The Big Read: Good and affordable babysitters are hard to find — will MSF's childminding services pilot be the answer?

Madam Cecilia Jacob, 56, who also has a background in early childhood education and joined childminding company NannyPro this year, currently cares for a six-month-old at his parent’s house. 

She follows a customised curriculum provided by the baby's mother, which involves training the child’s motor skills and visualisation skills, such as with stimulus cards.

Some childminding operators directly assign or act as intermediaries to connect caregivers from their pool of staff with parents.

Other operators serve as platforms that facilitate direct connections between parents and childminders.  

Kidibliss provides on-demand care services for children aged two months to 12 years old. 

Kidibliss will send a staff childminder’s profile to parents and arrange a Zoom session for parents, the childminder and the agency to discuss the child’s needs and requirements. It also offers corporate childminding services.

Fees for advance nanny care start at S$800 per month for six-hour blocks per day at a nanny’s home. 

Another company, NannyPro, assigns trained nannies to provide regular or part-time care at the family’s home. Rates for a regular nanny for 20 weekdays of nine hours a day are between S$2,900 and S$3,500.  

NannyPro also provides ad-hoc services at a day rate of S$27 per hour during non-peak periods (weekdays before 6pm) and $35 per hour on weekends, for the caregiving of one child.

Additional costs apply if there is more than one child to be cared for and on public holidays. There is also a 20 per cent surcharge for urgent requests within 48 hours. 

Then there is Meide, which matches vetted babysitters on its platform with parents. Users pay a one-time platform fee of S$98 and the babysitters’ salary, which can range from S$8 to S$30 per hour. 

NannySOS, a professional confinement agency in Singapore, also offers babysitting services, beginning at S$25 per hour for ad hoc requests and at S$800 per month for a regular weekday daytime babysitter at the nanny’s house. 

While some parents directly contact childminders over social media such as Facebook groups, there are platforms that enable parents and childminders to directly interact. 

Aunty is a mobile application that allows childminders and parents to register accounts, where parents can contact up to five childminder profiles, who can then respond to requests based on their availability. 

Of the 13,000 parents registered on its app, more than half have infants below the age of 18 months. The platform has over 600 verified childminders.

While rates depend on factors such as duration of care needed and specific requirements from families, they are on average S$20 to S$25 per hour at Aunty, said its founder Amanda Ong.  

Another platform is Babysits, a Rotterdam-based international babysitting platform where users can sign up either as a babysitter, nanny or childminder or as someone looking for a babysitter.

In response to TODAY’s queries, Babysits said that it has more than five million users worldwide. It has 2,236 active babysitters and 987 active families in Singapore since entering the market in 2018. 

Parents and babysitters can each quote their own rates on their profiles. Parents in Singapore offer an average of S$17.96 per hour, while babysitters ask for around S$17.55 per hour. 

WHO MINDS THE MINDER?

Parents told TODAY that the safety standards of the MSF pilot is their top concern, not least because of a recent spate of high-profile abuse cases that have occurred at preschools.

Ms Deborah Dayani Nanayakara, 39, a mother of two eight-month-old twin boys and a two-year-old daughter, said such cases have made her extra cautious, and the fact that the childminding industry is currently unregulated means that childminding is her "last option". 

Her twins are currently in infant care, while her daughter is in a playgroup.

Even though MSF has said that background checks will be conducted on childminders in the pilot, Ms Dayani said that she and her husband would still prefer to approach family first or trusted friends if they ever need additional help outside of a school structure.

"Also, the cost of this service is too expensive, in our opinion. We pay similar costs for the twins to be in infant care but we know that they have activities that the teachers do with them to build their language and motor skills, ensure that they are hitting their developmental progress when they are in school," she said. 

Ms Justine Ong-Farmer, 31, a homemaker and mother of two, is also “very sceptical” as to how the safety of care provided by childminders will be regulated under the pilot, especially in a home setting.  

Under the pilot, childminding services will take place either at the childminder’s residence or at a “community space” such as a community centre. 

"I find it hard to entrust other people to care for my children — especially this young —  unless they are family," Ms Ong-Farmer said.

"Looking after children, can be so rewarding but the days are also filled with many frustrating and infuriating moments. It makes it a bit easier if they are your flesh and blood."

Ms Deborah Dayani Nanayakara with her husband Mr Yuvaraj Turiahdassu and their three children. The couple would still prefer to approach family first or trusted friends if they ever need additional help outside of a school structure.

Ms Katie Tan, a 35-year-old healthcare staff who engaged a babysitter under Meide, also expressed concern that having infant childminding at a community centre, which is an “open space”, would run the risk of children getting sick often, as they are prone to in group care settings. 

Many parents and babysitters interviewed also suggested the mandating of closed-circuit television (CCTV) in the childminding settings. These would not only provide parents with peace of mind, but also offer nannies some protection to avoid miscommunication in the case of any incident, they said.

Mr Andrew Ng, 29, a creative lead in the parenting sector and parent of two, said that the fact that MSF will allow childminders under the pilot to care for up to three infants at a time is concerning.

