Things to think of before employing a nanny

[00Amber00]

Hi everyone,

I am about to employ a nanny and was wondering if those of you, who are already employing one, could tell me what I must definitely consider before signing her contract. There must have been something that came up once they were working for you and you hoped you knew that something before they started.

I hope this message makes sense, I've not had much sleep last night with my 1 year old!!

thanks, A

You as the employer would produce the contract and your nanny then gets to agree to it.
So where are you up to at this stage, have you got a basic contract ready? Do you need suggestions for what to include?

Minimum holiday entitlement is 5.6 weeks, which can include bank holidays that fall on a working day.
Think about how much advance notice you require to authorise holiday. Consider if holiday can only be taken during certain time periods - such as only during school holidays.

Sick Pay - use put as SSP. Then you can choose at your discression if you will pay occasional sick days.

Probationary period - consider how long you want that and perhaps include provision for it being extended if the review at the end of probabtion warrants an extension.

Notice periods - 1 week during probation is usual I feel. 4 weeks is then usual once out of probation.

Gross Misconduct - include examples of what you consider would be grounds for instant dismissal.

Most employers allow the nanny to select 2 weeks holiday (effectively she picks her dates and you have to go on holiday as well then to look after DC) and you select 2 weeks (she is made to take holiday at a time of your choosing). I'd suggest checking at interview whether nanny has any particular holiday needs over and above that.

For example, I interviewed a south African once who liked 3 weeks leave over Christmas. My nanny is German, and Christmas is celebrated on the 24th December there, so she needs to stop work on 22nd, to allow her a day to get home.

Check her background, medical history, check she has not had any psychiatric problems.

Also make sure you know how you'd feel if she became pregnant and make sure you put the detail in about her duties. Be as specific as you can.

Janetthomas:
What medical screens do you do out of interest?

We didn't do any medical screening but she should disclose to you or the agency if she has ever been treated for a problem.

We discovered our nanny was being treated for psychiatric problems but had not disclosed it - we had to suspend her immediately until we could check it out.

We had a nanny with pre-existing medical conditions. One undisclosed, the other she minimised the severity of. It caused a serious situation for us but thankfully she was on a fixed contract for various reasons.I haven't gone down the medical screening thing since then but do ask about pre-existing conditions. I think legally it is possible to do do a screen though. What I am still not sure of is to what extent you are required by law to 'accommodate' the person's illness though, but maybe it depends.

Adding to Harriets note above I would advise having a fairly long probabationary period and for a fixed term if you can. It gives you an easy option of severing the contract if you needed to. But it can always be renewed!

You need to be careful though. Put something in the contract about reserving the right to get medical checks done (at your expense) IF based on her health she doesn't seem up to the job. You can also ask to see copies of her consultant's notes, but I don't remember exactly what the legal advice was if she refuses to comply. Also, a GPs view of whether she is 'suitable' to do the work in principle could still be different from yours. We never got to the bottom of the legal issues here or as I was saying our responsibilities to her - because there is some rule that you have to assess whethr you can make an adaptations so it's possible for her to do the job.

A great, experienced nanny might not agree to leave a current job to ocme work on a fixed term contract, mind.

Also remember that if you needed to dismiss her for some reason and pay in lieu you're going to be regretting a longer than usual notice period as I assume you'd have to pay for all that time. I would just go for the four weeks really. It is possible to find a replacement in that time.

Thanks for your replies,

I've not thought of checking her medical history I have to say. I've remarkably thought of all the other points you have raised. There doesn't seem to be anything that I thought might surprise me at a later stage, which is comforting!

I'll be raising the medial history issue with her and thanks again for summing up the issues I need to cover in her contract.

I just say: Do you have any pre-existing medical conditions we would need to accommodate? If live in I would ask about dietary?

It might be slightly dodg but I think you want to phrase the question in such a way they are inclined to DISCLOSE rather than be tempted not to. Then if it's not poss to accommodate you just take it from there.

can you no request a doctors letter saying that the nanny is mental fit and they see no medical reason physically or mentally why the nanny wouldnt be able to work with children. this is what childminders have to do when registering and nursery nurses have to do this when applying/ before being offered the job offically

Personally I think fixed term contracts are potentially unfair on the 90% of nannies who are not unfit to employ - I cannot expect my nanny to do the best, most professional job she can for my family if I do not follow best practice in employing her.

They don't actually make things easier anyway in 99% of dismissal situations (juneybean you are unlucky that your situation is in the 1%, but you can't punish every nanny because of that).

Be a good employer, 1 week notice on either side in the first month (no need to call this a probationary period, it doesn't have any meaning in employment law) then 1 month notice.

One thing I have in my contract is a paragraph saying that the nanny must keep all matters regarding her employment and all matters regarding the family confidential, and that any breach of confidentiality may be considered Gross Misconduct.

janethomas, why did I call you juneybean?