Child care for a few hours in central London

benjus

Hi all,

My children live with their mother overseas so I don't see them as often as I'd like, but they are coming to stay with me in London for the whole of next week, so I've taken a week's leave from work.

I've also been offered an interview for a new job in central London - it seems like a good opportunity but they want me to come next week and may not be prepared to wait until the week after.

I was wondering if anyone knows of a nursery or creche that would be able to take them for a couple of hours to let me go to the interview. My son is aged 6 and my daughter is 4. I don't think they would be fazed by a couple of hours in such a place, but I obviously want somewhere reputable and not just a babysitter that I have never met before.

Thanks for any input...

Counting_Pennies_2

I would look to see if any holiday clubs are still running, it might be a week too late, but it all depends on school holidays for private schools.

Failing that I would look on Ofsted website and look at child care and call then visit a few to see if they have the possibility of one off childcare.

The most likely will be an emergency childminder, most areas have a childminder network run amongst the childminders who can offer emergency cover.

hth

onlyroz

Some shopping centres or sports centres have a creche where you can drop off a child for a few hours. I know, for example, that there's one in the Bentalls Centre in Kingston (not central London, I know, but there might be something similar closer to the centre).

msb5262

Hello OP,

In your position I'd be asking people I know and trust - either to look after the children at my own home for a couple of hours, or to recommend a babysitter/nanny/childcare worker they personally know well to do the same.

I think it might be asking a bit much of your children to be in a strange place w
ith total strangers, even just for a couple of hours, bearing in mind that they'll be a long way from most of the people and things with which they are familiar.

I'm a primary school teacher and if I wasn't at work, I'd happily spend a couple of hours looking after a friend's children at their home as a one-off and I bet most people are the same.

One reason I'm suggesting you ask friends to recommend someone who's employed in childcare is that they should also have been CRB checked recently, so as well as personal approval from your friend, you'll have a bit of peace of mind in that sense.

HTH

MsB

LondonDiva

http://www.hopesanddreams.co.uk/North-London-EC1-N1/nanny-agency.html

benjus

Thanks for all the replies. Unfortunately I don't know many people in London I could trust with something like this... I would also prefer to take them somewhere close to where I'll be in central London - if I leave them with somebody at home I'll have to add a couple more hours of transport time.

Anyway, I checked my employment benefits and my employer has an emergency childcare scheme - so I'll investigate if that can help.

Savvy_Sue

I like the idea that you're asking your current company if it can help with emergency childcare while you are on leave so that you can go to a job interview ...

I hope they can, but actually my first call would have been to see if I could postpone the job interview, and if not then I'd have started sorting childcare.

gingin_2

Try sitters.co.uk. I hate leaving my children with anyone other than family and sitters are made up of fully crb checked babysitters who already work/have worked with children - we had a childminder. Failing that I think the Westfield shopping centre in central London might have a creche but I am not sure on their policies with regards to you not being on site.

I think it would be fairer to leave them at home.