Kids Allowed launches nanny service for parents

[Simona]

Nursery staff will be able to look after children whose parents work atypical hours

Mmm...not good news for CMs in my view

Kids Allowed launches a nanny service for working parents | Nursery World (http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/nursery-world/news/1143859/kids-allowed-launches-nanny-service-parents?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter)

[sarah707]

Kids Allowed are very supportive of childminders!

We have regular free use of their soft play area and they are looking at other ways to engage and help childminders now that we have all but lost our LAs and training.

The CEO of Kids Allowed is very pro-childminders and is keen to talk to us and work with us in the future.

They have 4/ 5 outstanding settings and we can learn a lot from them - without them being an agency - that's not their intention.

The CEO is also chair of the North West Ofsted Big Conversation and very proactive - I have been actively welcomed and included in that group as are other cms who feed in ideas and information.

This is just another layer of service they are providing for their customers - living in the area where they operate I believe there is space for all of us :D

[Simona]

Kids Allowed are very supportive of childminders!

We have regular free use of their soft play area and they are looking at other ways to engage and help childminders now that we have all but lost our LAs and training.

The CEO of Kids Allowed is very pro-childminders and is keen to talk to us and work with us in the future.

They have 4/ 5 outstanding settings and we can learn a lot from them - without them being an agency - that's not their intention.

The CEO is also chair of the North West Ofsted Big Conversation and very proactive - I have been actively welcomed and included in that group as are other cms who feed in ideas and information.

This is just another layer of service they are providing for their customers - living in the area where they operate I believe there is space for all of us :D

You may have misunderstood me Sarah...I was not questioning Kids Allowed's support for cms
Yes it is an extra service they are providing as many day nurseries are already doing and planning on expanding in the near future...

Good to hear they welcome CMs in their OBC...London OBC welcomes Cms too and rightly so ...we are in this all together I hope.

[bunyip]

Nursery staff will be able to look after children whose parents work atypical hours

Mmm...not good news for CMs in my view

Kids Allowed launches a nanny service for working parents | Nursery World (http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/nursery-world/news/1143859/kids-allowed-launches-nanny-service-parents?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter)

I can sort of see your point, and yet not see your point.

Either CMs are offering the service the parents want at the time they want it, or they aren't.

If CMs choose not to provide a service at the times that suit parents who work "atypical hours" then no CM will suffer just because another childcare provider does offer that service at that time.

If CMs are offering the service at times that suit those parents, but the parents prefer a nanny to a CM, the CM wouldn't get the business anyway, so again they have lost nothing.

If parents do prefer a CM, and a CM is prepared to be open at the times these parents want, then bingo - the CM has clients. :thumbsup:

It's fairly standard 'small-business-itus' to claim someone else is stealing away "our" earnings just because they're prepared to offer a service we don't. :( Alternatively, we could stop bandying about words like "flexibility" and ask ourselves how much flexibility we're actually offering. :huh:

[rickysmiths]

I wonder how many Key workers will actually want to work the extended hours? If the Nursery feel there is a real need for this then why don't they just open longer hours?

[Mouse]

The nursery my boys went to did this on an unofficial basis and I know of others who do it now. The nursery worker has the children before nursery and takes the children to work when they go, or they take the children home with them at the end of the day. My husband & I often used them for childcare at weekends.

I know not many childminders here want to do before & after care for a child going to private nursery, so it works well for parents if they can have the nursery staff do it. Some parents really struggle to get that sort of care. I guess if there was a big call for it the nursery would just open for longer hours, but if it's only for a limited number of families I suppose it's more beneficial for the to do it this way.

[Simona]

I can sort of see your point, and yet not see your point.

Either CMs are offering the service the parents want at the time they want it, or they aren't.

If CMs choose not to provide a service at the times that suit parents who work "atypical hours" then no CM will suffer just because another childcare provider does offer that service at that time.

If CMs are offering the service at times that suit those parents, but the parents prefer a nanny to a CM, the CM wouldn't get the business anyway, so again they have lost nothing.

If parents do prefer a CM, and a CM is prepared to be open at the times these parents want, then bingo - the CM has clients. :thumbsup:

It's fairly standard 'small-business-itus' to claim someone else is stealing away "our" earnings just because they're prepared to offer a service we don't. :( Alternatively, we could stop bandying about words like "flexibility" and ask ourselves how much flexibility we're actually offering. :huh:

Lots of good thoughts on this.
I was not coming from the point of view that nurseries can 'steal our business' or earnings... just looking at the wider picture and from what I hear may be happening all over the country

Rickysmiths is right...some key persons may not want to work additional hours on top of their 10 hour day...maybe nurseries can link up with cms on this maybe?

Opening a nursery longer hours may also involve additional costs to the nursery as there is a need for a manager to be present...so I can imagine the key person going to the home is an easier option and those hours contracted by the parents and paid by them to the key person?

Certainly worth keeping our ears open and see what develops...not only with this nursery but those closer to us
I would assume this is what a 'childcare market' will create in future...lots of options and opportunities for all...as long as it suits the children's needs.

[loocyloo]

I don't think this is new! ... when I was 3 I went to a nursery school. My mum would drop me off at my teachers house and she would take me to nursery.
At the end of the day I would go home with the teacher or if she had to stay later, her mum would pick me up!
The teachers mum actually lived across the road from us and I remember spending lots of time there whilst my mum was at college.

