How to find and employ a good nanny

2009-09-23T10:23:00.000-07:00

By Tricia Pritchard, Senior Professional Officer (Childcare) at Voice

How do you find and employ a good nanny?

Simple.

Take your time.

When looking for a nanny it is crucial that you know firmly in your own mind what it is you want.

Unless you really look at this you will almost certainly get it wrong.

There are huge differences between a nanny and a mother’s help, an au pair and a housekeeper, for example.

All are very valuable in their own right, but all offer differing roles with differing expectations from you, the employer.

When you have decided that you are in need of a highly-trained, experienced, professional person to care for your child/ren on a regular basis, offering safe, stimulating childcare, then you have reached the decision to employ a nanny.

You need then to look at the job you have to offer.

It is important to look at what you are offering before looking at what type of person you think would ideally suit your family.

Consider the following:

• When do you need your nanny to start?
• How many days per week will s/he need to be available?
• How many hours per day, starting at what time and finishing when?
• Does your child/ren have any special needs?
• To care for your children will your nanny need to have completed any specialist training?
• Will you require your nanny to drive?
• Will you want your nanny to undertake any non-childcare duties?
• If yes, what will these be?
• Will you require your nanny to undertake any addition babysitting duties / overnight / weekend cover?
• Must your nanny be childcare/early years trained? (See the CACHE website.)
• How much can you realistically afford to pay your nanny per month?
• Have you researched how tax and national insurance is applied? (See the Nannytax website.)
• Have you got public liability and professional indemnity cover? (See the Voice website.)
• Do you intend to use a nanny agency? (See the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and/or the Association of Nanny Agencies (ANA) websites.)

Once you have considered all of the above you can then consider the details of your vacancy and possibly the person best suited to meet your requirements.

But be realistic.

If you have established that you will require a nanny full-time for up to 40 hours per week, that she will have sole charge of your three children under the age of five and that childcare qualifications are important to you, you will need to be able to afford more than the hourly National Minimum Wage of £5.80 for people aged 22 and over, £4.83 for people aged 18 to 21 (from 1 October 2009).

It is important that you spend as much time as possible on the detail of what it is you want and what you can afford before placing your vacancy with an agency or newspaper or magazine – and stick to it.

Once your vacancy has been notified you will almost certainly receive enquiries from nannies not meeting your criteria.

Nanny agencies will often try to persuade you to meet their “lovely nanny” who “doesn’t match your requirements but” and who, if you meet her really will be “lovely”.

However, if you recruit a nanny having ignored your original established needs, it will quickly become apparent why you listed those needs and why your new nanny is not the nanny for you.

It is almost a certainty that you will be looking for yet another new nanny within months if not sooner.

When using a nanny agency a good guide is if the agency is thorough with you, for example insisting on meeting you face-to-face, requiring that you either draw up a written contract of employment or adopt theirs, insisting that you have suitable employer liability insurance in place, and so on, you can be sure that the agency has been just as thorough when selecting the nannies they have on their register.

Remember, you will be paying a considerable amount for the agency’s services, interview them, be convinced of their high, professional standards before giving them your vacancy.

You should look for:

• Whether the agency belongs to a professional body such as REC or the ANA as membership of these organisations requires that agencies operate within a strict code of professional conduct.
• Whether the agency provides you with full written details of the services they provide, including their fees.
• Whether the agency has met and interviewed all nannies face-to-face.
• Whether all nannies put forward by the agency have a clean, full Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) Enhanced Disclosure (see the CRB website).
• Whether the agency has checked all references, including immediate past employer.
• Whether the agency can verify that all documents (qualifications certificates, first aid certificates and so on) are genuine.
• What the agency’s policy is about refunds and finding a suitable replacement for you should the nanny prove unsuitable within a short period of time.
• Whether there is a penalty clause should you cancel your vacancy with the agency.

You should expect the agency to alert suitable nannies to your vacancy.

The agency should sift through only suitable candidates and supply you with a list of possible hopefuls.

A good agency will never give a prospective candidate your contact details before agreeing with you first that s/he should be invited to interview.

Never be tempted to let the agency rehearse with you possible interview questions.

Sadly, some agencies have been known to do this and to then alert the nannies so that they attend for interview well primed.

You should interview the best-suited nannies and draw from them a shortlist of the best two or three.

The first interview should be the formal interview to discuss things such as duties and responsibilities, pay and benefits, and so on.

The second interview with the short listed candidates should be less formal and preferably with the child/ren around.

At this interview you are trying to establish how s/he might interact with your family and whether or not your child/ren appear to like him/her.

Once you’ve made your selection an offer of employment should be made on a trial basis only and subject to suitable references.

NEVER accept letters of reference at face value.

You should always telephone previous employers on either their home or work telephone number as these numbers can be checked.

A mobile number can never be acceptable, as you have no way of knowing who you are actually speaking to.

A good question to ask a past employer is: “Would you employ this nanny again?”

Even the most reluctant ex-employer can freely answer yes or no to this question.

When your nanny accepts your offer of employment you should each sign copy of the employment contract.

A sample contract is available from Voice .

The key to success is to keep talking.

Your nanny should start Day One extremely well briefed.

However, no two nanny jobs are the same and no two employers want the same from their nanny.

Therefore it is imperative that you agree regular reviews with your nanny so that you can each report on what’s working well and what not so well.

Be tolerant, your nanny needs to get used to you and you to her/him.

The majority of nanny placements that run into trouble are not as a result of poor childcare, more often than not it’s because of unrealistic expectations on the part of new and inexperienced employers, and/or a lack of clear instruction and meaningful dialogue.

Finally, make sure your nanny has public liability / professional indemnity insurance cover. (See the Voice at www.voicetheunion.org.uk or the Morton Michel Childcare Insurance websites.)

As a trade union for nannies the majority of nannies we come into contact with are those with problems, ranging from contractual issues relating to terms and conditions of employment, to more complicated ones such as the nanny whose employer went away for a month without leaving even a contact telephone number.

Often however, the problems relate to what we would call easy to resolve issues if only both parties would sit down and speak … or, better still, had sat down and talked at the very beginning of the arrangement.

Tricia Pritchard is Senior Professional Officer (Childcare) at Voice, which is based in Derby. She can be contacted by e-mailing triciapritchard@voicetheunion.org.uk.

Welcome to Childcare Matters Advice

2009-09-18T14:03:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Childcare Matters advice section.

Over the coming days and weeks we will be posting articles relevant to childcare professionals and parents, written by sector experts.

Childcare Matters- Advice

How to find and employ a good nanny

Welcome to Childcare Matters Advice