Help or advice about finding the right nanny?

[MetaIndeed]

We are in the process of finding a part time nanny for two days a week to look after our 16 month old.
Can anyone advise on what we should be asking or looking out for?

Finding good childcare has been a nightmare during the pandemic (London) and so we are now on the nanny search hoping we find someone who's great 🙏. We have used Tinies agency as recommended on here, and so far have had a handful of CV's we weren't impressed with and 2 that looked good. On the advice of the agency we are doing video calls and then if we like them we will invite them for a paid 4 hour trial. Not sure how this works or what we should look out for.

If anyone's used Tinies or has general nanny advice that would be helpful. I'm wary of making a mistake and getting stuck in a contract we can't get out of. We intend to use the payroll company to organise our payslips.

I would appreciate any advice, thank you!

Bumping!

Part time is harder to recruit for because most people need to work full time.

I don't have any experience with Tinies. Where abouts are you?

You need to think about what is important to you - do you want an experienced nanny who will hit the ground running or someone you can train and manage to do things your way?
Are you educationally/developmentally focussed? Are you an outdoorsy family? Do you have strong feelings on screen time or nutrition?
Do you need someone prepared to travel with you? Drive? First aid trained?

Be very clear about what is most important to you and centre this in the interview/recruitment. Check references meticulously and ask them specific questions about the things that are important to you. Think about sickness record and commute for the nanny as these will affect reliability. Remember that no human being can be and do everything and don't expect the nanny to do things to an unrealistically perfect standard.

My main advice would have been to use an agency (which you're already doing, if you're not feeling good about Tinies I can recommend Harmony at Home or Imperial Nannies). Our best nanny was from HaH and I felt like the consultant really listened to us and what we needed and every candidate they sent us I felt like we could have hired.

My other advice is to remember that you have a probation period for a reason - trust your gut, if you aren't feeling comfortable within the first week or two you need to move fast, nannying is such a personal service in your home with your kids that you need to feel 100% good about the person, and not blindly hope it gets better over time. The agency is paid to make sure you get someone you're happy with so treat the beginning as a probation period and don't be afraid to go back and tell them it isn't working if you need to.

And my final advice is - keep a professional relationship, have a good contract (your nanny tax service should help, we used PAYE for nannies), set expectations really clearly at the start and communicate regularly. Don't expect a nanny to "hit the ground running" without you explaining what you want, because everyone is really different, set your expectations clearly on things like food, activities, screen time, etc. And your nanny is not your friend - they are a trusted, valued, professional employee but not a friend. If you are too friendly it can get really awkward if you want them to change something they're doing so just remember you are the employer, set expectations clearly, treat them fairly and don't take the piss.

Fwiw my advice would be that you don't have to go through an agency, but I do in-depth interviewing professionally and felt confident DIYing. All of @Xiaoxiong's advice is excellent though. It is a professional relationship, which means you have some serious responsibilities as the employer and you need to be aware of and live up to them.