[Simona]

I don't think this is new! ... when I was 3 I went to a nursery school. My mum would drop me off at my teachers house and she would take me to nursery.
At the end of the day I would go home with the teacher or if she had to stay later, her mum would pick me up!
The teachers mum actually lived across the road from us and I remember spending lots of time there whilst my mum was at college.

I am sure that this has happened to many of us in the past...but not under the 'More Great Childcare' ...or 'More Affordable Childcare' banners??...and certainly when the EYFS was not around??

[rickysmiths]

The workers at our local Nurseries have always babysat, done weekends and before and after Nursery. They are often young with no First Aid or any other qualifications so they are cheap. It is up to the parents isn't it if they want to use this kind of care for their children. It is fine until something goes wrong.

I also know parents who have tried to poach staff to use them as a Nanny and both parents and worker have come unstuck because of the 'Restrictive practice' clause in the workers Contract banning them for working for any family who are with or have been with the Nursery in the last six months for six months after the member of staff has left the Nursery.

Personally I won't deliver to or collect from a Private Day Nursery. If parents choose that type of childcare that to my mind is what they have chosen and if they don't provide the hours they really need then why did they choose it? They should have chosen a form of childcare that offered the hours they needed. I am not prepared to do all the paperwork.


If I am not good enough for them to use for all their child care, I say let them get on with it and their fantastic Nursery that was so much better than a cm and ask them why they are not open the same hours as I am..

[loocyloo]

Personally I won't deliver to or collect from a Private Day Nursery. If parents choose that type of childcare that to my mind is what they have chosen and if they don't provide the hours they really need then why did they choose it? They should have chosen a form of childcare that offered the hours they needed. I am not prepared to do all the paperwork.

If I am not good enough for them to use for all their child care, I say let them get on with it and their fantastic Nursery that was so much better than a cm and ask them why they are not open the same hours as I am..

Same here!

I have mindees who have come to me because the day nursery doesn't do all it said on the tin! ;-)

[Simona]

For years and years CMs have raised concerns about the lack of 'professional relationships' with other settings...be preschools or day nurseries.
My personal take on this is that reforms should address this now and the sector come to work together?...I can see many people hold different views

We now seem to have the opportunity to try to remedy that and we cannot agree
What is happening to this chain of nurseries will happen a lot in future...I see it happening already because all sorts of providers will be getting involved in offering 'extra services' such as wraparound care

Many schools do not want to do so...or have no facilities or staff
I would like to see where this sudden working together will come from...will schools really approach cms?
will cms be happy to work with schools or nurseries?

I look forward to reading about this nanny scheme ...see if it works...I also would like to see cms involved with nurseries to provide this...or nurseries actively working with cms....

[bunyip]

For years and years CMs have raised concerns about the lack of 'professional relationships' with other settings...be preschools or day nurseries.
My personal take on this is that reforms should address this now and the sector come to work together?...I can see many people hold different views

We now seem to have the opportunity to try to remedy that and we cannot agree
What is happening to this chain of nurseries will happen a lot in future...I see it happening already because all sorts of providers will be getting involved in offering 'extra services' such as wraparound care

Many schools do not want to do so...or have no facilities or staff
I would like to see where this sudden working together will come from...will schools really approach cms?
will cms be happy to work with schools or nurseries?

I look forward to reading about this nanny scheme ...see if it works...I also would like to see cms involved with nurseries to provide this...or nurseries actively working with cms....

They might have to, if the CM's house is built where the school's playing field used to be before the LEA sold it off as an unneccessary luxury. :rolleyes: Who needs exercise when they can sit and watch the Olympics with a bag of crisps and a coke?

You're completely right about facilities.

Whenever Truss & her acolytes bang on about extending school provision, I keep wondering where they're going to extend to, now they hardly have any land left. :confused:

[rickysmiths]

Yes it is long since time that many Private Nurseries learnt about the other Childcare in their area. They don't work with other professionals, in my experience they don't really work with parents in that they don't explain what EYFS is, they do very poor LJ and 2 year checks and as long as they are full they don't seem to care.

I certainly would never offer wrap around care with a Day Nursery, no one in my area, let them sort it out and provide real flexible care for their parents. They won't though because they don't have the room or the staff expertise to do so and the ones near me are so cramped in they would never get planning permission to increase numbers.

Maybe parents need to look at using the more flexible care cm offer and the continuity of care they offer children?

[Simona]

Yes it is long since time that many Private Nurseries learnt about the other Childcare in their area. They don't work with other professionals, in my experience they don't really work with parents in that they don't explain what EYFS is, they do very poor LJ and 2 year checks and as long as they are full they don't seem to care.

I certainly would never offer wrap around care with a Day Nursery, no one in my area, let them sort it out and provide real flexible care for their parents. They won't though because they don't have the room or the staff expertise to do so and the ones near me are so cramped in they would never get planning permission to increase numbers.

Maybe parents need to look at using the more flexible care cm offer and the continuity of care they offer children?

Nurseries are looking at offering more flexibility and each area will be different...I am looking into this and engaging to see what is going on both in settings and schools
Wraparound care is for school children so nurseries will be looking at doing that and collect from schools if they have staff and room

The nanny service ..in my view...is different because they are offering 'longer' childcare but not on their premises...it will probably work but I would like to see this involving cms as well

Preschools are also extending their services and offering childcare after the 15 free hours and again looking after children on their premises
It is very complicated but each is looking at extra services and also...I would assume...earning extra where their sustainability is a problem

The real conundrum is where do these children go during the holidays when they need 8-6pm...back to a cm ...or holiday camps because even some schools will not open during the holidays?

I think there are opportunities for all ...for those who want to go the extra mile