How we verify

We would rather tell you exactly what was checked than reassure you with an adjective.

The steps

• Identity — ID document checked against a confirmation selfie; email validated. Free, required for everyone. We record the outcome and the date, not the file.
• Written references — two previous families write and sign a statement: first name, town, period, what the sitter actually did. Published in full on the profile, with the date.
• Qualifications — first aid, childcare, veterinary assistant and similar certificates are confirmed with the body that issued them, and the date of confirmation is shown.
• Introduction video — a short video recorded by the sitter, so you see how they speak before you write.
• Insured — for sitters holding their own valid third-party liability policy, verified by policy number and expiry.

Why we do not telephone anyone

A phone call leaves no trace you can read. A written reference does: it stays on the profile, it is signed, and you can weigh the words yourself. It is also the only method one person running this service can apply consistently to every profile, rather than to the first twenty.

Criminal record certificates: why we do not keep them

Data protection law permits a private operator to process data relating to criminal convictions only where expressly authorised by law (Art. 10 GDPR). No such authorisation covers a platform like ours — and a self-declaration stating the absence of convictions is itself criminal-conviction data, so that route is closed too. Beyond the legal point, a certificate uploaded a year ago describes a situation that has since moved on.

Every sitter therefore undertakes to show the certificate — or, in Switzerland, the special private extract from the criminal records register, designed precisely for activities involving contact with minors — directly to the family, before the first engagement. The profile shows the date the undertaking was given. Refusing to show it to the family means removal from the service.

What we never ask for

Criminal record certificates or declarations about the absence of convictions; medical certificates, diagnoses or treatments; pregnancy, religion or sexual orientation. Copies of identity documents are not retained.

What remains your job

Meet the person before the first engagement, with the child present. Ask for the certificate. Agree in writing what happens in an emergency, who may collect the child, and what the rate covers. Our contract kit exists for exactly this.

If something goes wrong

Every profile carries a report button. Serious reports lead to precautionary suspension before any investigation. Report a profile.