Directgov to take off childminders contact detials

**noble76** · 28-03-2011, 08:58 AM

On Thursday 31st March Directgov will remove all childminders contact details from their site. Parents will have to go through a local central point, usually the Family Information Service (FIS) to gain childminders contact details.

Is this good news for childminders?

In the age of a now society how will this affect childminders gaining work? When parents are looking for child care options during evenings and weekends will the removal of these contact details from the internet help or hinder childminders? For those of you who remember the old *************.co.uk site where it operated a map where parents could search all the childcare available to them in any area across the country in a very quick and easy way. It must seem like taking a big step backwards.

The decision has been made, what now?

Perhaps now is the time to start being more proactive in gaining work for your setting. There are a number of ways that childminders can do this.

Postcards and business cards.

Having some good quality postcards printed and disturbing them around your local area in shop windows, doctors surgeries and libraries can prove very useful. You will be surprised the affect it will have on gaining work as it then becomes very easy for parents to contact you as your details are right there. Get some business cards printed at the same time to carry in your bag and be able to hand out if needed.
You can now get printing very cheaply on the internet, you could probable get 50 postcards and some business cards for as little as £20. Some companies even have templates to choose from. One such site is Vista Print.

Local directories and magazines.

Another consideration is advertising in your local directories or magazines. Although this will be a bigger outlay than printing you need to look at it as an investment. If you want to fill full time vacancies that may be worth between £500 and £800 every month spending £100 and £200 on an advert might proof to be money well spent, especially if you are gaining a baby that you will have for 3 or 4 years. Remember you can claim everything you spend on advertising.

Facebook

Have you ever considered how Facebook could help you gain work? Facebook may proof to be just the answer to filling vacancies. You can set up a page for your business this will be linked to your profile and then run an advert advertising your child care service in your area. The fantastic thing about this is that you can set your budget so you can run the advert every at a set time each week (Sunday evenings are a good one) and select for it to appear on profiles in your area. You can set a budget of as little as £10. This will then appear when prospective parents are logged into Facebook. When they click on the advert it can go straight to your website if you have one or your Facebook page. This is a lot easier than you may think, and our team at Noble Minder will gladly help you.

**Bananabrain** · 28-03-2011, 10:01 AM

The old system was fair to childminders and convenient for parents.
The Direct.gov thing was a pigs ear from the start.
The 'government' are fools and I should be Prime Minister!

**Pauline** · 28-03-2011, 10:18 AM

Originally Posted by noble76

You can now get printing very cheaply on the internet, you could probable get 50 postcards and some business cards for as little as £20. Some companies even have templates to choose from. One such site is Vista Print.

If you do use Vista Print please consider using the Forum link to them as it helps with Forum running costs: http://www.childmindingforum.co.uk/helptheforum.html

**Sleeping Baby** · 28-03-2011, 11:00 AM

Originally Posted by Louise 144

The old system was fair to childminders and convenient for parents.
The Direct.gov thing was a pigs ear from the start.
The 'government' are fools and I should be Prime Minister!

Could not agree more.

onceinabluemoon · 28-03-2011, 11:17 AM

Originally Posted by Louise 144

The old system was fair to childminders and convenient for parents.
The Direct.gov thing was a pigs ear from the start.
The 'government' are fools and I should be Prime Minister!

Exactly!

When my details were only on the Gov.uk site I didn't get a single phone call for work!!! When I checked it out I found parents were given people's details that leave ten miles away BEFORE they were given mine when searching for my postcode - unbelievable!

Now we are back on the FIS website I am getting work again.

I know which one I'd rather be on.

Give Louise chance to be prime minister, she cant do a worse job and may well do better...

**donnamarie2** · 28-03-2011, 11:25 AM

Originally Posted by noble76

On Thursday 31st March Directgov will remove all childminders contact details from their site. Parents will have to go through a local central point, usually the Family Information Service (FIS) to gain childminders contact details.

Is this good news for childminders?

In the age of a now society how will this affect childminders gaining work? When parents are looking for child care options during evenings and weekends will the removal of these contact details from the internet help or hinder childminders? For those of you who remember the old *************.co.uk site where it operated a map where parents could search all the childcare available to them in any area across the country in a very quick and easy way. It must seem like taking a big step backwards.

The decision has been made, what now?

Perhaps now is the time to start being more proactive in gaining work for your setting. There are a number of ways that childminders can do this.

Postcards and business cards.

Having some good quality postcards printed and disturbing them around your local area in shop windows, doctors surgeries and libraries can prove very useful. You will be surprised the affect it will have on gaining work as it then becomes very easy for parents to contact you as your details are right there. Get some business cards printed at the same time to carry in your bag and be able to hand out if needed.
You can now get printing very cheaply on the internet, you could probable get 50 postcards and some business cards for as little as £20. Some companies even have templates to choose from. One such site is Vista Print.

Local directories and magazines.

Another consideration is advertising in your local directories or magazines. Although this will be a bigger outlay than printing you need to look at it as an investment. If you want to fill full time vacancies that may be worth between £500 and £800 every month spending £100 and £200 on an advert might proof to be money well spent, especially if you are gaining a baby that you will have for 3 or 4 years. Remember you can claim everything you spend on advertising.

