Babysitters online are now available in Oxford, thanks to a network that plans to go nationwide by the end of next year.

Sitters provides carefully screened babysitters aged over 21, 80 per cent of whom have children of their own.

The company has been successfully piloted in Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

Joint founder Lucie Allen said: "The idea for Sitters sprang from our own search for reliable, experienced babysitters to look after our two sons.