Coworking and nursey under one roof

[mikadavid]

Hi everyone,
I’m a mum myself, and after a tough 9 months of juggling a baby and work (often in cafes with my laptop half-closed and snacks flying everywhere), I’m exploring an idea for a space in Leeds where parents can get stuff done or just sit down with a hot drink, all while their little ones are being cared for nearby.
Think: Montessori-style nursery next door, calm coworking desks, short yoga sessions, no judgment. I’ve set pilot sessions at £20 for 2 hours, but longer-term it’s more of a membership model (around £110/day for full use).
Would something like this appeal to you?
What would make it actually work for your life? What would you want included or excluded?
You can be totally honest, I’m not trying to sell, just test if it’s worth building.
Thanks so much 💛

I think it’s a good idea. I had an in-site nursery with DC1 (think on a complex of offices) and it was great. No worrying about getting stuck in traffic and being late and we spent additional time together on the commute.

My only thought was a full day co-working space is quite different to an hour or two while someone did yoga. I wonder if you’re being too many things to too many people.

That said, I’d bloody love somewhere to stick the kids while I had a hair colour.

does £110 include 30 funded hours.
are all supplies included?
is everyone paediatric first aid trained?
what ages and ratios?

I'm not in Leeds but I think it's a brilliant idea. Working from home can be really isolating so I'd love a co-working space. My children are older than nursery age but it makes total sense to have nursery onsite.

The only thing I would say is that's really pricey! Nursery in this area is around £60per day, £110 per day would pretty much wipe out my entire income.

While I think it sounds like a nice idea I agree it's too broad - go and do a full days work, or drop in for a cup of tea. It would he impossible to manage ratio wise I think.
It's either a creche, or a nursery that just happens to have a separate space parents can hang out in.

And if you mean being cared for near by but so your sort of with them too, you'd never staff it.

I think.... there writes somebody who's never run a nursery!

I think to make the margins work you will have to charge more than people will pay.

It will be tricky to manage peaks and troughs in demand, I think. You’ll either end up disappointing people who want a space (so you’re not reliable), or overstaffed which will be £££.

I suspect you’ll end up with a mismatch between the extreamly high cost you’ll need to charge, and the amount of spare cash that people with very flexible jobs have.

But the principle sounds good. I randomly saw something on LinkedIn about something similar in Sydney, and thought it sounded great.

Total nightmare in terms of continuity for kids tbh - id rather them have a slightly longer nursery day with set staff in each room with regular ‘key workers’ than save myself a bit of a commute. Sorry! And I’m totally your target market as well!

My eldest would have been fine with this but my youngest gets upset with new people and wouldn’t have settled so I wouldn’t use it.

There is a gap in market for group ad hoc childcare though. Emergency childcare if your childminder is sick, parents with random shift patterns so can’t take set days at a nursery or people wanting to work from home with a child mostly but there are some days this doesn’t work.

How this works in theory I don’t know

I think it sounded better when it was £20 for 2 hours, I’d love an ad hoc option for occasional me time on my day with my toddler, or for when I need to join a meeting and a short period of childcare would be helpful. I wouldn’t pay £110 for a full day though, that’s too much.

So are you going the two hour thing to evade being a registered childcare provider and inspected by Ofsted etc? Anything longer than 2 hours needs to register as childcare. Someone is piloting this model in my area of London and is strictly a 2hr crèche. The price for two hours is more expensive than 20 if memory serves. Obviously funding can’t be used as not a registered provider. I suppose as a parent I’d want to know that although unregistered, your staff have dbs, do their first aid training etc and that you were keeping to Ofsted ratios.

If you are going to register and do the full day thing being completely adhoc then I see no problem charging £110. Parents are paying for a special last minute service and therefore price should sit between private nanny and nursery/childminder. You can’t be expected to charge the same as a nursery or childminder who has you on contracted days. Due to the way funding works in most boroughs - hours claimed upfront - I don’t see how funding could be used for this adhoc service. I’d say getting decent staff and keeping them would be your biggest challenge. Good luck with it.