“Currently, in infant care, if one (carer) is on break, there will be another who can cover her," he noted.

Agreeing, Ms Uni Tan, a 31-year-old freelance babysitter, said that she mainly provides one-on-one care.

“The (proposed ratio) is not very ideal, because in a school there’s more than one teacher but in a house setting there’s only one minder. So what if something happens, like a fire, if a child falls or I need to attend to one child, if I need to cook or prepare food?”

Dr Rebecca Chan, a lecturer from NIE’s Psychology and Child and Human Development, agreed that the preferred ratio of caregiver to infant would be 1:1, as a consistent caregiver can devote more attention and build a strong bond with an infant. 

“Taking care of an infant is rewarding but also a back-breaking, intensive, full-time responsibility that requires dedication, patience and a considerable amount of physical and emotional energy towards feeding, diaper changes and comforting, sensory stimulation, interaction and learning," she said.

Freelance babysitter Uni Tan mainly provides one-on-one care. She feels that the MSF’s proposed ratio for the pilot of three infants to a childminder is not ideal.

Other regulations that parents said they would like to see implemented in the pilot: 

• Child-proofing of childminders' homes
• Spot checks
• Regular training for childminders
• Psychological evaluation of childminders during the screening process
• Guidelines to ensure childminders help babies meet their developmental milestones 
• An immediate alert channel to report incidents such as suspected abuse

MSF has said it will collaborate with appointed childminding operators to ensure “baseline service standards” and establish industry standards for childminding.

ECDA will conduct background checks on operators and childminders, including assessing the suitability and homes of childminders, disclosing their profiles to parents and establishing processes for incident management. 

Childminders will have to undergo required training in areas such as basic infant care, first aid, food safety and hygiene, and ECDA will check if they have any criminal history, such as child-related offences. 

MSF also said it will also look into extending background checks to those who have regular access to a childminder’s home, such as their family members. 

THE WAY FORWARD

Ultimately, establishing a relationship of trust between the caregiver and parents is critical to ensure the pilot takes off, said Dr Lim from SUSS.

As handing over one's baby to a stranger is a big and emotional step for parents, Dr Lim said that background checks, proper training and strict safety regulations would go a long way in giving parents enough peace of mind to entrust their babies to a childminder.

Even as such details may be ironed out, others pointed out that the pilot cannot fill all the gaps in the childcare landscape. 

For example, Ms Frances Hong, a 25-year-old recruitment team leader, thinks having more affordable childminding options for ad-hoc arrangements would be appealing, but the MSF pilot, which will only offer childminding within working hours,  does not quite meet her needs.

“Night-time services after 6pm, when we have an important dinner to attend, is probably when I'd engage these kinds of services," she said.

Ms Frances Hong with her husband Leon Tan and their son Kieran. Ms Hong thinks having more affordable childminding options for ad-hoc arrangements would be appealing, but the MSF pilot, which will only offer childminding within working hours, does not quite meet her needs.

Ms Tay from DOT noted that while the pilot programme is a "good start", it falls short of fully addressing the demands for flexible care arrangements, especially for lower-income women. 

"The current pilot, offered only during working hours, may not sufficiently accommodate mothers who work irregular shifts or require childcare outside of standard childcare operating hours," she said, adding that lower-income women tend to be those who work irregular shifts.

Agreeing, senior lecturer in Early Childhood Education Melissa Simin Goh-Karssen from SUSS noted that jobs with more non-traditional schedules, such as shift work and home-based businesses, have resulted in parents having more complex and diverse needs that regular standard infant care structures cannot accommodate.

It also remains to be seen whether there will be ample supply of childminders under the pilot.

Ms Tay noted that there may be potential childminders who might face a barrier to entry into the industry because they lack the financial resources to make their homes suitable enough for childminding services.

“Providing necessary items such as cots, changing tables, and play equipment could alleviate this burden, and ensure that childminders have the resources needed to maintain a safe environment for infants under their care."

Beyond the operational details of the childminding service itself, nannies and experts said they hope MSF will see this pilot as a first step towards regulating and professionalising the whole industry.

Ms Pauline Lim, a 50-year-old part-time nanny with NannyPro, hopes that with government regulation and the establishment of industry standards, nannies like herself could earn higher salaries as a result.

This would also help to attract talent beyond of the typical demographic of women in their 40s and 50s, she added. 

SUSS’ Associate Professor Sirene Lim noted that if nannies’ home environments are expected to be “more stimulating” for the infants, then their remuneration should match parents’ expectations.

As nanny services are expected to have a lower adult-child ratio, in-home care tends to be more expensive than centre-based care in other developed countries, she noted. 

Ms Becky Eng, the founder of childminding company NannyPro, noted that there is a stereotype that nannies are "uneducated aunties" who have no other job options.

This is a mindset that she has been working to change, she said.

“It’s a dignified profession. I onboard all our nannies with our suite of training, not just the basic care of the baby where you just change them and feed them. Parents’ expectations have evolved, and they are looking for more high-value services from a nanny.”