FAQ's

@Home Childcare is a flexible solution for parents who need part-time childcare to fit in with their working hours. We are unique for several reasons:

• Our pay-as-you-go service allows families to use our childcare for as little as 2 hours per session – ideal for before/after school care.
• We provide out of normal hours childcare for shift workers who need extended childcare earlier in the mornings, later in the evenings and weekends.
• We Ofsted register our home childcarers so families can use their tax credits or childcare vouchers to help keep costs down.
• We visit families in their own homes to assess your childcare requirements. As well as giving us a better understanding of your needs and expectations, the family visit also helps us to match you to the right childcarer.
• We employ the childcarers ourselves and then we recommend and match them to families. We believe this is a more affordable option for families as they do not have to take on the role of the employer and be responsible for paying the employee’s P.A.Y.E. The fee we charge is inclusive of all payroll expenses such as holiday pay and employer’s national insurance.

Families can use us on a regular or ad hoc basis for long or short hours. Most families use us for regular childcare which is a minimum of 6 hours per week. Families who need casual childcare to cover odd days of childcare for less than our minimum hours can use our new ad hoc service.

The flexible nature of our childcare is designed to fit around families’ needs whether it is: short or long hours, regular or irregular and we only charge you for the childcare that you use. There are no retainers although we do have minimum hours to make it worthwhile for our childcarers. We also ask for 48 hours notice if you need to cancel a session, otherwise it will be charged in full.

Yes, we understand the importance of continuity of care so if you are a family who regularly uses a minimum of 6 hours or more per week you will be matched to a regular childcarer. Occasionally, we recommend you consider having two regular childcarers, especially if your hours can be easily split such as before and after school care or after school care and holiday care. Having two childcarers can sometimes give you greater flexibility.

It depends on a whole range of factors: what exactly are your childcare needs? Do you need out of hours childcare to fit in with your shift work? Are you willing to have someone in your home looking after your children? Would your children be happier spending time at home after school? Would all family members benefit from home childcare? Is it affordable?

Childcare is often a very emotive choice but it is not an easy decision to make. Generally, if parents had the choice, they would probably choose flexible childcare to suit their needs. Flexible childcare can often involve combining of different types of childcare such as home childcare, nurseries, after school clubs and informal arrangements such as grandparents. This seems to work well as it provides families with the balance they need as well as ensuring their children still have regular interaction with their peers and family members.

Our childcarers are all home-based childcare qualified, first aid trained and Ofsted registered. The levels of qualifications vary from NNEB, NVQ level 2 or 3 or a home-based childcare course covering the Common Core (core skills and knowledge all people who work in the children’s workforce are expected to have). We have our own in-house training for our childcarers to ensure that they are trained and inducted in good practises such as safeguarding children and health and safety. Our childcarers come from diverse backgrounds such as professional childcarers, crèche worker, playworkers, parents/grandparents and students. All have childcare experience and we ensure that those who are not qualified receive our in-house training to ensure that they eventually gain qualifications in first aid and home childcare.

Yes, we provide Ofsted registered childcare so families eligible for tax credits or childcare vouchers can use our services.

Home childcare is registered in a different way to other childcare settings such as nurseries or after school clubs. Registration of home childcarers is voluntary and it is the individual childcarer who is registered with Ofsted not the setting. Consequently, the registration process can sometimes be time consuming especially as it includes another CRB check. We have a pool of registered childcarers but it depends on their availability and in some areas we have more registered childcarers than in others.

Our carers will provide childcare to suit your children’s needs. For example, an after school care session may involve the school run, preparing snacks or a meal, organising play activities for the children, supervising homework and even accompanying children to their organised activities such as swimming lessons. Children tend to prefer to be cared for in their own home because it is a familiar, more relaxed environment. Please refer to our childcare services for more details or read our testimonials to find out what some of our families say how about our service.

Many shift workers use @Home Childcare for extended after school or nursery care such as a few hours earlier in the morning e.g. 6/7am – 9am and/or a few hours later in the evening e.g. 3.30 – 8/9pm. Our home childcarers will perform the normal evening routine including bedtime.

As a wraparound service, @Home Childcare can be combined with nurseries and after school clubs such as after nursery care. This type of wraparound childcare provides families with the flexibility they require without having to commit to long hours of childcare because they only pay for the childcare that they need and use. We also provide childcare during the weekends and unsocial or overnight childcare from 10pm -7am. We also provide overnight childcare which is a more specialised service.

It depends on the availability of childcarers in your local area and if we can easily match your needs and expectations with the childcarer, especially your preferred hours and days. Ideally, we would like as much notice as possible to find you a suitable childcarer, but we will try to accommodate your needs as reasonably expected. You should generally expect a lead time of about 2 – 3 weeks if you live within or reasonably close to the city boundaries of Nottingham and Sheffield.

An hourly fee is charged as a flat rate not per child. The service is more affordable for families with 2 or 3 children because they are not paying per child. If are eligible for tax credits, you could pay as little as £1.90 per hour for our childcare.

We charge a quarterly membership fee of £55 to cover the cost of providing an ongoing service to families such as recruitment, vetting, payroll administration, holiday pay, training and family visits.

In Nottingham, we can service areas within the city boundaries and nearby Nottinghamshire areas which can easily be reached by public transport. In Sheffield, we can cover areas within reasonable distance to the city centre and some of the nearby townships. If you live in a rural area, we generally recommend you provide longer hours such as full days as it likely the childcare may have to travel some distance by car to work. Please ring our office if you require more information about areas we cover.

People often say this because our childcare service sounds too good to be true! There isn’t a catch – we provide as ‘what says on the tin’, flexible childcare. Over the 6 years we have been providing this service, the one thing we consistently emphasise to both parents and childcarers is that the flexibility needs to work for parties. Ideally, this means both the childcarer and the parent offering some flexibility. For parents, it might be flexibility with your days and for childcarers it might mean happily working earlier or later on some days. Our challenge is matching your requirements of the family to the availability of the childcarer. Logistically, it can be tricky, but we always try to manage expectations by explaining what is achievable and realistic. Please see our case studies for examples of how our childcare works in practise.

After an initial telephone discussion, we will send you a no obligation information pack including membership form. Once you have read the information and are happy to proceed with the next stage, we arrange a family visit. You will need to return the completed membership form along with a payment of £30 before we proceed with the family visit. We ask for £30 as a deposit against first quarter of the £55 membership fee. The deposit is non-refundable so you need to certain that you are interested in our services so please take the time to read all the information we send to you and please ring if you have any further questions.

Our membership form is a PDF document which can be opened within acrobat reader. Click here to download the registration form to print.