The Babysits for Special Needs Program
By Babysits
•
2 min read
According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 7.7% of children aged 0-14 (357,000 children) have some level of disability (AIHW, 2020). Parents of these special needs children often have a lot of difficulty finding a qualified babysitter who can care for their child for a few hours. They often can’t just ask a neighbour to come babysit. Because of this, Babysits is expanding its services, giving special attention to special needs care, in order to make it easier than ever for parents to find a specialised babysitter.
Babysits for Special Needs
“We have the qualified babysitters, let’s highlight them.”
There are already hundreds of babysitters across Australia on Babysits that have indicated they have experience with special needs care. Babysits for Special Needs makes it easier for parents to find these qualified babysitters.
- Parents are now able to filter their search by “experience with special needs”.
- Moreover, they can search based on the specific experience - Does their child have autism? They can see specifically which babysitters have experience working with children with autism.
- Parents of children who are deaf or hard of hearing can also use the language filter to find babysitters proficient in sign language.
Next to this, we’ve made it easier for babysitters with experience in special needs care.
- Babysitters can more easily indicate whether or not they have experience with special needs care in their profile and this is now highlighted on their profile.
- They can select the specific special need they have experience with and indicate where they have gained this experience.
Safety is central
Not everyone can look after children who require special care. To ensure the safety of the children, it is possible for babysitters to indicate whether they are first aid certified and upload a WWCC or equivalent (WWVP etc.) via the Babysits platform.
The WWCC is then reviewed by the Babysits team and this is indicated in the babysitter’s profile. Parents can also filter to see which babysitters have a WWCC and which don’t.
“Babysits’ mission is to empower communities around childcare. We hope that this new program will be a valuable resource to empower parents of special needs children and help highlight special needs experienced babysitters.”
