I'm a trained auditor. Finding a safe sleep consultant for my son was the hardest due diligence I've ever done.

I spent the first five years of my career as an auditor. My job was to look past shiny facades, and ask the deeper questions: why, how, where's the evidence?

Then my son was born; colic hit us bad, the sleep fell apart the way it does, and in the end, having tried everything I went looking for help. And I found myself doing something I'd never had to do in my professional life — trying to verify a person's qualifications with almost nothing to go on.

No register to check. No regulator confirmation. No protected title. Just a lot of beautiful Instagram grids and a lot of confidence. I had never felt more overwhelmed and more out of my depth.

That gap is the reason I built HeyBaby. But before I get to that, here's what every exhausted parent actually needs to know.

Is baby sleep consulting regulated in the UK?

No. And this is the single most important thing to understand before you pay anyone.

In the UK, "sleep consultant," "sleep coach" and "baby sleep expert" are not protected titles. Anyone can use them, with no required training, no insurance, no DBS check and no obligation to follow medical safe-sleep guidance. When the BBC looked into this corner of the internet, it found people with sizeable audiences and busy consultancy businesses operating with no clinical oversight at all — and, in places, steering parents away from what the evidence on safe sleep actually says. There is no regulator standing behind the title the way there is behind a midwife, a health visitor or, for that matter, a Chartered Accountant.

That doesn't mean the people in this field are unsafe. Many are excellent, careful and genuinely qualified. It means the responsibility for telling the difference has been quietly handed to you — usually at 3am, on no sleep, when you are least equipped to do it.

What should I check before booking a sleep consultant?

Treat it like the small piece of due diligence it is. Before you hand over any money, confirm:

• Professional insurance — a basic, non-negotiable marker of a serious practitioner.
• Recognised training, not a self-accredited certificate. Ask who accredited the course and what level it was. A clinical background — nursing, midwifery, health visiting — is a meaningful bonus, not a requirement.
• Explicit alignment with NHS and Lullaby Trust safer-sleep guidance. Any plan should sit comfortably alongside back-sleeping, a clear cot, and room-sharing for the first six months. If a recommendation contradicts that, walk away.
• A free introductory call. Any reputable consultant offers one. Use it to ask exactly these questions and listen to how willingly they answer.
• An enhanced DBS check — particularly if they're coming into your home.

If someone bristles at being asked for evidence, that is the evidence.

What are the red flags?

The thing that feels the hardest to accept in today's over dependence on social media: a large following is not a qualification. Neither is a polished website or a paid search ranking. The parents most likely to be reassured by confident branding are the ones most desperate for sleep — which is exactly the vulnerability the current free-for-all rewards.

Be wary of self-accredited courses (where the provider certifies its own qualification), of one-size-fits-all plans sold before anyone has looked at your child's actual routine, and of any advice that quietly steps outside safe-sleep guidance in the name of a quicker result.

What does good cost?

For context, so you can spot the outliers: a single UK advice call typically runs £75–£250, a one-to-two-week remote package £235–£650, and in-home support £375–£700+, higher in London and the South East. Price isn't a proxy for safety in either direction — but knowing the range stops you being talked into something purely because it's expensive enough to feel premium.

Why I'm building a standard, not just an app

Here's the part where, as the founder, I'm allowed an opinion: an unregulated market shouldn't put the burden of verification on the most sleep-deprived person in the room.

So at HeyBaby we built the checklist above into a formal verification standard — identity, enhanced DBS (if visiting parents at home), insurance, recognised training, a safer-sleep gate, and a structured interview — and decided that paying us would never, ever buy a practitioner a "verified" badge. Verification is something you earn by meeting the standard, not something you purchase. That distinction is the whole point.

It's the auditor in me: a credential you can buy isn't a credential.

A professional who displays a verified badge on their profile has gone through these checks.

We're early. I'm not going to pretend otherwise. But the standard exists, it's public, and it's the thing I wish I'd had at 3am with a tired grouchy newborn and a browser full of identical-looking websites.

If you take one thing from this

Here's what I come down on, after all of it: no one knows your baby better than you do, and the right help should feel like it's working with that instinct, not overriding it. So trust yourself first — and then, when you do bring someone in, make sure they've earned it: real training, proper insurance, someone they actually answer to. Ignore social media followings. Ask the questions. Anyone worth hiring will be glad you did.