Smart dads launch the ‘Wotif’ of childcare

THE frustration of trying to find, negotiate and organise a childcare place for his son caused a Brisbane father to speculate “wouldn’t it be good if we could ‘Wotif’ this …?”

But Lachie Neilan did more than just wonder. He approached friend Ben Skerman to help create a website that could manage childcare places and solve that vexed waiting list problem for parents, while filling vacancies for childcare providers.

Mr Neilan and Mr Skerman recently launched EenieMeenie.com.au, which they are developing into a national database of childcare information, vacancies and reviews at parent’s fingertips. The new website operates industry-wide and aims to end time-consuming searches for vacant childcare spots, providing a means for centres to advertise their vacancies online.

With background information on centres, updated all the time, EenieMeenie helps parents to select the childcare centre that best suits their needs at the click of a mouse.  For carers, it provides a free vacancy listing along with a one-page profile. 

The concept germinated from Mr Neilan’s frustrating experience of searching for temporary childcare for his own young daughter and he approached Mr Skerman, who is the executive director of coal seam gas services group Resource and Land Management Services, for technical help in innovating the solution. Several partners joined to fund the venture, with Mr Skerman as an executive director, and it has been operating since early 2015 with Mr Neilan at the helm full time.

While childcare vacancies were usually available, Mr Neilan’s research found the greatest problem was no centralised resource of up-to-date information. Most contact with the centres is by phone, with inevitable delays and waiting time. Mr Neilan said there were about 6500 day care centres on Australia and 80 percent were owned by ‘mum and dad’ operators. Most recommendations were word-of-mouth until the arrival of Eenie Meenie.

“Our regular babysitter was away on holiday, and both of us had to work – we just needed something temporarily, but it was so hard to find what we needed,” Mr Neilan said.

“It was frustrating and time consuming and I needed to be able to find something quickly.

“I felt like it shouldn’t be this hard, and that surely there should be one online hub where parents could find temporary or permanent vacancies that suited them.”

Mr Neilan said feedback amongst other parents on EenieMeenie had been positive – as it has been, increasingly, from the childcare providers who are discovering the service.

“Often, childcare centres have temporary vacancies, or vacancies for one day a week, which they can’t advertise very well,” Mr Neilan said.

“Using EenieMeenie, they can go onto the site and update when they have vacancies. When the vacancy is filled, it will automatically update that on the site – so centres can easily fill spots, even if it is for a vacancy of a few weeks.”

The best news for centres is that the listing is free until a parent books a space through EenieMeenie – there is no retainer fee. The parent pays through the site as if it is direct to the centre and they do not pay any extra commission to the site, in a similar model to Wotif.

There is an inbuilt review system which asks parents to rate the centre through five questions out of five.

“In searching for childcare, parents ask parents,” Mr Neilan said. “That is our reasoning behind this rating system.” He said the site’s basis was to act as a platform for communication between centres and parents – and among parents – not just about vacancies but about childcare.

“We need as much conversation between centres and parents as possible,” Mr Neilan said. “We see what as a key part of our role, long term.”

There is a lot of basic service and amenities-style information on the site but it is set up to be constantly updated by the centres themselves as improvements are made. As more data is gathered about the types of amenities parents are seeking, that information can in future be imparted to centre owners about what the market is seeking.

“I really want to encourage people to jump on board and see what we have to offer,” Mr Neilan said.

 “This way, we can get everyone on board and familiar with the system, so they can see how easy it is to use and how effective the process is.”

The name becomes obvious as the site is explored, describing the button-led process for outlining a childcare search request.

The style of the site is very appropriate and the easy way it communicates stems from Mr Neilan’s background as a graphic designer and children’s book author: he developed the outback Queensland-based story If You Come With Us You’ll See What I Mean with artist Emma Stuart in 2013.

Lachie Neilan is focused for the foreseeable future on helping parents discover, through his site, that finding the right childcare vacancy can come down to eenie, meenie, miney, mo.

www.eeniemeenie.com.au

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