The link-up between the Paramount Group, which has 16 hotels in the UK, and Safehands Network follows their joint initiative in 2002 to provide a babysitting service for hotel guests. Safehands would provide the carers who would adapt a room and bring in toys and craft materials to keep the children entertained for several hours.
Gary Farrer, managing director of Safehands Network, said, 'The creches will be run on an ad hoc basis initially. Under the Ofsted regulations you can run a creche for up to five times a year before it becomes a regulated care provision and you have to have a designated room.
'The next step is to move from creche provision to regulated holiday provision at hotels in the summer. We don't know yet what the take-up is going to be, but once we have an idea of demand we plan to register hotels for care provision. A lot of hotels are now encouraging parents to take their children with them for family breaks.'
Mr Farrer confirmed that Safehands was in talks both with Ofsted about its proposed provision in English hotels and with the Scottish Care Commission about its schemes north of the border. He said the prestigious Belfry Hotel at Sutton Coldfield, where American and British golfers have stayed during the Ryder Cup, was being registered with Ofsted so that it could provide activity-based holiday clubs in the summer holidays.
'Not only will the mobile creche help satisfy demand, but we feel we are making a real contribution to local communities and businesses by promoting high-quality, affordable and accessible services that meet the needs of all children and families,' he added.
Safehands, which is also planning to link up with the Hilton hotel chain, said that all of its creche staff had been cleared by the Criminal Records Bureau, were fully trained and came from a childcare background with either NNEB, NVQ 3 or NVQ 4 qualifications.
