Registered......now to find some children to look after!!

[Hoopster]

Received my certificate today which means I am officially registered!! Woo hoo!! 😀
However now I'm paranoid I'll have no children to look after, I have none lined up yet.
I've spoken to another local childminder who has said she'll pass on any business and I'm just getting the ball rolling with local advertising etc. I will also make sure my details are online too as I know there are various websites including the LA one.
Anyone have any other good advice for getting the children through the door?! Thanks

[natlou82]

Are you registered with childcare.co.uk? If not get signed up, pay for gold even if just for a month and contact all of the parents who you like the sound of even the ones a few miles away! I got most of my LOs this way. Good luck :-)

[loocyloo]

I have a fleece coat that says 'childminder' on the back in big letters ... I wear it all the time I'm working and when I was looking for mindees (I moved and needed to get known fast!) I wore it all the time!
Can you go along to toddler groups and tell everyone? I went without children and chatted, helped and generally got my face known! My first mindee came from toddlers and even now I have a steady stream of enquirers through toddlers.
Can you pass fliers out at school?
But the best way I know is to talk talk talk and tell everyone what you do, regardless of where you are! ..drs dentist coffee shop etc. ( and I know it's hard .. I'm shy and hate making myself noticed but I put my 'childminder' head on and just go for it! It does get easier! )
Good luck

Xx

[lisbet]

Good advice already. You could also message local childminders on Childcare.co.uk and let them know that you are a new childminder and that whilst you have vacancies you would be happy to provide short term care to cover their holidays. You could also perhaps advertise offering ad-hoc short term care to cover parent's hospital appointments, shopping trips, college courses etc. (You could let people know that this will only be available whilst you have vacancies. It would get you 'known' though and may well lead to contracted work.) Good luck! :)

[Hoopster]

Thank you all for those fab ideas, really useful to your advice, I'll definately be trying these ideas and fingers crossed it won't take too long before I'm up and running!! 😊

[Sammy Jo T]

Received my certificate today which means I am officially registered!! Woo hoo!! ��
However now I'm paranoid I'll have no children to look after, I have none lined up yet.
I've spoken to another local childminder who has said she'll pass on any business and I'm just getting the ball rolling with local advertising etc. I will also make sure my details are online too as I know there are various websites including the LA one.
Anyone have any other good advice for getting the children through the door?! Thanks

Congratulations Hoopster! That must have been an amazing feeling when it arrived. Good luck getting your first mindee. :)

[Conkey]

Congratulations! Im another one who has found childcare.co.uk invaluable, I registered in December and am now totally full with my EYFS children. I got every child by upgrading to gold membership and contacting parents whose requirements met my vacancies. Cant recommend it highly enough. x x

[Hoopster]

Sammy Jo T it was brilliant, I felt really chuffed with myself. Hopefully yours is on its way too.
I'm looking forward to just starting now....exciting!

[Sammy Jo T]

Sammy Jo T it was brilliant, I felt really chuffed with myself. Hopefully yours is on its way too.
I'm looking forward to just starting now....exciting!

I bet you are hun! I checked today and Ofsted are still awaiting the final draft of my inspection report but said all ok so far. Rang Prospects and they said report should be with Ofsted by 24th and then it can take up to ten days after that to get sent. Bit of wait still it seems but hey ho. I'm just busying myself with making my business cards etc in the meantime lol.

Let us know how you get on and congrats again! :)


p.s Better change your status to registered on here :clapping:

[Hoopster]

I was expecting mine to take much longer to be honest, I was surprised when it came yesterday. I've done some business cards too, and a few other bits that the inspector said would be good to have, so getting odd bits done and ready.

And yes I will update my status....I'd forgotten about that!!

Do you have any children lined up Sammy Jo T?

[Lizd06]

Once you get a child or two to look after do you have to inform ofsted?

I'm new to this and have just got my certificate
But can't remember the protocol?

Thanks in advance

[Hoopster]

Once you get a child or two to look after do you have to inform ofsted?

I'm new to this and have just got my certificate
But can't remember the protocol?

Thanks in advance

No you don't need to inform OFSTED, as long as you have your certificate you're good to go! Good luck!

[Sammy Jo T]

I was expecting mine to take much longer to be honest, I was surprised when it came yesterday. I've done some business cards too, and a few other bits that the inspector said would be good to have, so getting odd bits done and ready.

And yes I will update my status....I'd forgotten about that!!

Do you have any children lined up Sammy Jo T?

Sorry late reply! Not been on here a lot since Friday. Recovering from a stomach bug :-(

No children lined up yet. I haven't started activley advertising yet as wanted to make sure I was happy with all my business decisions but I've got some interest via a few family friends. I'm still waiting on my certificate. It will be two weeks ago tomorrow I had my pre-reg. prospects said the report would be with Ofsted by today and Ofsted said they can take up to ten days from receiving it to send me it. Hope they don't!

[Hoopster]

Sorry late reply! Not been on here a lot since Friday. Recovering from a stomach bug :-(

No children lined up yet. I haven't started activley advertising yet as wanted to make sure I was happy with all my business decisions but I've got some interest via a few family friends. I'm still waiting on my certificate. It will be two weeks ago tomorrow I had my pre-reg. prospects said the report would be with Ofsted by today and Ofsted said they can take up to ten days from receiving it to send me it. Hope they don't!

Ah hope you're feeling better. 😊
I've just started putting the word out and making little adverts to put up locally. Fingers crossed I'll get some interest soon.
I do hope it doesn't take too much longer for your certificate to arrive, hopefully it'll be with you within the next week. :jump for joy:

[Sammy Jo T]

Ah hope you're feeling better. 😊
I've just started putting the word out and making little adverts to put up locally. Fingers crossed I'll get some interest soon.
I do hope it doesn't take too much longer for your certificate to arrive, hopefully it'll be with you within the next week. :jump for joy:


Thanks Hoopster! Feeling more human today so on the mend now fingers crossed! I rang Ofsted today and they confirmed they received the final report yesterday from Prospects and have signed me off! (Yay)Said a confirmation letter was sent yesterday so I'm hoping that includes the certificate.

The adverts sound a good idea. Have you thought about a Facebook page?

[Hoopster]

Thanks Hoopster! Feeling more human today so on the mend now fingers crossed! I rang Ofsted today and they confirmed they received the final report yesterday from Prospects and have signed me off! (Yay)Said a confirmation letter was sent yesterday so I'm hoping that includes the certificate.

The adverts sound a good idea. Have you thought about a Facebook page?

Yay!!! That's great news!
Yes, I am going to do a facebook page within the next couple of weeks too, I reckon that'll be a really good way of getting known to people locally. Where I live there's a few buy and sell sites which I will put a link on for my fb page, as they're local it's the perfect audience.

[Sammy Jo T]

Yay!!! That's great news!
Yes, I am going to do a facebook page within the next couple of weeks too, I reckon that'll be a really good way of getting known to people locally. Where I live there's a few buy and sell sites which I will put a link on for my fb page, as they're local it's the perfect audience.

That's a good idea about the selling pages! I've just designed my FB page tonight but holding off launching it for a couple of days. I've just re-tweaked a few of my policies tonight as well as changed my mind about things but I think I'm pretty happy with everything now. (I think lol). I saw another website advertised on TV the other day. care dot com or something like that. Might be worth checking out.