Officrèche

"I have nothing but positive things to say about Officrèche - it's great and I'm so glad we found it !"

"And I love that I am just upstairs. That has gone a long way to making me feel comfortable leaving him."

"It makes my life so much easier, as I can crack on with work and know my little one is looked after in a fantastic nursery run by dedicated and passionate professionals, which Ofsted recently evaluated as 'outstanding'. And the best thing, I'm in the same building."

“There are lots of thoughtful touches, such as the staff taking pictures so that I can "see" for myself that she has been ok and had fun.”

“Our daughter’s development is carefully considered and her nursery day allows her to explore and learn at her own pace - she has the support of a dedicated member of staff as her "key person" and I believe she genuinely loves coming to Officrèche.”

Spread the word and we'll give you free childcare in exchange - take some flyers, write your name on them and go out about your daily life. We'll credit you one free childcare hour for every member you introduce. Talk to parents at baby and toddler groups, at dinner parties, in the bus queue - if you use us you'll know how good Officrèche is and word of mouth is our best marketing...

Snacks and babywipes are provided by the nursery - but meals and nappies must be brought in by the parents.

As long as you cancel your booking up to 48 hours before the start of the session the hours will be credited back to your Officrèche account.

Yes – particularly if you are breastfeeding! Although the nursery staff do have discretion over what is disrupting to a child’s settling and routine.

Yes - this works out between £6 and £7/hour depending on whether you use 'pay as you go' or a subscription for your hours. These hours must be booked online and be paid for in advance. Like the childcare/co-working hours, they have a shelf-life of 90 days.

Officrèche's vision is to enable parents to balance their work and family life and feel good about it. If regular nursery hours per week for their children is what is needed then we'll do our very best to provide this - please give us a call to discuss the options.

On the whole we do not rely on the parent-carers to fulfill our Ofsted childcare ratio requirements – apart from over the lunch period. The parent-carers will only be allowed to volunteer when they have passed a CRB check and an induction course run by our nursery management team. Even then, they will only care for children under the eyes of the qualified nursery staff. For practical reasons parent-carers will be assigned to a separate room from their own children.

Yes we do. Please contact the management team to let us know the name of your childcare voucher provider. If we're not registered with them yet, we will do so as soon as possible.

Yes, every child is entitled to this, beginning the term after they reach 3 years old. However, the conditions of the government funding means that we can only offer this to our Fixed Crèche children. Call us for more details.

Our strategy varies according to individual needs. Parents are encouraged to come in and spend a couple of hour-long sessions with their child in the nursery space before leaving them to go to the office space.

Initially we will staff to care for 18 at any one time - however we can expand with Ofsted's consent to our capacity of 38.

8 - the manager, deputy manager and 6 Early Years Practitioners. The manager or deputy manager are in the setting during all opening hours, including the lunch period. There are 3 EY practitioners based in the Yellow room (ages 3-5), the deputy leads the Baby (age 0-2) room team of 3 and we have a part-time Early Practitioner, as well parent-carers and students.

All doors are manned by nursery staff – any non-member visitors will be accompanied by nursery staff or escorted by members through to the office space.

Yes – we're rated 'Outstanding' by Osfted 2011-12, our registration reference is EY425867 - and our staff are extremely well qualified. We have two with Early Years Professional Status (Level 6), three with at least a Level 3 qualification and we are helping one towards her Level 3. http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report/provider/CARE/EY425867.

Our nursery staff are particularly focused on providing structure and consistency for the children no matter when they arrive. Each childcare room has a sleeping area to accommodate children’s differing routines and there are rolling snacks on offer.

08.00 – 18.00 Monday to Friday. We’re not open on bank holidays.

Yes - there are window seats and plenty of nooks and crannies to tuck yourself away for a private conversation – and the meeting room is available for hire for £10/hour.

Non-member visitors can be invited to use the meeting room by a member but their children cannot be accommodated in the nursery unless there are particular arrangements in place. All visitors must be escorted through the premises by members or staff.

We do rent out rooms/desks depending on our membership capacity - call us to discuss your requirements.

No, we are close enough to the station for you to pop to London or into town for a meeting. And we do have subscriptions available for parents who only want childcare. However, we encourage using the office floors so as to benefit from networking and proximity to your child.

No - the internet access (wifi and Ethernet), printer (wifi and plugin), scanner and fax are all included in your subscription costs. However, if you are going to use reams of paper to print the first draft of your novel, please bring some in.

No – we will have a station available if you have to do some printing desperately, but on the whole we expect members to bring their own laptops/Macs.

Only members, nursery staff and their visitors will be in the office space. There are secure lockers big enough for a laptop should you want to pop to a café for lunch.

No - there are two kitchen areas equipped with fridges, microwaves, washing up facilities – and a Nespresso machine with an honesty box! You are welcome to bring in your own lunch and eat it in the office space. There are also many cafes just minutes away at Seven Dials.

There are 2 rooms available for hot desking, if you have a favourite one, get in and bag it early!

There are written step-by-step instructions for connecting to WiFi and wireless printer. There are also Ethernet cables available as a back up. The director or the office manager will be in the space daily to help with IT issues- and the other members are also very helpful!

No, you can only become a parent-carer when you have an Officrèche or a Flexi-Crèche subscription. We invest a lot of time and energy in training our parent-carers, we want to make sure you are just as committed to our community.

Parents-carers can bring more than one child when volunteering but they will only be able to bank hours for one - the other(s) one must use hours from the membership allowance or pay for extra.

Parent-carers will be scheduled in to volunteer in a different room to their children.

