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Business Spotlight: Choose The Right Childcare With Koru Kids

Finding the right childcare can be a challenge for parents and kids! So when I discovered Koru Kids, I was blown away. It’s a childcare service that simplifies finding a good match to look after your children and helps to dispel the worries that arise with wondering if someone is suitable. I caught up with its founder Rachel Carrell to find out more and share this brilliant service with you all.

Koru Kids has kindly offered me a £50 discount to share with The London Mummy readers when they sign up (T&Cs apply). Visit Koru Kids through a link on this page to apply the discount. 

Visit KoruKids.co.uk

What is your business and what makes it unique?

Koru Kids is a modern childcare service, providing part-time childcare to thousands of families in London. I wanted to make it unique by having us do all the hard work for families when it comes to getting the perfect childcare. Koru Kids helps with everything from start to finish – which we don’t believe you can find anywhere else!

From vetting, training and reference checking all our nannies, to all the admin. We’re totally obsessed with making our families’ lives easier, we’ll do almost anything to make it happen!

Find out more

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Through our service parents find a fantastic person to come to their house and look after the kids, and we make sure they’re all perfectly set up on the legal side, and provide a ton of ongoing support – more than I could even go into here. You’re not alone, we’ve got your back.

How did it all begin?

Before founding Koru Kids, I worked at McKinsey and in health technology for years. It was only when I had a baby – and all my friends had babies – that I realised how difficult childcare was in London. It’s hard to arrange, incredibly expensive, and common options like nursery just don’t work for lots of families.

I kept hearing horror stories from friends who weren’t happy with their choices but felt powerless to change them. I also saw lots of female friends unable to go back to work or making career choices they didn’t really want to make, just because they couldn’t find the right childcare. I felt deeply that this was unfair and bad for society. I decided to quit my job and make it my life’s work to create better childcare options in London. I set up Koru Kids to be all about three things: really great childcare, as affordable as possible, and as convenient as possible.

Visit KoruKids.co.uk

What is the meaning behind the business name?

I’m from New Zealand, and koru is a Maori word meaning ‘unfurling fern frond’. I love the idea of our children unfurling before us, and the loop of the shape represents the loop of Koru Kids care around our families and nannies. My daughter’s middle name is Fern, so it just felt right.

Who is your ideal client?

Sounds strange but my favourite type of family is one that is in a REAL pickle! Families that feel out of control, parents that are slowly losing their minds, not enjoying their parenthood. That’s where our service can make such an instant, immediate and obvious difference. Every day I hear from parents like this who have brought in Koru Kids and it’s so wonderful to hear about how everything has become easier. Recently, one mum told me we’d saved her marriage. (That result is not guaranteed!)

Find out more

koru kids

What is your top parenting tip?

Focus on intrinsic motivation rather than extrinsic. That means avoiding rewards charts and bribes where you can. Those things can work ‘in the moment’ but over the long term create more problems than they solve. Instead, wherever possible, focus on trying to help your child understand ‘why’ things are important, then give them control over their own decisions. This isn’t easy – and you shouldn’t beat yourself up for not doing it 100% of the time – but it does lead to the strongest foundations of a great life for your children.

Interviewee’s favourites

Holiday destination: New Zealand, where I’m from! I’m happy my friends and family are safe there as it is Covid-free, but also devastated that I couldn’t go home for Christmas

Restaurant: During the pandemic, I’m loving Dishpatch, which sends high-end restaurant food you cook at home.

Hotel: Woolley Grange – a wonderful family-friendly place in Wiltshire. We managed to escape there in the summer and it was an incredible oasis, one of the highlights of our year.

Podcast: My favourite podcast is The Braincare podcast – it’s short (15 mins), practical and insightful about how the brain works, and how we can use that knowledge to improve our own lives. I’m obsessed with that child development and the podcast covers the ‘grownup’ version of the topic!

Visit KoruKids.co.uk

Koru Kids has kindly offered me a £50 discount to share with The London Mummy readers when they sign up (T&Cs apply). Visit Koru Kids through a link on this page to apply the discount. 


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Spotlight

Jo Wiltshire : Childcare.co.uk

Jo Wiltshire is an author and journalist specialising in parenting and family issues. A former celebrity interviewer for The Mail On Sunday, she has written three books on parenting, co-authored several other titles, and is a regular commentator on family topics in the press, online, on radio and on TV.

