Nursery World - Scotland's sitters service goes south

Scotland's third sitter service has been launched in North Lanarkshire and the flexible form of home-based childcare is now being copied south of the border. With three years' experience under its belt in Dundee and a pilot scheme in Glasgow, the sitter service set up by One Parent Families Scotland (OPFS) has served as a pioneer for schemes planned by Bristol early years partnership and Bradford Gingerbread, according to OPFS director Sue Robertson.

With three years' experience under its belt in Dundee and a pilot scheme in Glasgow, the sitter service set up by One Parent Families Scotland (OPFS) has served as a pioneer for schemes planned by Bristol early years partnership and Bradford Gingerbread, according to OPFS director Sue Robertson.

She said that the Borders authority was carrying out a feasibility study, while at least a dozen local authorities in other parts of the UK have contacted the OPFS to find out how the sitter scheme works.

The Dundee and North Lanarkshire schemes supply carers for working and student parents in the child's own home between the hours of 7am and 10.30pm seven days a week. Families are charged an hourly fee on a sliding scale depending on their household income and the charge is levied per household, not per child.

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