Parent-carer members can only volunteer in the nursery when they have passed a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check and they have completed a short induction course run by the nursery management staff. This is why it costs more than a simple membership. They then must adhere to the membership criteria – if they break these three times, then they will revert to being a simple member.

No, volunteer hours are limited - those eligible will be informed of available slots each week.

For every hour you and your child spend in the nursery with you as a parent-carer, you earn time for yourself and your child to use later. You’ll know your child’s nursery inside out – and you’ll also become part of our team with your photo and bio on the Meet the Team page of our website.

No, you must pay monthly for your subscription to remain valid – however, your unused hours will remain available for 90 days.

Yes – we do offer pay as you go options for co-working and childcare and flexible childcare alone. However, we encourage continuity and routine to create a caring relationship between the staff and children, so we recommend buying a subscription as soon as you can make a commitment.

Yes - Each child's subscription can be shared between 2 adult members, whether they are 2 parents, a parent and a grandparent, a parent and an aunt. However - only one adult member can be working in the office space and one child in the nursery space at one time.

Charges will be taken from your credit card online when you checkout the hours in your basket. Your hours will be available as soon as you have completed payment.

Your initial monthly subscription charge will be debited when you check out your basket, which could be several weeks before the subsription starts, followed by automatic payments each month on the date your subscription started – if your subscription started on the 28th-31st of a month further charges will be debited on 28th. Please note you will not receive any hours until the subscription start date. The subscription payment will come from the same card details you initially inputted. You must have an active, paid subscription at all times to book and use your weekly allocation.

Technically yes – since Officrèche runs on a weekly basis some months may have five Mondays and therefore you would get five sets of hours that month.

Your first subscription payment will be taken on the day you buy the subscription, further monthly payments will be taken on the date the subscription starts though obviously not the first month as this will already have been taken. PLEASE NOTE: You will not receive any subscription hours until the subscription start date.

Officrèche or Flexicrèche membership can work with or without a subscription so you can still remain a member when your subscription expires and use pay as you go hours as required. However, a parent-carer membership may need to be renewed if a CRB check goes out of date.

The manager will subtract your subscription hours accordingly since this has an impact on childcare ratios during busy times. Officrèche will allow reasonable leeway either way without penalty.

You can buy more hours on an adhoc basis or take advantage of our bundle of hours deals.

If you are buying Pay As You Go hours then they are available as soon as you have paid for them. Subscription hours will become available from the start date of the subscription. If you need to use us immediately but also want a subscription please use a combination of Pay As You Go initially and then subscription hours.

Deposits are returnable at the end of a subscription as long as the membership rules have been adhered to. If you are starting a new subscription we will use the same deposit for the new subscription.

As part of the Government’s commitment to improve early years education, the Local Education Authority (LEA) provides funding for three and four year olds if they attend an Ofsted-registered setting which is eligible to claim the Early Years Funding Entitlement (EYFE) on behalf of the parent. The EYFE covers the LEA school year of 38 weeks however the LEA sets the number of weeks in each term and the amount of funding per session.

You will need to complete a Parent Declaration Form, which the nursery will provide. It is mandatory that we receive this form with a copy of the child’s birth certificate on time, so that any adjustments can be made for any children who attend other settings, or who do not wish to receive funding.

If you want to shift your EYFE into less than 5 days, please contact us.

Yes, but you need to confirm this on your Parent Declaration Form by telling us the number of sessions you wish to claim from Officrèche and from the other setting, to a maximum of 15 hours a week.

Yes it may affect the claim. If you are away on holiday or your child is off sick we will still make a claim for you but funding is not guaranteed. The LEA requires us to send copies of our registers to prove the children’s attendance at nursery, so it is advisable that you try to ensure that your child attends fully for the week of the headcount.

It is our understanding that you do need to declare EYFE if you are in receipt of the childcare element of working family/ child tax credits but you should get further clarification from the Inland Revenue. You can contact them on 0845 300 3900 (textphone 0845 300 3909). They are open from 8am – 8pm, seven days a week or online at www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk.

The ‘free entitlement’ relates to the EYFE funding. The LEA pays for 3 hours per session for a maximum of 15 hours per week for 38 weeks of the year. Officrèche provides a full day care service. This means that sessions are longer and we are open more than the 38 weeks per year. Therefore the cost to you is the nursery fees minus the EYFE funding.

If you fail to return your form and proof of your child’s date of birth, the EYFE will be withheld until we receive them. If they are not received by the headcount date, funding will not be claimed for your child.

Your child must be attending the nursery on the headcount date to qualify for EYFE. This means they must be on our register on that day.

We understand that some parents may not wish to claim EYFE as it can complicate claims with working family tax credit. We do still require you to complete the form and to state that you do not wish to claim. Please make this clear on the form. It is also desirable for you to send a letter to confirm this.

Your child is normally entitled to the EYFE from the term after their 3rd birthday. For example, if a child becomes 3 years old in February, EYFE starts in the Summer Term.

Both Officrèche and the LEA require you to sign a parent declaration form for each term you claim. A new form must be completed to enable us to complete the head count form accurately and to allow you the correct amount. The LEA can audit us at any time to ensure that we are awarding you in the correct manner and we need to provide them with documentary evidence. Please be aware that the form is a legal document and that anyone knowingly making a false declaration may be committing an offence and could be liable to prosecution. The information contained on the form is protected under the Data Protection Act.

We need to confirm your child’s date of birth falls within the dates of eligibility set by the LEA. This can be a birth certificate or passport. We also need to retain a copy of this for audit purposes.

LEAs collect the children’s time in hours rather than sessions. At Officrèche you can claim for 15 hours over a maximum of five sessions with no more 6 hours being claimed within one day.