If qualifications are important to you, then specify that you want a qualified childcarer in your advert. However you may find it hard to work out if they are really qualified or not, as there are so many different childcare qualifications.
Are you in England? Do you need to be able to part-pay using Childcare Vouchers? If so, then you could specify someone who is Already Ofsted Registered.
I prefer to see a specific wage shown. However you could give a range if you liked. Consider how much you can afford to pay, then offer below that. Look at local job ads to get a feel for local salaries being offered.
Advertise the pay as Gross (either per year, or per hour). Also consider putting a Net Per Hour equivalent (based on 747L taxcode) for those nannies who don't understand Gross. When agreeing the contract, state the Gross pay.
State the hours you need if they remain the same each day. Consider what start time you want someone to arrive, leaving a bit of an overlap so you can say have a shower and get dressed while nanny takes care of the children.
Bit of overlap at the end of the day as well, especially if you use public transport and may not get back at the same time each day.
- fully qualified (what type is best?)
There are so many different qualifications around these days.
You could try using Qualifications Finder to lookup various qualifications.
A level 3 qualification is Nursery Room Leader type, where as level 2 is an assistant. But in nannying terms an someone with Level 2 could be great. So it depends on the person more than the qualification and will also depend on if you need to access any Government funding or Childcare Vouchers as such schemes will have minimum training requirements.
- owner driver for pre-school lunchtime pick-up
If being a driver is not optional and if you need them to use their own car, then certainly do include that in the advert. Then check driving licence when interviewing, plus ask to see the car. Consider who will be supply car seats - you or them?
Always useful. When someone applies consider how far they are travelling, the likely drive route... does it seem reasonable to you as you know the local traffic on roads in your area - whereas if they are not very local they might not know that at say 7.30am x road is at gridlock.
- daily requirements eg. look after toddler in the morning & ds3 in the afternoon
Which child will be looked after then will change from time to time, so don't be too specific about that. The nanny is there to care for all your children, not just a particular child.
List the expected duties though as much as you can, so things don't come as a shock to an applicant later. So if you want them to strip the children's beds once a week/twice a month, then say so. Especially say if you want someone to do Ironing (as a nanny I don't iron unless a very special occasion, as I'm not good at that).
Also include things that you would like the children to do... would you expect the nanny to take them swimming? Would you want the nanny taking them for walks in the countryside? Perhaps give a few examples to help show how active you want the nanny to be, also ask nanny at interview about things they would do with your children... when having care of particular children, and also when having them all together.
How many children you have... ds3 indicates to me that you have 3 boys. Is that the case?
When interviewing, be very selective and don't see many people. Have the children present if possible so you can see how quickly nanny responds to them, rather than you. Invite nanny in, ask them if they want coffee/tea/cold drink... disappear for abit... reappear again with drink and nanny should be on the floor interacting with your children. Just my view 