It�s a scenario straight out of the ultimate Yummy Mummy movie. You get little Farqhuar out of his designer Babygro while simultaneously putting on your black power suit and full make-up.

It's a scenario straight out of the ultimate Yummy Mummy movie. You get little Farqhuar out of his designer Babygro while simultaneously putting on your black power suit and full make-up. There's just time to check your Blackberry for overnight e-mails from LA while Farqhuar has his first bottle and big sister Cassandra munches on her cereal before you're heading out into the early-morning rush-hour traffic and into work for that 8 o'clock conference call.

En route, you drop the kids off at nursery - along with your dry cleaning, 15 shirts to be ironed and cash for Farqhuar's first pair of shoes because he took his first steps at nursery yesterday.

There's also an instruction to the manager to make sure Cassandra is picked up later as she has a ballet class after school.

So far, so very far-fetched. Or is it? In today's cash-rich, time-poor society, it could be the way ahead in gold-plated childcare.

As anyone who has ever trawled around with a heavy heart looking for childcare can testify, our nation's nurseries are a mixed bunch. But some of the more entrepreneurial among them are now looking for ways to service the needs of frazzled working parents, already paying the equivalent of a second mortgage every month in childcare. Recently, it was reported that a small chain of nurseries based in and around Manchester was offering just such a service.

Kids Allowed was started up by mother-of-two Jennie Johnston, who could not find a nursery providing what she required - simultaneous care for a baby and a school-age daughter.

The former IT marketing executive realised there might be a gap in the market. She says Kids Allowed takes a "holistic view of the family's requirements".

Parents can drop off ironing, laundry and dry cleaning with a concierge while arranging a babysitter with the in-house minding agency. At the other end of the day, staff stay late to accommodate any last-minute hold-ups a parent might encounter, such as an unscheduled meeting.

For children up to three years old, Kids Allowed charges £44 a day, which includes all food, nappies, wipes, formula milk and bottles.

Johnston's ideas are not unique and many Scottish nurseries have been making inroads in offering similarly flexible, if not gold-plated, childcare.

At Smallworld nursery in Brechin, owner Lynn Dean is surveying parents to see if they would be interested in a children's hairdressing service and a one-stop shoe-shop service. Laughing at the idea of dropping off ironing and laundry, she says: "I don't know where that would stop. No, it's not something we'll be looking into, but I have been thinking for a while that hairdressing and shoes were useful services to provide. It's the kind of thing parents struggle to fit in at weekends."

Lynn, a grandmother who set up Smallworld three years ago as a "pension plan" for her retirement, adds: "We're always talking to our parents and they're always telling us about what would be useful for them.

"We have a mixed social group here, with several single parents, parents who are teachers, paramedics and care-home workers. We also have several children who are care-home referrals."

In a short space of time, Smallworld has mushroomed from a small concern with five children to a booming business with 80 children under-12, offering a breakfast club and after-school care.

Lynn and her colleagues won the Childcare Team of the Year Award in this year's national charity 4Children's National Children's Stars Awards for its parent-focused approach to childcare.

"We open from 7.30am to 6pm every day and we are full every day," says Lynn. "One of the big things up here is that a lot of people work shifts, perhaps three days one week and two days the next. So we try to accommodate their needs by being flexible."

The nursery also organises social evenings for parents to get together, so that staff and parents can meet in an more informal setting.

Smallworld, which also has its own chef who works to the Scottish Government's healthy-eating initiative guidelines, also orchestrates school drop-offs and pick-ups for older siblings.

A full day for babies and toddlers under three is £27, while for three-year-olds to five-year-olds, parents pay £22.50. It costs £2.50 to have your child in the breakfast club and then taken to school, while after-school pick-up and care until 6pm costs £6 per day.

Of course, it is the bottom line that most parents look to when taking the final decision about where to send their children when they return to work.

For Danusia Johnston, who returned to work full-time when her elder son, Lewis, was just three months old, it was a combination of the bottom line and the fact that she instinctively liked and believed in the principles behind InezMurray's Four Seasons Nursery in Cadogan Street in Glasgow city centre.

"I spent a lot of time going round all the nurseries in the city centre," Danusia recalls. "And I wasn't impressed at all.

"I instinctively liked the Four Seasons because it's run by a woman who is always around and who knows the children, parents and staff very well. She had kept the same staff in all the years she'd been running it who were sensible, experienced and mature, not to mention very loving. There was also the fact that she factored in extras, such as milk, healthy food when the time came for weaning, nappies and so on. They also opened at 7.30am and could stay open until 8pm if you needed them to, which on the occasions I needed that service, was a godsend.

"The owner said to me from the outset that there were certain things they insist on, such as good manners and routine, which I liked because I think it makes for a rounded child.

"It was expensive, but you get what you pay for and it was really good for Lewis and for me and my husband."

Inez Murray, teacher-turned-managing director of Four Seasons Nursery, is keen to emphasise that flexibility is the bedrock of the service offered at her nursery, which charges £44 per day for under-threes and has 75 child places (including 10 five-eight year-old places) and 30 staff.

"The most important thing to many parents is time. Because we are in the city centre, the children come in with their parents on the way to work and don't have to do lots of different stop-offs. Life is stressful enough and we are trying to take some of the strain from working parents."

According to Inez, luxury add-on services such as ironing and dry-cleaning are not required by her parents - "they're coming into the city centre anyway, so it's something they can combine" - but she has offered hairdressing services and the children receive French lessons, as well as music and exercise classes. Older siblings can be accommodated during holiday periods, too.

The trend for "luxury" nurseries is one that is happening in pockets around the UK, says Purmina Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association.

"To diversify, some nurseries are doing it and from a business point of view it is really innovative but at the end of the day, how many are able to afford it? Many, many nurseries offer school drop-offs, pick-ups, after-school care and holiday clubs and make themselves available if they are needed at the close of a session.

"Working lives have changes and nurseries have changed in the main to accommodate these changes.

"In some areas, parents can afford to pay for extras and they would welcome such services but some parents are struggling to pay the childcare fees. Long-term investment is required from governments throughout the UK in childcare to join up all the elements of parents' childcare needs."

So where does that leave the child at the centre of all this activity? Future recipient of Asbos by the dozen or a well-rounded human being?

A recent survey by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in the US found that young children who spend significant periods of time in daycare while their parents work are more prone to anti-social behaviour.

According to Lynn Dean of Smallworld in Brechin, society has moved on and we have to move with it. "Parents always feel guilty but they are working to give their child a better life and if you choose your childcare well, that makes all the difference."

Meanwhile, at the sharp end, Danusia Johnston, who now has a 10-month-old son, Harris, as well as five-year-old Lewis, is having a very different childcare experience second time around.

"We moved to London when Lewis was four and I had my second son last year. This time, I am not working and have decided to be a full-time mum until Harris is at least two. I love being around for the boys all the time but I think that Lewis gained a lot from the three years he was at nursery while I worked full-time. I think that has a lot to do with the standard of care he received and the fact I was happy with it. I have looked at a lot of nurseries in London and they were really awful. You pay your money and you take your chance."

According to Inez Murray, rather than seeing less of their children, she says there has been a sea-change in the past 10 years which means parents are seeing more of their children.

"When I started out running the nursery there were a lot more full-time children. Now, we have a lot more part-time children, which seems to indicate workplaces are being a lot more flexible. Maybe that leaves a couple of days for parents to do the laundry and see to the dry cleaning! Or maybe that's another argument altogether."