Cuckooz Nest has all the hallmarks of a trendy coworking space: light and airy, minimalist furniture, scatter cushions and Instagram-worthy houseplants. But there are sounds that immediately mark it out as a different kind of place: a noise of babies can be heard over the tapping on keyboards. It’s one of only a handful of coworking spaces in the UK that not only provide desks, offices and meeting rooms, but also childcare onsite. Based in Farringdon, London, Cuckooz Nest offers 21 nursery places to children from newborns to two-year-olds, alongside 36 desk spaces. Despite launching less than a year ago, the business is already profitable and has a waiting list, says one of the co-founders, Charlie Rosier. She launched Cuckooz Nest because she wanted to help women stay in work. The idea came to her shortly after she and her business partner Fabienne O’Neill had started their serviced apartment business Cuckooz in 2016. Rosier had given birth to her daughter and wanted to return to work six weeks later, but could not find suitable childcare, so started taking her baby to the office. “I didn’t want to give up my 15-year career for having a child,” she says. A nursery place at Cuckooz Nest costs between £10.80 and £20 per hour. In London, the average full-time nursery place is £6.08 per hour, according to the Money Advice Service – a total of £305.92 per week for a child under two. But traditional nurseries don’t offer a lot of flexibility – parents can either get a part-time or a full-time place. A full-time nanny, meanwhile, costs on average £616 per week, plus taxes and national insurance. But at Cuckooz, members only pay for the hours they use, rather than full-term periods as most nurseries require. For Ilany Oliveira, a mother who runs her own exporting business, working there has been life-changing. Before Cuckooz Nest opened its doors in April 2018, Oliveira was struggling to find childcare due to waiting lists at local nurseries. She worked at home with her husband, so it would have been too disruptive having a nanny, she says. So she found herself trying to work when her baby slept, usually between 7pm and 2am. “I was exhausted,” she recalls. Now she uses Cuckooz Nest five days a week – with her daughter playing just metres away. There are people who come here from as far away as Bromley and Peckham. And soon, says O’Neill, Cuckooz Nest will be expanding to two new locations – so there’s clearly lots of demand for childcare in coworking spaces. That’s not surprising, considering the rapid growth of self-employment in recent years. In 2017, there were some 4.8 million self-employed people in the UK. And an estimated 1.91 million UK workers are freelancers – a 46 per cent increase since 2008. So why are there only a handful of coworking spaces in the UK? It’s a tough industry – only 40 per cent of all coworking spaces are profitable, according to the 2017 Global Coworking Survey. Opening onsite childcare on top means complying with additional regulations. To get Ofsted registration, businesses need to ensure that there’s enough space and that the ratio of staff to children is correct. They also have to factor in high rent, insurance and licenses. Finally, they have to strike the balance between desks and the size of areas dedicated to babies. Other coworking crèches such as Third Door and Entreprenursery, also in London, have overcome these challenges, but Second Home has had to delay its launch by several months, and is now planning to open at some point in 2019. In 2017, Elizabeth Moody-Stuart shuttered Officrèche, the Brighton-based coworking crèche she founded six years earlier. She says it provided a supportive network for parents, but the margins were too thin. “Childcare is an expensive add-on for a coworking space,” she says. Overall, childcare seems to have failed to keep pace with the changing world of work. Nationally, there is a drastic shortage of places. Childcare costs in England are among the highest of any developed country, according to the OECD. The expense is especially tough for non-salaried workers with fluctuating work, who do not want to pay for childcare during quieter periods. “The whole issue around the childcare system and provisions is extraordinarily complicated to navigate,” says Jane van Zyl, chief executive of Working Families, a work-life balance charity. Coworking crèches might be a step in the right direction. “A good idea is a good idea, and will create better ideas as it moves forward,” she says. Or perhaps one solution could be to follow the example of Huckletree West, a London space with a family room – but no staff to take care of the babies. Whatever users’ preferred options, it seems that childcare will be a growing opportunity in 2019. – Inside the vulnerable fame of YouTube's child ASMR stars – I tried to keep my baby secret from Facebook and Google – How SoftBank became the most powerful company in tech – What happens when you drink Huel and Soylent for a month? – Why your standing desk isn't solving your sitting problem Get WIRED Weekender, your at-a-glance roundup of the most important, interesting and unusual stories from the past week. In your inbox every Saturday by 10am. by entering your email address, you agree to our privacy policy Thank You. You have successfully subscribed to our newsletter. You will hear from us shortly. Sorry, you have entered an invalid email. Please refresh and try again.
Farrindon-based Cuckooz Nest is profitable less than a year after launching its co-working and childcare combo centre. Parents pay a premium hourly rate, but don’t have to commit to full- or part-time hours. Pointing to members that travel from as far away as Bromley and Peckham as evidence of demand for childcare in co-working spaces, co-founder Fabienne O’Neill said Cuckooz Nest is planning to open two more centres in the coming months.