Nursery managers used to offering two or three childcare sessions a day may be stunned by the idea of single-hour childcare slots. But in London, providers are increasingly offering ad hoc childcare arrangements for a growing population of self-employed parents.
My Crèche co-founder Saasha Celestial-One opened such a setting two years ago in North London. ‘In any given day there are 10 to 15 children booked in,’ she explains. ‘Half will be regulars from 9am to 6pm. The other spots are kids in for anything from an hour. We might any day have 30 come through.’
The former business strategist set up the company after regularly leaving her child at a local gym crèche. ‘I just wanted the odd hour – but you had to stay on the premises,’ she says. ‘I tried to find a childminder, but that would involve a deposit, sick cover and holiday pay – way more than I wanted to pay.’ Instead she set up My Crèche, which is registered with Ofsted as a nursery.
Parents using the service pay a membership fee, after which they can book the number of hours they require. ‘Half the parents are freelance – they get a job for three or four weeks at a time,’ says Ms Celestial-One. ‘They need flexible but full-time childcare. The other half just want to nip to yoga or have a job interview.’
Three qualified practitioners, an apprentice and a volunteer staff the setting, which takes children aged from six weeks to eight years old. They conduct EYFS observations and assessments for regulars. ‘We worked with the council’s EYFS representatives to find a way to implement it,’ states Ms Celestial-One.
Although providing continuity of care is challenging for children attending for short periods, Ms Celestial-One says her staff compensate in other ways. As a small setting, it tailors care. ‘If you wanted your kid to go to sleep in the dark with white noise on an app, that’s fine,’ she says. ‘We’re not just flexible about the hours, we’re really flexible about how we look after children.’
She predicts a new wave of more flexible childcare, and there is evidence to indicate the demand is there. Office for National Statistics data released in 2014 shows the number of women in self-employment is increasing, with the total number higher than at any point in the past 40 years. ‘Every week I get an email from someone asking if I can talk to them because they’re thinking about opening a flexible childcare facility,’ says Ms Celestial-One.
A SPREADING MODEL
Also in North London, Nadia Youssof founded community space the Hub in 2012. During her time offering children’s cookery and other activities at the centre, she observed a rise in self-employed parents looking for flexible childcare. ‘You get more parents where one of them decides to stay at home with the children because both working is pointless – nursery schools end up costing the majority of the money,’ she explains. ‘One of them is working from home and invariably things crop up and people need ad hoc childcare.’
Ms Youssof is currently writing her business plan and envisages a similar model to My Crèche, where half the nursery places would be permanent, and half for ad hoc. Another selling point will be opening hours from 7am to 7pm to cater for commuters. She says continuity of care will happen naturally because of the setting’s small size – just 12 places.
In South London, Kids Fusion Childcare director Stephen Boakye is developing a similar service. The provision, based in a leisure centre, offers hour-long slots for up to 16 children aged from six months to five years. Having opened in September 2015, Boakye plans to offer full daycare once the setting is Ofsted-registered. ‘We’ve had a lot of demand,’ he says.
NDNA early years business adviser Sally Dunlop says many providers want to offer more flexible childcare, but warns that parents seeking flexibility will have differing expectations and requirements from those needing full daycare. ‘The two require fundamentally different approaches and considerations,” she says. ‘The priority must be the experience of the child. A totally ad hoc approach to childcare will not give a child the environment they need to thrive – continuity of early learning and childcare is critical for social, emotional and cognitive development.’