@Cutleryclaire Yes I’d love the commute benefit too! 🙌 And yes, your point is spot on. I’ve been wondering myself whether I’m trying to do too much at once

@sciaticafanatica I’m not registered yet (this is early validation stage), so no funded hours or staff yet. I’d absolutely make paediatric first aid and proper ratios the baseline. What ages do you think this should be most useful for?

@TartanMammy I so hear you on the price, I’m stuck trying to make it work financially and still be accessible. It’s kind of in between nursery and coworking, so hard to price fairly. What would feel reasonable if it came with coffee/snacks and coworking space included?

This used to exist in London called Third Door but seems to have closed. There was similar in Germany as a cooperative. I had wanted to set one up and has researched. Never did because it took a long, long time to have DS and running one while experiencing infertility would have broken me.

Love the idea but wonder why these fail.

This used to be a thing before too but no one uses the term now. I'd research coworking space with nursery or crèche or the same but add a collective dimension. Nursery is very expensive and it would appear most people paying that much want to go into an office not do part time and take a turn with others' kids. Shame though because it does seem like there's another way. Good luck
https://www.shareable.net/how-to-jelly-a-guide-to-casual-coworking/#:~:text=What%20is%20Jelly?,birth%20of%20a%20new%20project.

I like the idea of occasional co-working but would struggle to justify paying extra on top of nursery fees every day.
I’ve never had the opportunity to do it but I imagine if used a co-working location it would be a day or two a week to break up the monotony of WFH. Not sure I’d want to go in every day.
If DSs nursery had a nice co-working space I’d consider using it on an ad hoc basis, wouldn’t want to be tied in though.

The 2 hours option would have been great for DD once she was 18 months or so, I’d happily have paid £20 if it was close to the hairdressers! DS is 30 months and still cries at most nursery drop off’s or when I leave the house.

Im your target audience (but in the southeast) especially with my second, who i was breastfeeding when I went back full time (remote) at 7 months - she's now 3.5. This day price is unaffordable to me (I'm flexible, wfh, elder son in school) but the shorter ad hoc hours would work for me. Mornings in particular after dh has taken the kids to their locations.

My take home from your previous responses is that flexible home workers want more of a creche, maybe with an office style area they could work for a few hours, flexibly, when it suited them. Drop in style. I'd include hot drinks (tea, coffee) but not snacks, people like their own foods. Private space for breastfeeding.

Hope that helps, I've done 2 non service based micro businesses in the past and appreciated feedback!

This is what I use Ikea for 😂 although it’s only an hour and for 3-10yr olds… but it’s free!

@TickyandTacky 😂 You’re right, I’ve never run one, and it shows, I guess! I’m a first-time mum trying to make something that works for people like me, but maybe I’m missing some basics. Do you have an experience? I’d love to have a 15 min call with someone who’s been through this

@ChandrilanDiscoDroid Yes, this is the bit I’m struggling with most. I’d love to make it more affordable, but the margins don’t really work unless the price is higher

@WhatILoved Thanks for such a thoughtful breakdown, it’s super helpful! I’ve looked into Ofsted registration and 2hr creche rules and still exploring which way to go. I would make sure staff are DBS checked + trained either way. If you saw this near you, would you try it out or need to see a lot more structure first?

There was a place near me that offered this - I think there was also a gym or, at least, a space for exercise classes too. They had a monthly membership model and then top ups for extra childcare. It didn’t work out financially and it closed quite abruptly. I can see it would work for some people but it wouldn’t be something I used. When DS was of nursery age, he was just at nursery while I worked.

You have lovely aspirations but you’re so naive, OP. Nurseries are closing down right,
left and centre, staffing is a nightmare nationally and no one will want to use somewhere that isn’t Ofsted registered. It won’t be sustainable at £20 for a couple of hours, how would you pay staff/overheads/insurance/rent? Someone upthread mentioned that there’s a gap in the market for decent ad hoc childcare. There’s a reason for that. It’s not a sustainable business model. I wish you well but you’ll need to do a lot of research to ensure that your model is compliant in terms of the latest legislation.

I've not set up a nursery but I'm a childminder so very aware of the issues you will come up against sadly. I admire your enthusiasm but you have a very simplistic view of how this can be achieved and costs will be your biggest problem. It will cost you far .ore than people are willing to pay.