When should I start look for nursery places or childminder?

[hermitzero]

A couple of days ago I shared my concerns about baby care here and got some helpful advice so I expect further advice on baby care. I'm not sure if this is the right category for nursery/ childminder. If it is not a correct category, please let me know.

After getting some advice, I have decided to take about 9 months of maternity leave and afterwards, I think I should send my baby to nursery or look for a childminder.

I presume not all nurseries near my house would be available anytime I want so I am wondering when I should start look for nursery places or childminder. Normally when do you start look for it? Also, do you think which one is better between nursery and childminder? Any advice would be appreciated.

It depends on your area, some parts of the country are booked up years ahead-others like where I live you only need a few months notice.

I’d start by calling all the nurseries in your local area and ask them what their process and timescales are. Same for childminders. Look them all up on OFSTED too.

I originally wanted a childminder as thought the close caregiver bond is better for under 2’s. But there are actually no childminders where I live taking babies or toddlers, only school aged, (we are very rural-we’d have had to drive 10+ miles wrong direction for a CM) and DD is actually thriving at the small local nursery despite Covid. The nursery hours also work better around our work.

It depends on your area. I easily got a place at my chosen nursery and booked it 6 months ahead for my own organisation rather than the local market requiring it.

When I lookes on here and saw threads of people putting their unborn babies on waitlists for places it made me panic to start with. Then I realised that some areas are a bit crazy.

You should start looking now.
If you're in an area where demand is quite high they can have lengthy waiting lists.

Never too early! The popular nursery/childminders get booked up way ahead of time. At my DCs nursery they are already fully booked for preschool places in summer 2023 and always encourage parents to book places for siblings asap if they need set days. We booked dc2 in before they were born!

Pros and cons of both options so go with what feels/works best for you. Part of the reason we went for nursery over a child minder was it was almost always guaranteed to be open, they can get staff to cover illnesses etc. Where as with a child minder it's 1 person, if they're ill or want to go on holiday then you're left to cover those days

You may as well find one and book a place early. I felt a bit silly contacting a childminder 9 months in advance but ended up being glad I did. If I'd left it much longer then I wouldn't have been able to get the days I wanted.

I think it completely depends on the particular nurseries and childminders you are looking at. In both cases you get good and bad ones. I had always planned to use a nursery but ended up preferring a childminders. I would advise not just looking at OFSTED ratings but actually reading the full reports to get more of a feel for how each place operates.

I’m only 16 weeks but have a nursery place booked already. I will be taking a year off work and even then I was lucky to get the place as they only had 2 places left for the days I needed.

In my previous pregnancies I’ve always had the childcare places booked and confirmed by 20 weeks.

I think it depends on your area but where I am you certainly need to be fast!

We booked places when 3 months pregnant! Worked out great. I took 6-9 months ML

We booked when I was 5 months pregnant and were already too late for a place at one of the nurseries we contacted, but it varies massively depending on where you live.

Depends on supply and demand in your area? I had my twins signed up for a childminder at 12 weeks pregnant.

Well the nurseries I have spoken to in my area are booked up for a year ahead. So even though I'm only 12 weeks pregnant I'll need to sign up to one soon.