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With a significant portion of the UK workforce relying on childcare and schools, we have prepared a snapshot of the coronavirus impact on the childcare market to help businesses with their contingency planning.
While it's unclear how exactly the coronavirus situation will pan out, one thing is almost certain -- (some) schools, nurseries, childminders and after-school clubs will close. When closures do occur, we can expect them to last for anywhere between a week and two months.
When it comes to pre-school childcare specifically:
Nurseries are likely to close if schools close.
Childminders are likely to close as well, as they fall under the same regulation as nurseries.
Family members such as grandparents who are often relied upon for childcare are likely to start pulling out given they are more at risk.
Nannies on the other hand, are likely to continue to work unless travel restrictions are put in place and/or sickness occurs.
We expect that over the coming weeks (likely through to the end of April and possibly into May), 50-70% of childcare arrangements will be severely impacted or cancelled, with 95%+ being impacted in some way. This will put a considerable strain on working parents and businesses in turn.
For example, in a typical organisation where 30% of your workforce are parents with children aged 10 years old or younger, 15%-20% of your workforce may not be able to work, or their working hours will be significantly reduced due to disruptions in childcare for a period that could last up to 10 weeks.
As a business, you may already have an agreement in place with one of the traditional emergency childcare providers. If so, please note that they are already experiencing a considerable strain on their limited pool of nannies which is not ready to deal fully with the significant increase in emergency / backup childcare, that is very likely to happen.
To help alleviate the pressure, we are now making our professional team of nannies available for backup childcare and are offering a flexible corporate package.
myTamarin back-up childcare for corporates includes:
myTamarin 5-step nanny vetting
All myTamarin nannies go through our 5-step vetting process, including a comprehensive interview, verbal reference checks, status to work check, as well as criminal background and first aid checks.
Plus! additional Coronavirus precautions
- All myTamarin nannies have received our new practical course on hygiene and how to minimise the spread of coronavirus.
- All nannies and parents are being asked to self-declare (at least weekly) that they are not showing any of the known coronavirus symptoms and have not recently travelled to any of the Government listed countries. Both parties have the option to opt out.
Personalised matching of families with nannies
Our in-house psychologists and childcare specialists will match families and nannies based on both objective and subjective criteria.
Admin management
Payments are collected and paid via the myTamarin payment platform to minimise the admin burden for parents.
How it works for parents:
With myTamarin, parents have a choice of nannies. With traditional emergency back-up childcare , a parent doesn't have a choice and will meet the carer for the first time when they arrive on their doorstep to start.
- Parents sign up with details of their requirements
- myTamarin specialist discusses requirements with parents and sends a short list of suitable candidates
- Parents review matches and select preferred candidate(s) to interview
- Parents confirms which nanny they would like to hire
- Parents set up direct debit with myTamarin who will handle nanny payments
How much does it cost
The cost is broken down into the sign up cost (i.e. the cost of the programme administration) and the cost of a nanny. The corporates are invited to sign up for the administration service as a group to help their employees with cost management.
Sign up fee (covered by the corporates):
· Companies with less than 100 employees: £500 per week (with unlimited use)
· Companies with over 100 employees: £1,000 per week (with unlimited use)
Nanny fee (normally covered by parents directly, but could be arranged for the corporates to cover this cost as well):
· Approximately £12 / hour
While the service is inevitably limited, given the circumstances and uncertainties surrounding the outbreak of the coronavirus, we are confident that we can help alleviate the childcare challenge we are facing and add an additional layer of security and protection for your organisation and your employees.
To find out more email corporates@mytamarin.com or call +44 (0)203 432 0234.
We understand that many parents are unsure about whether nannies should continue to work. We have compiled all the information you need in our blog Should nannies continue to work during COVID-19?
Tamarins are monkeys who parent in family groups – like a village – helping each other while children are small.
Are you ready to join our village?
Parents sign up here to begin your nanny search.
Nannies sign up here to find your next family. Alternatively, you can send your CV to hello@mytamarin.com and we will be in touch!
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