Facebook
considered how Facebook could help you gain work?
Have you ever Facebook may proof to be just the answer to filling vacancies. You can set up a page for your business this will be linked to your profile and then run an advert advertising your child care service in your area. The fantastic thing about this is that you can set your budget so you can run the advert every at a set time each week (Sunday evenings are a good one) and select for it to appear on profiles in your area. You can set a budget of as little as £10. This will then appear when prospective parents are logged into Facebook. When they click on the advert it can go straight to your website if you have one or your Facebook page. This is a lot easier than you may think, and our team at Noble Minder will gladly help you.

I'm not great at this stuff, how do you advertise on face book?

**georgie456** · 28-03-2011, 12:37 PM

I'm not in the slightest bit worried about the removal of this website affecting my business because it never gave me any in the first place!
It was a complete waste of public money and to now just shelve it and waste a bit more money makes me SO cross!! What a waste of time! Hopefully now it's gone, I will now start getting some calls again.

**berkschick** · 28-03-2011, 12:44 PM

Our council are going back to the old system.

The gov one was rubbish!

**rickysmiths** · 28-03-2011, 01:13 PM

Originally Posted by noble76

On Thursday 31st March Directgov will remove all childminders contact details from their site. Parents will have to go through a local central point, usually the Family Information Service (FIS) to gain childminders contact details.

Is this good news for childminders?

In the age of a now society how will this affect childminders gaining work? When parents are looking for child care options during evenings and weekends will the removal of these contact details from the internet help or hinder childminders? For those of you who remember the old *************.co.uk site where it operated a map where parents could search all the childcare available to them in any area across the country in a very quick and easy way. It must seem like taking a big step backwards.

The decision has been made, what now?

Perhaps now is the time to start being more proactive in gaining work for your setting. There are a number of ways that childminders can do this.

Postcards and business cards.

Having some good quality postcards printed and disturbing them around your local area in shop windows, doctors surgeries and libraries can prove very useful. You will be surprised the affect it will have on gaining work as it then becomes very easy for parents to contact you as your details are right there. Get some business cards printed at the same time to carry in your bag and be able to hand out if needed.
You can now get printing very cheaply on the internet, you could probable get 50 postcards and some business cards for as little as £20. Some companies even have templates to choose from. One such site is Vista Print.

Local directories and magazines.

Another consideration is advertising in your local directories or magazines. Although this will be a bigger outlay than printing you need to look at it as an investment. If you want to fill full time vacancies that may be worth between £500 and £800 every month spending £100 and £200 on an advert might proof to be money well spent, especially if you are gaining a baby that you will have for 3 or 4 years. Remember you can claim everything you spend on advertising.

Facebook

Have you ever considered how Facebook could help you gain work? Facebook may proof to be just the answer to filling vacancies. You can set up a page for your business this will be linked to your profile and then run an advert advertising your child care service in your area. The fantastic thing about this is that you can set your budget so you can run the advert every at a set time each week (Sunday evenings are a good one) and select for it to appear on profiles in your area. You can set a budget of as little as £10. This will then appear when prospective parents are logged into Facebook. When they click on the advert it can go straight to your website if you have one or your Facebook page. This is a lot easier than you may think, and our team at Noble Minder will gladly help you.

They were actually taken off at 5.30pm on Friday 25th March!

TheBTeam · 28-03-2011, 01:33 PM

Originally Posted by rickysmiths

They were actually taken off at 5.30pm on Friday 25th March!

I have tried to find out from the CDO what is happening instead, but they are none the wiser!

**Chatterbox Childcare** · 28-03-2011, 01:52 PM

I have had a letter today regarding this as we are going back to the old system

If parents want help and go to the site then they will be forwarded on to the relevent council

**alwaysright** · 28-03-2011, 04:40 PM

yey goodbye and good riddance!! its been a pain in the bum since they spent all them thousands and thousands setting it up!! now they say well actually it doesnt work lets go back to the old way that worked fine!!! unbelievable

since this stupid system came into place i havent had one single enquiry yet used to get them from childcare link when it was sooo easy to find a minder in your area!! they also had lots of peoples personal details on there that shouldnt have been, my home number was on there, and i was told "we cant take it off....."
glad its going

**miffy** · 28-03-2011, 04:46 PM

The directgov site was a bit of a lottery anyway - sometimes my details were there and sometimes they weren't

Thank goodness I never needed to rely on it for work!

Miffy xx

**venus89** · 28-03-2011, 04:58 PM

However, it might have been nice of them to tell us. Or to tell us beforehand, at least....

**noble76** · 28-03-2011, 05:07 PM

Originally Posted by rickysmiths

They were actually taken off at 5.30pm on Friday 25th March!

Ah sorry I was in there Wednesday last week and they still had the date as 31st March. I wonder why that was?

Sorry to have mislead you on the date.

**noble76** · 28-03-2011, 05:08 PM

Originally Posted by Pauline

If you do use Vista Print please consider using the Forum link to them as it helps with Forum running costs: http://www.childmindingforum.co.uk/helptheforum.html

Even more reason to get some done.

**noble76** · 28-03-2011, 05:09 PM

Originally Posted by donnamarie2

I'm not great at this stuff, how do you advertise on face book?

If you want I would be more than happy to spend 15 minutes on the phone goign over this with you.

Let me know.

Thanks

Lisa

**Alibali** · 28-03-2011, 05:53 PM

It'll be interesting to see if it makes any difference or not.

**rickysmiths** · 28-03-2011, 06:07 PM

Originally Posted by TheBTeam

I have tried to find out from the CDO what is happening instead, but they are none the wiser!

When I put in my post code now it refers me to the Council Offices in my local town? I didn't have time today to ring them and ask if they had Cm details. Somehow I doubt it.