Even the best laid plans can come undone.
BackUpCare.org helps you develop your childcare back-up plan so that it’s ready when you need it most.
For many parents, having reliable, quality childcare is the key factor that allows them to successfully balance work, home and family responsibilities. When childcare arrangements fall though, parents are left scrambling to make alternative arrangements, which can be difficult to find, especially last-minute.
And when parents aren’t able to find suitable back-up childcare, their employers suffer the consequences. On average parents miss nine to 13 days of work per year due to childcare related issues. These absences result in decreased productivity and cost companies in the United States $3 billion dollars per year.
Having a back-up childcare plan not only benefits parents and employers, it benefits the children too. With a solid back-up care plan parents have access to prescreened childcare providers who are able to provide high-quality childcare in a moment’s notice.
What is Back-Up Care
Children become sick and are turned away from daycare, nannies need time off and school closings create childcare gaps that need to be filled. Even the most reliable childcare arrangements are at risk for a breakdown. Back-up care is your solution for when you experience a breakdown in your regular childcare arrangements.
Benefits of Back-Up Care
Back-up care allows you to promptly secure a qualified caregiver when your regular childcare arrangements fall through. With back-up care you aren’t left scrambling to make last-minute arrangements or forced to call into work sick. With minimal effort and disruption to your day you can secure a qualified, replacement caregiver to pinch-hit for your usual childcare provider.
How to Find Back-Up Care
Parents have several options for securing a qualified back-up childcare provider. Parents can utilize a local nanny placement agency that specializes in placing back-up care providers. Parents may contract with an independent agency directly or utilize an agency that is contracted by their place of employment, which usually offers steeply discounted rates or a limited amount of free back-up childcare as an employee benefit. Parents may also use online back-up care provider recruiting sites to find and screen caregivers on their own. Some childcare centers even offer drop-in back-up childcare programs parents can utilize for last minute childcare emergencies. Depending on your geographical area and childcare needs, you may have any number of ways to secure a back-up childcare provider.
