A prospective MP has backed a new babysitting business to help keep working parents in Sutton.

Paul Scully, Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Sutton and Cheam, met the CEO of Findababysitter.com, Tom Harrow, to discuss how the company could help stop working parents heading to work outside of Sutton to afford the rising costs of childcare.

Findababysitter.com aims to connect parents with babysitters to avoid the high costs of nurseries, which are escalating because of rising demand on places.

Following the meeting on Friday, Mr Scully said: "As the cost of childcare in the UK continues to rise, small local businesses find it difficult to compete with larger corporate employers in the city, driving more and more parents out of Sutton and into the city for work. 

"We want to find solutions to empower smaller businesses to compete and keep the talent local – and Findababysitter.com is helping to make that happen, which is commendable."

Mr Harrow said Findababysitter has almost 9,000 professionals registered on the site who will cover the area but only 493 parents who are using it. He added: "The government is failing to offer good, accessible advice about childcare options, for example, the fact that there is so much more to childcare than the expensive nursery down the road – the assumption is that a nanny is more expensive, but the reality is that it can work out cheaper for most families when considering a nanny share with another family."

 

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