Fox, PMSL about bench at the primary school! 
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Interviewed a very young nanny by Skype last night, but although she was lovely, I think she would struggle with this particular job, as she is rather shy and not from this area (she was applying to be live in).
Interviewing the sporty young man this evening, and I have to say he is looking better and better compared to the CVs of the others.
Matesnotdates, interesting theory that some areas have a dearth of nannies as they are all going back to nurseries - nurseries are also closing here and there, so I imagine there will be a childcare unemployment problem looming just at the time people need more childcare. It doesn't need to be like that - if nannies were a lot more modest in salary demands (and I am thinking of salaries in the region of £16-18k) then I think many of them could have really steady, reliable, comfortable, long term jobs with the same family if they wanted them. Instead they seem to get spurts of higher paid income and then down time when they can't earn much at all, yet they are uncomfortable with the insecurity that this sort of existence brings. And overall I imagine it averages out at £16-£18k anyway due to periods of not earning much. Am I right? (Please nannies, don't all howl that this wage is appallingly low etc, I am thinking just in very practical terms of the market here, and the fact that your wage almost always has to come out of another women's take home pay, which presents a natural upper limit in a lot of cases).
Duchesse, we actually do have a kind of family retainer, oddly enough, and I am sure she would have jumped at the chance to look after the kids, as she looked after us all when we were little, and she was brilliant at it. She still tries to look after us all now! However she is 90 this year and in another country. 
I think in my heart of hearts I am looking for another one like her, even though that was of its time, and I know such people don't exist any more.
Sunshinenanny, the various agencies have been great - I think they are as hacked off with these nannies as the parents are. It's just so unrealistic to go around demanding all this, in fact doing any demanding at all, especially given that it's a difficult economic climate. And there tends to be a negative emotional spin put on it, almost emotional blackmail, for example "If you cared about your children you would pay for the best care" etc. However as people on here have said, paying top dollar doesn't guarantee anything at all in terms of quality. I would say my top two child carers have been one AP+ I paid £90 a week to a few years back, and one nanny who was on £300 a week. The worst one I had was from The Place We Do Not Name, and quite pricey.
Anyway, onwards and upwards. I have been eating a lot of biscuits during this period of childcare stress, and I am further away than ever from being able to sit on a riding school pony without flattening it a la Birtwell cartoon, but hopefully this chap will be great and come across in a week's time and fearlessly take on my three 'luffly kids'.