Hi everyone,

If all goes well, I should be moving with my family to Lausanne by July 1st, as I have received a position there.
We have a 14-month baby girl, and both my wife and I are currently working fulltime... and we would like to keep it that way when moving to Lausanne.
However, we heard that waiting lists for creche places are huge.

Now we have a chicken and egg problem: my wife cannot really start applying for a job until she knows for sure when our daughter will have a creche place. Vice-versa, it appears that one of the criteria to prioritize a request on the waiting list is if both parents are gainfully employed.

Hence my question: did anybody here recently have the experience of applying for a creche position in Lausanne (near the center) ? If so, how long did it take you ? Is 6 months realistic or should we expect more like a year ?

I tried to contact the BIP (Bureau Informations aux Parents) during their "permanence téléphonique" today, but the line is always busy (which is telling :-( )

Thanks in advance.

I know absolutely nothing about creche waiting lists, but I do know that there are a few alternatives to state run creches. The Lausanne Famille website has an entire page dedicated to childcare options, and in addition to BIP, they list some private daycares that are bilingual or in English (Montessori, etc.). Everything looks extremely expensive: 130 CHF a day is a lot of money!

Anyway, sorry I can't give any specific advice, but I thought those links might be helpful.

Best,

Heather

PS-It's a long shot, but have you asked your HR at work? It is rare, but some places (such as Philip Morris and EPFL) have garderies on site. A friend who started work at EPFL found a place for his 18-month old straight away, and the creche is a ten minute walk from his office.

Once you are in Lausanne,you can visit BIP personally and fill in a form. After which they will provide you with a list of all the playschools in Lausanne area, and according to your time-priority of keeping your daughter in the playschool(full time or part time), they will give you the details of all the playschools which meet your conditions. If they will have a place free anywhere, they will ask you to contact that playschool immediately and if nothing is available, they will keep you posted about any vacant position that gets available asap.

I am not sure if they will let you fill up this form before you are actually here.

If you don't find a place for your daughter in any playschool, you might try hiring a full time babysitter, for which you can ask BIP to provide you with a complete list of 'Maman de Jour' in your area.

Oh yes, you did hear right - waiting lists for creche places are huge.

Good luck

Hi digitech,
I don't live in Lausanne but in one nearby village where the situation with waiting lists is worse than in Lausanne. About 1.5 year I put my son on the waiting lists of 3 different garderies and when I called there last week they said for this february - no places. To avoid the same situation you should inquire if there is smth like creche or garderie in the area or from your work as HeatherM wrote some companies have their own garderies or creches. If it is not your case send demands to waiting list subscription or call to all possible or desirable creches or garderies situated close to your work or place of living, the more the better if you want to have more chances. They start group formation for local garderies or creches at the beginning of April so better to start your waiting lists subscription in February or March and try to call to the places where you are subscribed every 6 weeks. Also you can give announcements in some local sites like anibis to look for a nanny/maman du jour etc. or to contact www.alamaison.ch but it is veeery expensive there. If you don't start doing it right now in July or August it will be impossible or almost impossible. Good luck!
p.s 1h in creche 15-80FR or 65-130 a day
1h maman du jour - 5-15FR
1h nounou/student -15-25FR

We'll be moving to Lausanne - Rolle area in two months and we're looking for advice on the local daycare providers.

Our 2yo son goes to Montessori in Ottawa, Canada, and we'd like to put him in daycare (creche / garderie ? - still figuring out the terminologie) starting September 09.

The biggest challenge seems to be to get input from other parents, reviews, or information around how good/bad is a daycare provider vs another.

Many thanks,
Andra
Ottawa, Canada