ABA VB Community - Teaching to children with autism

Carol Stevenson is currently in the process of establishing a babysitting service specifically for special needs children, called VIVO!. She sent the following post:

I am a qualified Special Needs teacher with approximately 10 years experience within the SEN sector. I am also currently working as an ABA tutor.

I know from personal experience that this service is not currently available, and the difficulty parents and carers of special needs children face when trying to find a suitable babysitter.

Regular babysitting agencies just do not cater for special needs children.

At VIVO! all our agents/sitters are CRB cleared, reference checked and interviewed face to face.

All have experience working with a wide range of SEN children (ASD, MLD, SLD, PMLD, EBD etc) and the majority are also trained in manual handling.

Basic information as follows:

The rates of pay are mon-thurs £8/hr, fri-sun £10/hr, for sessions from 6.30pm-12am, paid directly to sitters by the parents/carers at the end of the session worked. (Sitters are responsible for their own travel costs).

Bookings are a minimum of 3hrs/sitting in order to make it worthwhile for agents, & all part hours worked should be rounded up to the next quarter hour.

I would also like to offer short term day care, mostly during the school holidays, (weekday rates mon-fri £8/hr sat-sun £10/hr)

An initial fee of £15 would be charged by the agency for the first booking, £25 thereafter for one off bookings. There is a membership option available which would entitle members to reduced booking fees.

At the moment we have sitters to cover most of West/North West London, Croydon and surrounding and most of South West London.

Standard requirement would generally be one week's notice prior to date of booking.

If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact on vivo_sns@live.com, or alternatively visit our website Vivospecialneedssitters.com .