What to do about nursery space if I am moving?

[cosmonova]

Hello all, I am 20 weeks pregnant and still deciding when and where to move.

I am either going to put the house up for sale within the next few months. In this case, I will start looking for nurseries for a September 2027 start immediately in the new area.

However, I am also considering waiting to move and instead putting the house up for sale when I return to work from maternity leave (approx August 2027). If I take this option, what do I do in terms of nursery spaces. I will need childcare from September 2027. Will I find it difficult to move from one nursery to another if I move areas? It’s not a commutable distance. I’ve heard it can a take a year to secure a nursery place. Is this the same for childminders? Any ideas welcome!

I'm moving in 2 weeks and it has been a nightmare trying to find a new nursery/minder. All the new nurseries were full and we only just managed to get a childminder as they were just opening up!

We also had issues with the funding as we were moving counties so we had to pay in full for the last month of the term (painful!!).

Why did you have to pay in full for moving counties? If you don’t mind me asking!

yes this is what I’m stressing about. Guessing it will be really difficult to move nurseries mid year.

No clue - the county we are moving to (Wiltshire) would not allow a mid-term transfer unless you sacrificed the funding in your current place. So since we are moving at the end of April, we had to pay our nursery in full in order to allow funding to be used for our new childminder!