Nanny Reference Checking Services - Would you use one, what do they do?

[nannynick]

I have come across two nanny reference checking services (I won't mention their names, you can guess one of them I expect).

I was wondering... would anyone use one of these services?

What do they actually do? One of them seems to send out a written questionnaire - then sometimes follow it up with a phone call. Least that's the way it looks from their Example Report.

Has anyone used one of these services?

Has anyone had their references checked by such a service to their knowledge?

Never been checked by one as far as I know...

I suppose they have the advantage of actually knowing what questions you need to ask, but there seems very little flexibility in it.

I think I'd still want to speak to referees myself.

No, i would never rely on someone else to do the reference checking for me.
And i would need verbal references as well as written. Written quesrions/answers are ok for a start but after that i need to speak with the referees. This way you can 'read between the lines', you can sense the 'uhm..', the pauses, you can have more spontaneous and maybe more honest answers. When you check yourself you can use the parents' instict aswell.
I also insist on landline number.

O.k. maybe i am paranoid

Honestly?

Daft idea.

How does a reference checking service get a good feel of how anohter parent feels about the nanny? How does it know exactly what your bugbears are, and what you're not so bothered about? Can it read between the lines of a phone conversation?

tbh I think a parent giving a reference might be more inclined to be less, well, honest to a reference checking company. There is an air of officialdom about it that says 'Say anything negative and you're gonna be sued!' - though that could be my paranoia. Personally, I would be disinclined to give a reference to one, I'd prefer to speak to an agency or a parent.

I run a maternity and nanny agency. You can reference check yourself - you need to have a clear set of question to run through such as was she well presented, on time, how many days of sick, all the relevant childcare questions, also ask if there were any weaknesses and why she no longer employs the nanny (sometimes it is a very different story).

Sounds like the idea is getting a Thumbs Down then... I felt the same. Time will tell I guess, maybe some parents would use such a service.

Nick
What are they actually offering? Is this akin to a full service pre-employment screen that would be done by someone who's say, goiong to work for a bank? Or is it literally just interviewing the references?

If it's just literally interviewing the named references I can't see why people would pay for this. Tjhjey're might be some value add - these interviews are only as good as the person who is doing the interview. Myabe there is some benefit to having an experienced third party doing it? But this is a very weak maybe.

Are they also checking educational qualifications and other certs etc. Things like bankruptcies, CCJs, bankrupcies, verifying the criminal records cert is bona fide etc? Probably this is useful, but it would depend on the cost. Given the proliferation of nannies from outside the UK anyone who could evaluate their credentials and take up references in a foreign language WOULD potentially be very useful. These sorts of things in the 'real world' tend to cost around £200-500 for a UK national I suspect it could well be significantly more for someone from abroad. So, not a small cost for a family - anyone inclined to pay this is likely to go through an agency to recruit anyway (for better or worse).

However, not just anyone can provide this reference checking' sort of service if it includes some of the other info I discussed for various reasons. There is regulation involved. That's why I would be interested in hearing what the provider is actually saying they can do.

There may be some families who might prefer the degree of anonymity in giving references one of these services could provide.I suspect many people MIGHT be inclined to say something to a third party that they wouldn't say if they thought their comments were attributable. But this isn't entirely straightforward either - in the US it is not even allowed as part of a 'pre-employment screen.' The person has the right to see all the feedback provided on them and we know in the UK you are not allowed to say anything in a reference, if it's a performance issue, which hadn't been discussed during the employment.

So, they're either providing a basic service anyone could do themselves or they're trying to do something more sophistocated which they're right - not just anyone could do, but I really wonder how well THEY'D be doing it given some of the issues involved.

"The referees are sent a unique login code to complete the reference." (Source)

Hmm, that indicates to me that it's a sort of questionnaire.

Example Report (PDF) - hmm, not very detailed in my view... what do you think?

Foreign Language checking could well be very useful - not sure if either of the services I found offer that. Given how much they charge (lowest is £50+vat - for checking 3 applicants) I would guess it isn't something on offer.

Civil And Corporate: Vetting seem to do a lot more checks. It costs a lot more money though.

Think the nanny checking services are very basic and is certainly nothing a parent could not do themselves.

The vetting service by Civil and Corporate isn't designed for checking nannies... so that will be more comprehensive, with a price tag that reflects the level of checking.

To keep it fair... here's the link to the other nanny reference checking service I found.

Not a lot of detail on that one, so hard to know how they go about doing the actual checks.

So....I could check my own refs with that, couldn't I?

Seems ridiculously insecure to me. No-one knows who's actually requesting the check!

And would it be redone each time or once a nanny is on the database, will the report stay attached to that nanny? Assuming more than one person used such a service.

Frakk
There is often some sort 'footprint' on these things, particularly if the person has done a credit check on you.

A £50 check (let alone if it's on 3 people) is probably a waste of time. The value in doing anything like this is in the analysis of the information provided, which this won't give you.

I wonder if there is any reason why a parent couldn't draw up some sort of 'letter of consent' which the applicant could sign, which would enable them to access the databases of interest to them (such as CCJs etc) and check educational qualifications themselves? It is a phaff though and not something I suspect most people would have the time to do multiple times. However, since most nannies have previously worked for other families, there is no real need for 'signed consent forms' to check employment, which big companies require. I guess maybe you need some sort of release to check previous employment at a nursery but it seems possible they'd be more informal about it.

It sounds to me like these people thought they hit upon a clever business idea by trying to professionalise a process WHICH if you were to do properly would be outside the budget of most families.

Oh and the link to the sample report:

It's crap and not worth the paper it's written on.

I've just discovered that greataupair check carers in the US and Canada which looks the same, but slightly better. They actually offer a very comprehensive (seeming) range of checks, but I think the US is more geared towards large databases for checking...

I wouldn't because I would still want to check them myself. So it would be a waste of money.