baby and toddler groups - any advice appreciated

[duckyisback]

I met up with a friend today for lunch, we were talking about the lack of baby groups in the area. We decided to have a look into setting up our own mother & baby/toddler group.

We know the venue we need to look at and would need to find out costs of renting the space to work out possible fees etc.

Has anyone done this recently? Or if you go to groups, how much do you pay? Are refreshments all provided?

Someone set one up at our Church in Sept last year.
tbh, there's not a lot, ongoing, to cover, in terms of overheads - your rent (and you might find, if there is a need in your area, that either a Church, or a Community hall might let you have a subsidised rent, or a few weeks free to get you going. Remember you'll need quite a bit of storage space for toys though - not just a space to play. Also set up time and clearing up time.
You can probably get grants for some equipment if you are setting up new, or might be lucky enough to have some donated from a nursery or similar closing down, or just individual people if you get some pleas out on a local community site.
You need to think about advertising.
I don't know what they charge, but I've seen them having drink and a fruit.

Thanks!

Do you know if you need any insurance or anything to set these things up?

My favourite one is very popular. It is in a big indoor space (church hall) with ride on toys. They have an urn and you can help yourself to tea and coffee and biscuits but it must be drunk in a specific area. They have a lot of free play and a bit of music. £3 per child, extra £1 for siblings.

Why don't you visit one in a neighbouring town and ask the people running it?

Good on you to do this. My area has loads but none do refreshments! Me and my friend say there's a lack of cake and coffee at these places! Also jo jingles for example you don't get a break in the middle so there's no chance to have a chat to other mums and make friends.

You definitely need public liability insurance, and I would be quite surprised if you didn't also need a DBS check. We pay between £3 and £7 for an hour depending on what the group was/how much kit was used/whether the group leader had had special training/type of venue etc. May be going against the grain here but I actually preferred classes which didn't provide refreshments but were held eg near a cafe so people could choose to continue on after. Meant LO was tired after a full hour class and so might nap while I had a proper natter after. Also extended the activity iyswim. Also as a family we were always a bit wary of things specifically marketed a mum and baby groups, as DH is now a SAHD after we did SPL so we didn't want to find he was treated like leper when he started taking LO cliquey baby yoga ladies, I'm looking at you good luck!

Affiliate the group with a local charity, such as a church. Then you may fall under their existing insurance and have very low cost/free rent. You would need to comply with their rules, ethos, out reach plans, whatever their views were for having a group in the local community.

Insurance is available, Morton Michel and the Pre-School Leaning Alliance are two of several providers.

Thank you

We are still looking into it, and trying to find of any toys etc.

Had to put it on hold for a bit with a poorly ds but he's better now.

Hopefully it will come together soon as it seems there really is nothing in that area at all for babies and toddlers.

My favourite toddler group is one that keeps it simple: scout hut with lots of ride along toys and a couple of boxes of other toys (cars, mega blocks, stuff for younger siblings), chairs around the side for parents/cm etc, juice/water and a biscuit for kids, tea/coffee for adults(plus you can buy kit kats), it's £2 for everyone, 2 hours long 20th songs for the last 15 minutes. It's lovely. We have parties at Christmas, Easter and end of Summer term which involve us all bringing a bit of a buffet and there are often buns for birthdays. I've been to several and ,whilst some mums like it, crafts are my bug bear (and I'm a crafty person!). I have a 9 month old and a 2.4 year old and it's a total pita trying to supervise ds (who is a liability at the best of time but never more so than when he has glue) doing craft stuff whilst looking after dd. Mums want to chat and leave the kids to it!

With songs, no idea where 20th came from!