Guest Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 hello. Just found this site - very informative. I am a dpp-trained ex-pre-school leader now with 3rd baby. I currently run a small, part-time creche. I am wondering about future directions, including mobile creches. Does anyone know the pitfalls/bonuses of setting one up? Hope this is vaguely relevant to this site. Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 HI Rosie Just thought I would say welcome to FSF and thank you for posting. Unable to help you myself but I'm sure that somebody out there will have some ideas for you. Linda Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 Hi Rosie May beable to help next week, as a member of staff's friend runs a mobile creche (I think), but she has already left for the day. Will post again when I know more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 Thank you. I'm amazed to get such a quick response. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 17, 2004 Share Posted January 17, 2004 I may be able to help soon. Just applied for supervisor on a Playbus! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alison Posted January 20, 2004 Share Posted January 20, 2004 Hi Rosie I have worked on mobile creches and find one of the biggest problems where people booking creches and then cancell at the last minute!! knowing what to expect in advance..... the room, safety and what children will be in the group. often the rooms do not have proper safety facilities or the amount of children turns out to be different from those that actually turn up. alot of the mobile creches I have been involved with have been for colleges providing short courses in community halls, I have heard it said from my own team and another mobile creche group that the colleges can be to worst for settling the bills!!! or cancelling after one session because no children turn up. so overall I recomend you set out clear guidlines regarding cancellations, payments, and where ever possible do an risk assesment visit before hand, compile a check list of questions or an application form so that you can gather as much information befor the creche takes place. staff can be tricky.... not the individuals but what kind of employment status they have? and organising how many hours etc balancing who where and when, we found everyone seemed to want creches at the same time and on the same day ie tuesday afternoons wednesday mornings and finding staff to be available at the same time as the creches could be tricky I was a casual "as and when" worker which meant some weeks I would have no creches and another I could have 6! Any way dont let me put you off!!!!! there is alot of potential and scope but you will need to be firm!!!! all the best you mobile creche plans Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted January 20, 2004 Share Posted January 20, 2004 Hi Rosie - Let me add my welcome to the forum! You might be interested in this topic which mentions mobile provision briefly. Hopefully Tempest might find her way here to add to the advice offered by Alison and others! Good luck with the project! Steve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 20, 2004 Share Posted January 20, 2004 Hi there, I set up and managed a mobile creche and play facility for a local college, I have just left to move over to children and families in crisis but can shed some info! Firstly it depends how mobile you want to be - do you want to limit your self to under 2 hours per session? If not you will need to look at registering with Ofsted as a mobile creche. I registered over 25 venues locally and two large mobile play trailers - it took a while for Ofsted to get their heads around the mobile aspect but they soon did and registration was no problem. Inspections turned out to be a little harder as we weren't anywhere long enough for them to visit! Also some local venues may well pay a bit towards the registration fee (which for a mobile sessional creche is not much) and help out with equipment etc. It will be well worth your while making some contacts, do you have an Early Years Partnership you can meet with or your local childcare advisory centre etc.. To get over the issues of people cancelling you will need to set up a good cancellation policy, such as full fee payable with cancellation under certain time limit, 50% fee etc etc... We only booked ourselves out to groups wanting us, we didn't turn up and take parents ad-hoc, that way if no children turned up then we still received the full fee. I do know a mobile creche who charges a booking fee and quite a hefty one at that!! That gets her over the costs of calling staff for cover, sending confirmation letters etc. I had a small team of staff that were permanent on a part time basis with the agreement that their hours could be worked over any day and time, and on top of that I also had a team of casual staff that I called as and when I needed. It worked out quite expensive having the permanant staff but at the same time brought me a lot of business as I could guarantee the same girls at each creche etc and it also enabled me to say yes to bookings a lot sooner than if I had to ring round the casuals. The casual staff did tend to lack commitment though! Staff meetings are a must to ensure they feel valued and wanted. You also need to be quite clear with your staff about paying them when creches cancelled etc.. casual staff will normally expect some renumeration as they may well have turned down some other work for your creche - you need to set firm guidelines so everyone knows where they stand. You need to be pretty hot with policies etc if you are mobile as there are a lot more issues such as taking children to toilets which are shared or which may mean passing the entrance to a building, most places are not really equipped for children so you have to improvise around that, risk assessments etc as security and safety can be quite an issue. I will gladly offer you any more help and advice if you would like as I could ramble on for hours!!!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 22, 2004 Share Posted January 22, 2004 Thank you very much for all the info. I am printing it off so I can absorb it thoroughly. I will write again when I have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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