How are childrens centres and extended schools affecting your business?

**yummymummy** · 08-09-2008, 10:12 AM

Our area, a London suburb is powering ahead with this so that virtually every school has these services. It has had a really negative affect on local childminders work. So just wondering what the situation is like in other parts of the country?

**Pauline** · 08-09-2008, 10:42 AM

We are lucky in that the Extended Services manager around here supports childminders and includes them in all leaflets and information that goes out to parents.

The nearest school to us lets us be included in all information too, even though they have their own out of school club.

The local Children's Centre has a list of local childminders on their notice board and offers us rooms to hold our meetings.

I think that we might be in the minority though, as I hear some very sad stories about not being included

**sarah707** · 08-09-2008, 10:47 AM

Our local after school closed due to lack of take-up... I got a couple of children extra when that happened.

The Children's centre is supposed to be promoting childminders... it's only just opened though so it's a wait and see.

It must be very hard in areas where schools are taking childminder's business...

I thought the govt remit was to do a survey and check on spaces before forging ahead with new clubs?

What a pity they can't do that first

**DudleyChildmind** · 08-09-2008, 10:48 AM

There is a childrens centre currently being built in the grounds of our local school and I think it will affect my business. A friend of mine, who is newly registered, has already lost 3 of her children to another centre as they offer much cheaper rates.

Unfortunately, I think this will affect a lot of childminders because with the credit crunch parents may be forced to go with the cheaper option unfortunately

**venus89** · 08-09-2008, 10:52 AM

Ours won't be offering childcare - beyond, possibly, a creche for staff. I'm getting involved in the children's centre now, before it opens, so that I can make sure they promote and support childminders (

).

**Andrea08** · 08-09-2008, 11:00 AM

hi,
our childrens C (CC) has been going for quite some time,
it holds files with level 1 and 2 partners PVI
if your level 2 they can sign post parents to us, but this not happened yet,
i lost out on a number of families choosing to use the CC
and one said its because so nice and new!!!

quite a few private pre-schools have closed as we have 5 schools close by all offering before and after school time,
one linked with a CC offers all ages from birth so again childminders lost out on all age groups,

parents have asked if i will collect from CC and work till 8pm as CC close about 6pm
I SAID NO ( felt like saying on your bike lol)

4 local childminders lost out on work and closed , one is now having to work for the CC !!

not sure how i feel about CC taking on the role as nurserys and everything else they do didnt think we needed any more child care in my area?

but after saying all that it is a partnership so joined the BSSP
Blackpool Sure Start Partnership rep.. childminders and we have meetings every month. i support all Blackpool CM at the meeting and ensure we are kept up-2-date etc

Andrea x

**LisaH** · 08-09-2008, 12:22 PM

My local cc lets us use a room for our meetings etc. The head of centre used to use childminders for her own kids so is keen to have us there.

Whether the credit crunch will affect us remains to be seen. At the moment all local minders and the cc are pretty much full.

**tulip0803** · 08-09-2008, 02:25 PM

We don't have a children's centre near here nearest is 30 miles away so that isn't a prob.

The local school runs a free breakfast club from 8-8.45 so if times tie parents put their children in there. The afterschool club

runs on 3 days from 3-5 so not practical for most families - But it has not run for 9 months due to maternity leave - still not running now. It was always subject to no notice cancellation which was great when I was on a course 45 miles away and they would ring me while I was on the M4 to tell me

.

**Heaven Scent** · 08-09-2008, 02:56 PM

Childrens centre here run on a very small scale so no chance of them taking any work from CM's and every school has an after school club, so nothing much going 2 change there and anyway as I'v said befor this is a one week wonder and the money for all this will run out as soon as its begun and everything will have to be streamlined. Its a blip - I don't think they will be able to fund all these places once the recession hits properly.

**Tatia** · 08-09-2008, 02:56 PM

We have 2 children's centres in the area. One is a nursery, too and the other does not provide childcare. Guess which one I'm on better terms with?

We started our drop-in group at the cc/nursery and got virtually no support from them. But the new/non-nursery cc has bent over backwards to treat us well, including free rent for our drop-in, a large notice board dedicated to childminders to advertise, plus recommending us to parents in need of childcare.

I'm not close enough to really lose work to the nursery/cc and the non-nursery one has actually brought me work so...

**Jules12Wed** · 08-09-2008, 04:43 PM

We have3 children's centres in the area an another 2 opening shortly. One is a nursery, too and the others do not provide childcare.

