Our Story
Connecting generations, one childcare match at a time
It all began in the wake of Covid…
Recognising that the childcare sector was on its knees and many families were living far away from grandparents, we set out to build a new childcare service. One which would help families find grandparent-like care and support older childcarers to find rewarding jobs.
Since then we’ve been researching and co-creating a local childcare model that supports midlife and older neighbours into rewarding childcare jobs with local families.
Our mission is to build age-integrated communities, champion the underemployed, and offer reliable childcare for working families.
So far we’ve created a community of over 3,000 people who see the benefits of our local, intergenerational approach. Along the way, we’ve interviewed – and boosted the confidence of – hundreds of potential GrandNannies.
We’re a small and hard-working team. We partner with Job Centres, re-employment organisations and charities to support over 50s into rewarding jobs with local families. Long term, we want to see GrandNannies at every school gate in the UK, and beyond.
Now backed by social impact investors and some of the UK’s best childcare entrepreneurs, we’re busy adding more helpful features to our service and scaling to more neighbourhoods.
We’ve been lucky to work with many amazing people and our team continues to evolve. We’d love to hear from you if you’re interested in joining us.
Hello from our team
Adele Aitchison, Founder & CEO
Growing up in Lancashire, Adele’s family ran a home nursery where ‘Empty Nesters’ from the local community were employed as ‘Aunties’ – a formative experience that has helped to inspire GrandNanny’s development.
Passionate about building a more age-integrated world, Adele believes we’d all be better off if we could share more our lives with people who have spent a little longer on the planet.
Prior to starting GrandNanny in 2020, Adele worked in Advertising. It was during this time that she realised the need for better wraparound childcare to support working parents. In many ways GrandNanny was born out of trying to answer a scary question: who would she trust to look after her future kids with her family living so far away? Unable to see the perfect solution – Grandparent-like care wrapped in a formal employment agreement – she set out to build it.
Adele is also a Trustee of Which? charity Research Institute for Disabled Consumers, supporting their work to increase age-inclusivity in product and service design.
Elisabeth Schloemmer, Head of Operations
Liz is a digital project specialist who loves building new things that make make life simpler for people. She previously worked with global companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Legal & General and Pension Insurance Corporation and launched lots of B2C and B2B applications and websites.
Prior to this, she attained an MA in Digital Asset Management from King’s College and that’s she met Adele – on a female entrepreneurs programme.
Liz is passionate about providing high quality childcare. She has extensive personal experience looking after young children in family settings so knows how important it is to find someone trustworthy and reliable.
David Walsh, Chairperson
David is an Entrepreneur, Investor, Technologist, Founder and former CEO of KPMG Crimsonwing, and an experienced Chairperson. After working at IBM, David founded Crimsonwing in 1996. The tech business was floated in 2007 and proceeds were used to expand the business through acquisitions and into new countries.
David began his involvement with GrandNanny as an Advisor through the King’s College Entrepreneurship Institute. He soon grew excited by the prospect of supporting over 50s into work whilst solving the childcare crisis and formalised his involvement in 2021.
Ella Savell-Boss, Safeguarding Consultant
Ella is a qualified BACP accredited person-centred and gestalt therapist, as well as an NSPCC accredited safeguarding trainer. Ella provides safeguarding and child protection training and consultancy to organisations nationally and internationally. She has over 15 years experience within safeguarding and education and provides innovative, engaging and up to date training sessions on a variety of subjects. Ella previously held the position as Director of Safeguarding for a large Multi Academy Trust. Ella’s background in counselling aids her ability to effectively support organisations with wellbeing, mental health support and supervision for staff, children and families. www.ellasavellboss.co.uk
Stephen Burke, Advisor
Stephen Burke is Director and Co-founder of United for All Ages, a national social enterprise and ‘think-do’ tank that promotes intergenerational interaction and supports projects bringing older and younger people together. Previously he was Chief Executive of two national care charities, leader of a London borough and on the board of several NHS trusts. Currently he is a Trustee and Chair of several national and local organisations working in care, housing, families and ageing. www.unitedforallages.com
Things we care about
1. Helping working parents find the right childcare for their family
8 million UK families lack reliable childcare; a third of London schools don’t have an after-school club; there is a nationwide shortage in childminders; student nannies don’t want long-term jobs; professional nannies require full-time employment. Reliable, part-time childcare is a big old problem.
2. Fighting Ageism and supporting people aged 50+ into rewarding childcare jobs
There are at least 1 million people aged 50-64 who are ‘willing/want to work’ but are not currently in work (DWP). There are at least 1 million people aged 50-64 who are ‘willing/want to work’ but are not currently in work (DWP).
Ageism contributes to unemployment amongst women in their 50s and 60s and Covid-19 compounded the issue (Price, 2020).
3. Contributing to closing the gender pay and gender pension gaps
The lack of reliable, quality childcare in the UK is a major contributor to the gender pay gap.
On average older women’s pension pots are ⅔ smaller than men’s. This is often result of taking time out of work to provide care.
Our Aims
- Make childcare simpler, fairer and more local
- Champion the underemployed
- Facilitate rewarding, intergenerational connections
Sure, they’re GIANT aims…but we’re firm believers in people power and we’re not scared of hard work. Join the Grandnanny community and let’s make it happen.
We are always happy to talk to potential partners, press and people who are interested in working with us. Get in touch.
Feedback like this makes our day…
“I have not come across this level of service and high spec candidates in my dealings with childcare services before.”
“In the past people have been prejudiced against me because of my age, so when GrandNanny said my experience is valuable my heart sang.”
“GrandNanny is an excellent initiative to bring together two groups often seeking more social support, parents with young children and older people.”
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