Anyone want to join us on our journey to find a new nanny?

[wolfhound]

All comments, suggestions etc. very welcome. It is a daunting task.
We need a new part-time nanny (our lovely previous nanny has moved on for a full-time job). Really want someone who will stay for several years. So, I advertised for a new nanny on Gumtree yesterday and got 16 replies by this morning.

Of these, I'd say 7 have potential (not bad). Reasons for ruling out the others include:-

• One-line reply saying

- either 'Where do you live?' - the (small) town is named in the advert. - or 'Please contact me asap as I am desperate for work' - wtf? - or 'Yes, I'd like this job, please.' (!)

• Absolutely atrocious spelling and grammar in e-mail and CV. Just makes me feel they are not professional.
• Inappropriate e-mail address (frankly, who wants sexpunk101 looking after their children?)
• Background that makes me doubtful they can commit to the job long-term (foreign students / single mother of 7 / someone with 3 other part-time jobs already...)

Next step, looking at the 7 possibles in more detail. Some haven't sent their CVs so I'm asking for those to be sent through.

After the CV stage, would you interview, or would you check qualifications/references first?

Re CRB Check - I still haven't got to the bottom of this one as apparently an individual isn't allowed to request a CRB, only approved agencies eg a nanny agency using Disclosure Scotland, BUT CRB regulations state that the check itself is non-transferable between posts.

I think as individual employers of individual nannies we are put in a very difficult position. OFSTED are now withdrawing - so I hear from a reliable source - from voluntary registration and therefore removing one more useful check for employers.

I second what Wolfhound and KaroleAnn suggest, I have used the detailed sheet tactic, which includes 12 relevant nanny questions, and a request to see written references from last 2 posts. This stops the time-wasters and gives you a much better picture of the nanny.

Also, next time I will not use my personal email address as I now have very inappropriate spam coming in from the Philippines and Spain ? hmmm I really don't want to meet a beautiful lady or see naked pictures - so annoying!!

One way you can get a CRB check done is by asking for them to become OFSTED registered if they aren't already - they would probably expect you to pay if you were asking for this (just over £100 a year). OFSTED will organise a CRB check - however, it can take quite a while for the whole thing to go through! Alternatively Tinies seem to offer an employment screening service (including a CRB check) for parents sourcing nannies directly rather than through agencies - check out their website.

We recruited our first nanny via Gumtree and our second from Nannyjob. On the second occasion we also advertised on Gumtree and interviewed some of the nannies that replied to that advertisement. I would say Gumtree, Nannyjob and some other websites mentioned can all be a source of good nannies but there will be a lot of rubbish applicants as you have already realised! I organised a first interview on the telephone with any that were potentials to help reduce the shortlist further before inviting them to a face-to-face interview (including my son).

I asked them to bring references (either contact details or written references - preferably both), qualification certificates, CRB check documents to the interview with them. In practice many nannies do have CRB check documents - I think if they register with some agencies they may organise this for them. I took up references before making a job offer but after interview so that I only contact those I was serious about. I think its is not fair to the nannies or their referees to ring up for a reference unless they have already been shortlisted as referees may get fed up if asked to give too many references.

PS - I didn't contact their current employer until after I'd made a job offer of course!
Also, I agree with Belladimamma about not using your personal email address. I created a new email address specifically for the adverts which I then dumped after recruiting. That way I wouldn't be getting loads of junk mail after the recruitment process was finished.