Locating a babysitter?

[Tabby33]

We don't have family and friends close by so don't really have options for baby sitters. We are wondering how you find a baby sitter and know they are trust worthy? Do we need to start becoming friends with neighbours to a trust worthy level?

Nervous situation but events might occur that we struggle.

I would really recommend www.simplychildcare.com. Their guide to finding/interviewing a childminder/babysitter/nanny is really helpful. Through their website I found four girls who lived reasonably close to me, interviewed them, followed up on references and felt really confident that I could call on them in an emergency. It seemed a bit over the top just for an evening babysitter but I don't think I would ever have found people so well-suited and well-qualified just by making friends with neighbours.
I guess it depends where you live though. I was in central London and living in an area popular with medical/nursing students - so website ad/effort to interview strangers made sense. Now I am in a rural area and have had to just find somebody where there is a personal link - like I know the parents reasonably well or friends have recommended her - but I am not as delighted with the quality of the sitters and mainly rely on the fact that I trust them to get on the phone to me quickly if they have any problem at all.