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She is currently working with Childcare.co.uk, the service which helps parents, nannies and childminders to connect.

Jo has two children and believes that every parent is the best expert when it comes to their own children. She aims to support and encourage parents to trust their own instincts.

Childcare.co.uk was founded in 2009 by Internet entrepreneur Richard Conway when he and his wife Hayley struggled to find a babysitter after the birth of their first child. Richard felt sure there must be an ‘Amazon’ of childcare and searched online but couldn’t find anything, so decided to create one himself.

Childcare.co.uk is the UK’s largest online community of childcare providers, schools and private tutors. It’s aim is to provide trusted and reliable support for parents across the whole of the UK.

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All childcare providers and tutors can be rated and reviewed by parents using a 5 star rating system. In addition to the rating scores, parents can write their own custom written review of their experience. Childcare providers and tutors have the opportunity to respond to their reviews.

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The site and mobile apps have helped over 1.5m people find childcare and childcare work.

Childcare.co.uk recently won an award for innovation by the government’s Department for Education and was provided with funding to launch some new features to make it even easier and safer for parents to find childcare.

The service offers parents a way to search for local childcare services such as babysitters, registered childminders, nannies, private tutors and nurseries. Searching is easy using their postcode search facility which shows the approximate distance between the parent and the childcare provider.

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The site also allows childcare providers and tutors to add their profile to Childcare.co.uk free of charge. Childcare providers can then receive enquiries from local parents via the website, email and telephone. They can also contact local parents and introduce them to their childcare and tutor services as well as being able to connect with local schools, pre-schools and nurseries.

Jo’s Favourite’s

Shop : Jojo Maman Bebe for robust quality clothes and baby bits and bobs

Website : Great Little Trading Company for brilliant storage solutions and good quality toys

Restaurant : Pizza Express because kids love it but grown-ups don’t feel like they’re sitting in a softplay centre!

Hotel : Ibis France for clean, family friendly stopovers. The Legoland Windsor Resort Hotel for combining fun and good service brilliantly.

Holiday Destination : Menorca for sunshine holidays – quiet, clean, friendly, great beaches. French camping/chalet holidays for no-flight destinations, Les Castels is a great chain. North Norfolk for wonderfully nostalgic breaks with beautiful beaches to take you back to your own childhood.

Parenting Tip : 

You are your own best parenting expert – by all means read the books, browse the websites and swap the tips, but at the end of the day trust your own instincts and have confidence. You know your own child better than anyone. In addition: wet wipes!!

 

Childcare.co.uk

This post was written in collaboration with childcare.co.uk however all opinions are my own. 

Services

Creative Childcare From Bea & Co

There is usually is a heavy influence of women in a young childs early life. Mothers, female childcare & teachers make up a team of primary carers.  So other than Dad & wider family, where do young boys in particular glean from other good male role models?

When I heard about Bea & Co who offer creative sitters, both men and women – I opted to try a manny.  As try as I might to have pushed for a male au pair in the past, it has always been a big fat no from my other half.  Fair enough, but a few hours childcare – who can say no to that?

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Jamie breezed into our house on Wednesday afternoon and after politely introducing himself and taking his shoes off, immediately cracked a gag with the boys and the rest is… a very quiet afternoon for me! All I heard were squeals of delight from upstairs as they did a treasure hunt around the house, an assault course and some imaginative play.

This is the benefit of having an actor to look after your children. Their senses were engaged from the off and Jamie’s magnetism had them all enraptured and engaged.  They finished off the afternoon in the garden throwing a ball about, bounced on the trampoline and had an archery competition, before he sat with them at supper and distracted them through to completion of their burgers. Result! (Yes, mine actually have to be coaxed into eating BURGERS!)

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Bea & Co offers babysitting (but note – these guys & gals don’t sit!) both day and evening, chaperoning, days out, International travel assistance and if you think your child has it in them – coaching (singing, acting, dancing).  Both team members and clients are personally recommended (if you phone Bea & Co, you can say you heard from me!) so all the creatives are CRB checked and experienced.

Once you sign up for the yearly membership fee,  there is the same very reasonable hourly fee, day or night.  After Amy, the lovely founder meets you and your brood she will introduce you to a few creatives, who you will have access to use at short notice & who know your routine and family, so no awkward familiarisation process as with a traditional babysitting agency.

Try them and you won’t look back!

beaandco.com

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