Enquiries stopped since childcare website moved

[singlewiththree]

Has anyone elses enquiries dried up since the move of the move of the ************* website?

[little miss chatterbox]

yes i have not had a single call!
Hope yours start up again soon

[balloon]

I haven't had any either (not sure if its due to the move or just a dead spot though)

[angeldelight]

None here either

Plus I can not even find myself on the new site :laughing: so that explains a lot ha ha

Hope you get some calls soon

Angel xx

[Willowdancer]

I've had one, but only that one though! At least, I'm assuming my new mindee's mum found me on there as I had an email saying somebody had looked at my profile and they had the same name (not a common one!)

[MissTinkerbell]

I've had none either and have just checked the new site and no wonder I haven't had any - I'm not even on it and neither is my CM friend. Need to make a phone call me thinks!:angry:

[singlewiththree]

Is there anyone we can ring? My family info people were supposed to have been sending us a consent form but I haven't had mine.

[MissTinkerbell]

Is there anyone we can ring? My family info people were supposed to have been sending us a consent form but I haven't had mine.

If you search for childcare it then gives you a number to phone (its at the top of the page and is an 0800 number) that will put you in touch with your locay FIS - or so it says.

[MissTinkerbell]

If you search for childcare it then gives you a number to phone (its at the top of the page and is an 0800 number) that will put you in touch with your locay FIS - or so it says.

I still had the page open on another tab from earlier

0800 2346 346

[Heaven Scent]

OMG - this thread reminded me that I needed to give them a call today to update my details, so on I popped to the dreaded direct.gov site - and what do I see - it has been changed again!!!!! now instead of giving a list of all minders who ever lived within a 50 mile radius of my home it is now giving out our precious registrations to all and sundary - now everyone can get hold of our names through the free phone number and link it to our reg num and get granny to look after their child and claim tax credits in our name!!!! B****y great!!!! Where is our confidentiality - I'm fuming.

Not only that but as I keyed in my full post code in the childcare search you would imagine that my number would be at the top of the list - but no its not - Nor was my name when I checked earlier in the week when they were publishing names - its near the bottom of the second page - by my reckoning I am the closest childminder to my post code that I know in the area.

I rang the freephone number and spoke to someone who was happy for me to email my amendments to my information which she said she would update. Then I went into a rant about breach of confidentiality by publishing our numbers so she took my number and said she would get her colleague to call me back and she did very promptly - she took everything I said on board explining that the service provider who compiles the information has been changed and now all minders are being listed present (including those who do not want to be included on the site) retired and minders who have been struck off. When they were publishing names earlier in the week I saw that they had the names of 4 minders in my town who don't live anywhere near me but are about to retire or move out of the area and have had their information removed for some time now. The girl said the new service provider simply went to ofsted for information and this is what they were given - first names then numbers - she said that in some areas they even published house numbers.

She said she has had lots of compliants and logs and dates each on - she agreed with me that all of my concerns were valid and it was all totally out of order.

She did say though that the old system still applies that if you call your local FIS your name will automatically go to the top of the list.

I've emailed my information so hopefully they will now be aware of me and if they get an enquiry then they will keep me in mind.

[Chatterbox Childcare]

Not sure if everyone is the same but our website is cra...

It isn't working and no names/telephone numbers are displayed. it is being worked on.

[Willowdancer]

I've had one, but only that one though! At least, I'm assuming my new mindee's mum found me on there as I had an email saying somebody had looked at my profile and they had the same name (not a common one!)

Ignore me - I'm getting muddled with childcare.co.uk. Yes, I am a loony :laughing:

[FizzysFriends]

Is there anyone we can ring? My family info people were supposed to have been sending us a consent form but I haven't had mine.

I've had a text from a fellow CM telling me how to complain about it, we are all km's away from our postcode?

[Bazza]

Recently we have seen an increase in traffic through childminderfinder.com (http://www.childminderfinder.com) which we are attributing to the ************* site not being fully operational.

Currently we are getting more searches on ads than any area of the site.

Woking in Surrey seems a popular place to search for a Childminder. One ad there has has 25 views since 15/10/09. (one of these is where we checked the ad). Looks like minders there could start to increase prices perhaps?

In search engine terms it is very hard to compete with a .gov website, but we are trying!

We allow you to control what you put in your ads (subject to out T&C) and you can even add a picture if you like.

