in England
Nursery/Childminder questions?
Hi, looking for some advice if anyone has any ideas.
I quit my old job once my mat leave ended, it was a toxic work environment and if I couldn’t handle it before, I knew I wouldn’t be able to once I had a baby. I am now looking for a new job but have no one to look after little one who’s just turned one at all, I haven’t started applying but would like to but confused how nursery or childminders work.
It’s just me so I know to be eligible for the 15 hours now, I’d have to actually have a job or be starting one in 30 days but in regards to nursery, do I sign him up in September and put him with a childminder until then? How do I go about that? Since I haven’t secured a job yet, I know I wouldn’t be able to get him in for April, I also can’t afford to. How do people do this, I’m so confused to how it works 😂
I’m not sure if this makes any sense but can anyone please give me some advice on what to do? I can’t survive off the little UC I get and desperately want to work but not sure how it would work with nurseries/childminders. What should I do and how should I go about it? Google just confuses me even more.
Thank you in advance for any suggestions! X
Show your support
I'd say for starters, childminder as its much cheaper than a nursery. Some charge around £7 per hour depending where you live. Nurseries can be up to £100 a day.
Agree with both points above. And when you speak to childminders, you can explain all of the above to them and find out their flexibility around start dates. I’ve use two childminders over the last four years and they’ve been extremely flexible around days/times. Nursery’s are more rigid, but you have the security of them always operating (they have staff covering sick colleagues etc).
I did the same.. I put her into nursery last Sept and just persevered with the fees, have you looked at the tax free payment through the gov? The nursery were in cost £65 a day.
Trending in our community
The first thing you need to do is find a nursery / childminder and get there availability. It massively depends on the area you live in but around us it’s at least a years wait to get them into a nursery. Once you have found one you like, that accepts the funded hours etc, then you can work back from that. Find a job, get them booked in, apply for the funded hours.