One of my mindees Mum works at the local childrens centre. Only tonight when she came to collect her daughter she said someone came in looking for childcare and she gave them my number (she probably shouldn't have!!). She told them she favours a childminder over a nursery as so much more flexible and a better environment.

**DudleyChildmind** · 08-09-2008, 06:24 PM

I have made an appointment to see the site manager of the childrens centre that will be opening next spring. I have also contacted the other childminders in this area for their thoughts/questions about the CC so I can ask questions on their behalf too.

I'll let you know how I get on

**karenjoy** · 08-09-2008, 06:27 PM

We have one close by they do not offer child care so have a noticeboard for childminders, also set up a group for us too. They say they want to work closely with us so hope they do!!!

**Schnakes** · 08-09-2008, 07:13 PM

We have a local childrens centre but luckily they dont have a building or I think I would be out of a job because others in Reading have in-built nurseries and they chage so little its easy to see why parents would chose them over us.

As for after school clubs - I live on the same road as the school which has one. They charge £15 per week - I would charge upwards of £30...can see why parents would chose that. Ive never had an after schooler.

I considered lowering my prices to compete but realised that once I had bought toys and equipment, plus additional food for the older children I would probably running at a loss so no point.

Sx

**Jules27** · 08-09-2008, 10:01 PM

I live in a little village, my sons school only has 80 pupils, the school only runs a couple of after school clubs so not really any competition. The nearest CC is about 5 miles away but is in same building as doctors surgery so not very big AND they support and promote cm's in a BIG way, so thats ok for me!!

**Tatia** · 09-09-2008, 12:22 PM

It's worth keeping in mind when dealing with any Surestart children's centre that a part of their committment to communities (and condition for their government funding) is to work in partnership with childminders. If you're worried about the ones with nurseries affecting your business, then approach them in a friendly way and ask what they are doing to promote choice of childcare for parents (which they MUST do) and that you'd be happy to leave a flyer, business cards, leaflets about your service. And if they run drop-in groups or anything, get involved.

I'm a big fan of children's centres and think that if we are proactive about building a working relationship with them then it's only going to benefit us in the long run.

**cloud9** · 09-09-2008, 05:44 PM

Originally Posted by yummymummy

Our area, a London suburb is powering ahead with this so that virtually every school has these services. It has had a really negative affect on local childminders work. So just wondering what the situation is like in other parts of the country?

Its screwing us over along with the recession!

**DudleyChildmind** · 10-09-2008, 05:23 PM

Originally Posted by c.l.matt

Its screwing us over along with the recession!

It's beginning to look that way isn't it

**Rasharoon** · 10-09-2008, 05:47 PM

I live in a village that will soon have a Childrens Centre opening up. Not sure yet what type of impact it will have on me.

There is a local before school and after school club. I know that the after school club charges £4 per hour and includes a FREE hot dinner. They have recently moved to brand new premises where they can cater for more children. There are also 3 local nurseries.

I'm constantly updating my details with CIS but I never receive any calls. Last one I had must have been 6 months ago - maybe more and nothing came of that.

There are 10 childminders (including me), listed on the CIS website for my area yet nobody is interested in getting/working together. I feel that as I'm the new girl in town, a lot of other childminders business is done through word of mouth so that rules me out. I've said hello to those I've pinpointed as a childminder but that's as far as it goes. You get ignored!

With the two families whose children I look after before & after school, I have had them for a year (since I started) and not even a sniff at any other business (apart from a 5 year old in the holidays for 10 hours a week).

I'm desperate to have a younger child so as I can start implementing EYFS and understand what that's all about. I'm no good at reading and remembering - need to do it.

There are a lot of families where I live and I struggle to understand how so many mum's can afford to stay at home (not wishing to sound negative). It's not as though I live in an affluent area. There are a lot of Mum's who go cleaning (even taking their young ones) and they can earn about £8-£10 per hour so I know I'm doing something wrong!

I do believe I am being pushed out of childminding and if a job came up that was within school hours and term time only, I'd take it. Although I'm a dinner lady, an hour a day doesn't quite bring the money in.

**yummymummy** · 11-09-2008, 01:29 PM

What a mixed reaction, it really does vary from area to area, interestingly yesterday I received a call from our local Early Years Department (I had not filled in a box in one of the endless questionnaires they send out) and mentioned the lack of work to her. She said it was borough wide but between September 2007-2008, 120 childminders had resigned in our borough!
And yet the ones left still struggle to fill vacancies!

Thank goodness there are still areas of the country where childminding is still thriving, unfortunately for me not where I live