We hope we can help through this dry spell. :thumbsup:

[Minstrel]

I've had one, but only that one though! At least, I'm assuming my new mindee's mum found me on there as I had an email saying somebody had looked at my profile and they had the same name (not a common one!)

Think thats a diff site you may be on about childcare.co.uk??

[Richard]

We're finding that childcare.co.uk is busy than ever since childcare link closed down.

Google have now placed us in the number 2 position for a search on 'childcare' and that is driving a large number of visitors to childminder profiles on our site. In the last 30 days we have received nearly 200,000 visitors.

We are continuing to get some great feedback from all the childminders using our site and many of them have filled all their vacancies through us.

Quite of few of you from this forum have sent in some of your Success Stories http://www.childcare.co.uk/information/success-stories/

Don't forget we have a special offer voucher exclusively for members of this forum.

Richard
childcare.co.uk

[Chimps Childminding]

Mine gives my name and address :angry: , no vacancies although I updated my details with FIS in August telling them that I would have spaces from September. And June who lives next door to me is 3 km away!!!!!!!!!!! No other minders on the page I am on have vacancies, or their home number of address listed they are all to be contacted through FIS!!!! God I'm confused!!!

[Schnakes]

Im glad you posted this as I hadnt bothered to check the website till I read this thread! Despite typing in my own postcode I am on page 6 of 17. Many of the childminders listed before me are ages away and some even no longer working as childminders!!

Im actually really :censored: off about this - why have they tried to fix it when it wasnt broke in the first place!?

Incidentally, a load of us minders were saying just this morning at toddlers how its gone really quiet on the phone call front - now I know why! Will complain to the CIS in the morning and I am so insensed, I may even call the NCMA and Ofsted! I cannot belive it! And all my bit says is my name, the hours I work and my home phone number. No wonder no one has been phoning!!! :angry: :angry: :angry:

Sx

[Chimps Childminding]

Been on again tonight having checked a few days ago. We are now listed by Ofsted Registration Number no idea of where we are etc. and when I clicked on mine plus a few others there were no details at all except FIS number. No times, days, vacancies infact NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!:angry: Oh and I was about 10th down the list for my postcode!!!!!!!!!!!!

[balloon]

I put in town and was 3rd down the list, last in our town, lol!

All it says is my name, phone number, website addy and email addy, nothing about ofsted grades, qualifications etc and nothing about vacancies.

Not thrilled :(

[carebear25]

Just checked mine and it says nothing bout me! Think I need to get it amended, but have no vacancies an thinking of takin maternity leave so is it worth doing?

http://childcarefinder.direct.gov.uk/Childcare/code=/dpp/resource/140237/stream/ECD/?d=1&distanceMeasure=km&d=1&searchstring=bb5+3ea&distanceValue=10&pagenum=5

[PixiePetal]

We're finding that childcare.co.uk is busy than ever since childcare link closed down.

Google have now placed us in the number 2 position for a search on 'childcare' and that is driving a large number of visitors to childminder profiles on our site. In the last 30 days we have received nearly 200,000 visitors.

We are continuing to get some great feedback from all the childminders using our site and many of them have filled all their vacancies through us.

Quite of few of you from this forum have sent in some of your Success Stories http://www.childcare.co.uk/information/success-stories/

Don't forget we have a special offer voucher exclusively for members of this forum.

Richard
childcare.co.uk

Thanks Richard, this week I took advantage of the voucher offer as I spotted someone in my village and got in touch. Hoping more will be forthcoming :)

[Bitsy Beans]

Had a look. Absolute joke so I've sent them (direct.gov) an email:

Aside from the shambles that is the childcare section I am disappointed to see Ofsted Registration numbers available to see. Anyone with an ounce of a brain can use this information to claim for bogus tax credits.

Hmmmm what sort of response do you think I'll get? :laughing:

[tashaleee]

Not sure if everyone is the same but our website is cra...

It isn't working and no names/telephone numbers are displayed. it is being worked on.

Same for my area - will be giving them a call tomorrow to see what is going on! The only thing showing at all is a nursery (and not a very good one as it undercuts childminders and has just changed its opening hours to be open outside of 8-6! :rolleyes: )

[Michelle M]

I had an email from our Early Years departmenr explaining they were havign problems, it was giving out all addresses etc, it was being fixed which is why I wasnt showing up, I have now had a letter, and a form to complete my details so the information will be uploaded correctly.

:)