Review: Finding A Local Babysitter with Childcare.co.uk

"It takes a village to raise a child", or so the saying goes, but in today's society those villages are smaller and smaller and often parents have very little support or backup and are raising their children with little to no help from outside. I am fortunate that I have a great family and although they're not on my doorstep, they help out as much as they can and when they can with the children. That being said, though, when John and I just need an hour to ourselves or if we want any adult-only time, we don't really have anyone we can call on to lend a hand. That's where childcare.co.uk comes in.

I came across the childcare site a few years ago when I was considering hiring a babysitter, and thought it was a great concept. On the site you can find local babysitters, childcare providers, household helpers, schools and private tutors and with over 2 million users it's not hard to see why it is such a successful site, collecting several awards since its launch in 2009.

On visiting the page you can immediately search for whichever local provider you need. The initial results show providers within 5 miles, however you can narrow this down or expand it as required. You can also filter results to show which kind of provider you need - for example in the babysitting category there are 21 different options including evening babysitters and babysitters with DBS checks.

Once the results appear, you can then go into each provider's profile for more information, such as their working hours, their experience and also read reviews from other parents. This is definitely something that is a reassurance as you are seeing real reviews from people who have used their services. It is always a concern when you are leaving your child with a strange, so to see they have received positive feedback from other people is very reassuring. Further to this you can actually contact parents who have used the provider in the past for even more information, should you feel you need to.

I have actually used the site in the past and was pleased with how easy it is to navigate and find someone locally, and upon a 5 mile search there were 178 babysitters available which is more than enough to choose from. I have heard of quite a few people using the site since then and there have been some improvements such as parent reviews and being able to contact parents that I don't remember from last time and definitely make a difference. I would happily use the site and recommend it to friends, not only for the babysitting facility but for all the other providers available. If you want to find out more information you can visit childcare.co.uk.



*This is a featured post however all opinions are my own.