Entrepreneurial couple Georgia and Lachlan Atkinson are swapping high-rise thrills for tiny tikes
Lachlan and Georgie Atkinson, founders of East Park Childminding(Image: UGC)
An entrepreneurial couple are creating a new childminding business to help busy mums and dads – and also bring their own family closer together. Lachlan Atkinson, 33, has swapped his high-rise career as a rope access technician to launch East Park Childminding with his wife Georgie, 29, and it is already creating a buzz in the local area.
Georgie has been run off her feet with their three children – Alfie, nine, Ralfie, six months and Bella, seven – while husband Lachlan works away, often for weeks at a time, scaling everything from skyscrapers to bridges and stadiums. Keen for them to spend more time at home together, the pair hit upon the idea of launching their own venture.
That resulted in the brainwave last December, to create the new business in their own home. Georgie, who spent six years as a self-employed foot health practitioner before having Ralfie, said: “Lachlan currently works away from home which is really tough on me and our three children.
“He went away when our baby was just eight weeks old for eight weeks, and it was after this that we decided to build something together, so he can stay home with us and that would also be financially beneficial. He’s self-employed but works for a firm called High Maintenance and he really enjoys it.
“He does some really cool stuff – all the sporting events, the King’s Coronation, the cricket World Cup, the Asian cup opening ceremony and the Ryder Cup, all at heights in some worrying pictures he sends to me which I could never do. They clean canopies, carry out repairs, putting up banners at height – they do a range of things.
Did you know you can make Hull Live a preferred source of Hull news in Google, which will mean you get more of our breaking news, exclusives, and must-read stories straight away? Here’s more information about what this means and how to do it – you can also do it straight away by clicking here .
“But it’s really tough him being away all the time. Sometimes he’s away for a week, at the moment he’s away for two weeks, but it can run up to eight weeks at a time. He was in Qatar for two months last October.
“He has been doing this for around seven years, but struggles leaving his family, our son who is nearly 10 finds it the hardest at the moment. After Ralfie came along I decided we needed a change – and this is when we came up with the lovely child-minding idea.
“Lachlan was all for it too – he wants to be at home. We love spending time with the kids – and obviously Ralfie is going to be part of our ratio too.”
Excited to be going into business together, the pair sought help from the local authority, which gave them a checklist of requirements ahead of launch day. They have also enlisted an agency to help them set up and, all being well, their goal is to open in April.
The agency – Suffolk Childminding – has helped them to secured relevant DBS and health certification and safeguarding training, and are also applying to Ofsted. The couple are also about to complete relevant paediatric first aid training too.
Their front living room has already been transformed into a colourful, peaceful haven kitted out with games, books and toys where, after they have been collected from nurseries and schools, children can happily play and relax as they wait for family members to pick them up.
Once up and running East Park Childminding will be able to have six children in the daytime, including Ralfie. They have already started advertising, making it clear they are still going through the registration process.
Georgie said: “The next step is to get the word out. The front room is the nursery and we have a large open plan room – we’ll put out Lego, the kids’ playstations, drawing, all kinds of toys and we’ve got a massive back garden area which is currently getting put together that will even include chickens!
“We’ve had some feedback from parents from Ings Primary School regarding school collections and I have also had some really positive feedback from parents at East Park Primary. And we already have a few mums booked in to come and view our setting, so it’s exciting times.”
To find all the planning applications, traffic diversions, road layout changes, alcohol licence applications and more, visit the Public Notices Portal .