Taking on a nanny with no nanny experience?

[hattyyellow]

Have recently started discussions with a local nanny agency regarding a part-time nanny. We live fairly rurally so there are a limited amount of candidates who could get to us reasonably easily and who are looking for a part-time live-out post.

They have sent us the CV of a candidate who has experience in working in a school, assisting special needs children. She has no direct nannying experience. I am concerned about the lack of specific experience, but she does obviously have experience of working with children (our children do not have special needs). The agency said it's worth interviewing her, that she is dependable, keen, mature etc - all soft skills but no direct experience.

This is all massively new to me! Any thoughts greatly appreciated - should I hold out for someone with lots of experience? Or do they have a point?

I work from home, so I am on site a lot of the time if there were a problem. But sometimes I will be away and our neighbours are often out so they will have no one to run to if there is an emergency..

I think that the age of your children would have to be considered if under 2yrs then perhaps not as she has experience with school age children but if over 2yrs and you are around a fair bit of the time then def would interview.

You can def have more say in how she works as she would not have had experience of sole charge nanny work in the past and as its her first nanny job you would be paying much less you should only need to be paying min wage so around £6.10 an hr gross (think thats what its due to rise to) - unless in london then maybe a bit more.

why not right down all the things that would concern you and then aim your questions around these concerns to see how she would deal with it. For example - Child falls down the stairs and you are out and no-one else around to assist what would she do? She takes child out to play in garden and accidentally locks herself out and no-one is home what would she do?

What sort of activites would she plan for child? Meals for child?

I guess if she is really keen she should be really prepared and would give her a good "grilling" in the nicest possible way to alleviate any of your concerns.

Does she drive? How will she feel working in a rural area?

I have done some jobs in rural areas and loved it although one was a house surrounded by loads fields and when I used to proxy parent for a few days I never used to sleep too well despite having 2 large dogs as well as it was just very very rural!!

Good luck with your search

Thanks so much for all your thoughts - these are all really useful ideas and i will think them through. Our kids are twins who are at school most of the day and a 2 year old, so it's mainly the two year old most of the time..

Does the nanny have children of her own? If she does then I would count that as experience too. I think she's worth interviewing.

No she doesn't have children of her own...i guess we will gauge a lot from actually meeting her and sensing whether she seems to be a good match for our family..

everyone has to start somewhere I guess, and I wouldn't necessarily count someone out just because they don't have experience because they might be a fantastic nanny!

i'd like to think that the agency wouldn't have taken her on if they didn't think she was the right kind of person for the job either

you have nothing to lose by interviewing her!

That's a good point - she may well be great, I think I'm generally feeling a bit anxious because the whole thing is so new of selecting a nanny! Our childminder had been used by several friends who all personally recommended her and the nurseries we've used in the past have been the same. Between them the childminder and nurseries have had tons of experience/kids of their own etc. So considering someone new is a bit scary!

I know we can say no after the interview, I think I'm just getting ahead of myself as there are so few candidates!

Few candiates isnt always a bad thing

Having school age twins and a 2yr old is probably a good age group for her as she will be used to working with groups of children so will manage all 3 together and will be able to spend time 1:1 with son as sure she has experience of 1:1 work with the school children she works with.

Def interview her plus some others then compare them.

Have you looked at recruiting privately yourself through www.nannyjob.co.uk or www.childcare.co.uk