that you are actually registered with Ofsted.

I put my ad on, hadnt put that I was registered on it so was refused, rewrote ad saying I was registered and it was accepted.

At no point was I asked to prove I was.

I no for certain that there are unregistered people on there advertising as CM's, saying they are registered when in actual fact they are not.

Childcare.co.uk do not check.

I have paid for the upgrade, a little steep at £30 I feel, parents have to pay £15 I'm told. I have got work through them although in the area that I am based there appears to be more minders advertising than parents looking for care. I have had to revise the service that I offer and have now had to start doing unsociable hours as it seems to be prodinantly shift workers advertising on there for childcare. HTH

I do wonder if a lot of the ads from parents are for things which are hard to find childcare for, such as shifts, or just a couple of hours in the middle of the day.
However I have seen ads from parents wanting full-time 5 day, 4-day, so it does vary.
I don't think prices are any different for parents who upgrade so they can contact people.

With regard to registration status of providers, it is a listings service just like the classifieds ads in a local newspaper. The advertiser is responsible for accuracy of their ad. Parents using childcarers should always check registration status, if appropriate - such as when using a Childminder.

thanks all for replies.

so even if I do not upgrade, parents can still contact me, but I can not contact them?

Yes, though parents need to pay to contact you.

Would love to know what percentage of parents registering with the site do buy a subscription.
Also wonder how many childcarers do.

I live in a fairly major city and get about 80% of my enquiries from childcare.co.uk.

I paid to upgrade which means I can contact parents.

Navy - do parents contact you first, or are most of those 80% parents advertising whom you contact?

Nick, I just worked it out and roughly 20% I contacted 60% contacted me.

login into it everyday as parents seem to search by closest and most active and I also link to my own website.

So 60% if you hadn't paid, as once a parent contacts you, you can reply without paying - or has that been changed?

I joined abut 9 months ago now and I couldn't reply to anything without upgrading?

My name is Richard and I am the owner and creator of Childcare.co.uk.

I hope the moderators here won't mind me having the opportunity to respond to some of your questions about our website.

I launched the site in January 2009 and it has grown significantly in the last 12 months to a membership of over 100,000 roughly split between about 50,000 parents seeking childcare and 50,000 childcare providers.

We are an online meeting platform and a tool to assist parents and childcare providers meet.

We only allow childminders to register with us who warrant that they are registered with either Ofsted, CSSIW or the Scottish Care Commission. Unfortunately we do not have any means to verify if a childminder is registered and it is up to the parents to verify this before they engage in their services. This is no different to a childminder advertising in a shop window or on another website such as gumtree.

It's completely free to read and reply to messages that have been sent to you but you need to be a gold member to inititate contact with another member. Gold membership starts at £12.99 for 3 months.

Childminders are really finding the site useful in helping them fill their vacancies. This thread on a third party childminding forum contains some feedback from registered childminders on our service:

www.childmindinghelp.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=52489

I'd be happy to answer any other questions you may have.

Happy Easter.

Richard

As a parent searching for childcare I've been a bit sneaky in this... When I've liked the look of someone on childcare.co.uk I've then simply looked them up on direct.gov.uk. Luckily all of them have put their full names as their user names - so you should do this! Although not all parents will necessarily be as sneaky as me

I'm still sort of confused,

about the percentages . . . . 60% contacted you Navy so I don't really need to upgrade? or am I missing the point?

Well eatfruit I could have sworn that I only upgraded as I couldn't contact the parents who contacted me but obviously that's not the case! I must have upgraded as I wanted to contact someone.

I suppose your best bet would be to have a look in your area and see if there is anyone you would like to contact and if there are enough people to make it financially viable.

yeh that's a great idea thanks Navy will do that.

Do visit the childminder website Richard mentions... has some useful info in particular in the Member Information section