How easy is it to find after school nannies?

[adifferentwoman]

We're really lucky and have a wonderful nanny for our DD, but when she starts school, I'm uncomfortable about paying for our nanny to not be looking after her till the afternoon. I know there's the childminder option, but wondered about anyone else's experiences of finding a nanny purely for the afternoons?

I think you'll be hard pushed I'm afraid. It's not enough money for someone as a living, working as a career nanny. Most mums who want a little extra want to do work during school hours etc, so they wouldn't be interested.

And what will you do during the holidays? If you want your nanny to be available to you all day then, it is likely you will have to pay her for a full day during term time too, otherwise she would probably get other work during the daytime and not be free all day in the holidays.

Sorry..

A different view: I've had several and it's been great. They have been easy enough to find through Gumtree (we live in London though). Last time I advertised I got 60+ responses, of which half were perfectly credible candidates. They are mostly not the "career nanny" types that we used to have - generally students. Sometimes they can work during holidays, otherwise we cope with family holidays and camps and gparents.

They do cost more than afterschool clubs though. Where I live there are clubs for £7 per day, whereas I've paid £8-£13 an hour. And many of them are in a transient phase of their lives so they leave after a year or so.

I have had several after-school nannies, found through Gumtree or childcare.co.uk. Sometimes it works for gap year students or people who are studying and have free time in the afternoon. It can also be attractive to nannies who have their own child and who either do not want to work fulltime or find it difficult to get work with a child, or nannies who work mornings only in another job. However, I think it works better for older children (mine are 13 and 10 now) because as other posters mentioned, students etc tend to move on and you are also left with the problem of managing school holidays, INSET days, time out for dentist appointments, music exams etc by yourself. Now that my children are older it is much easier to organise cover for those times or for the older one to take himself to the dentist etc. When they were younger, it was a constant struggle to cover those times as nannies who work part-time generally do so because they want/need to so are not available for full days.

You will find it hard to find a proper after school nanny wanting these hours. I am always getting asked this if you look on gumtree etc there are loads of these jobs on offer. You might get a student but would you weant a student looking after your DC ?

I've had two before and after school nannies.
Didn't have a huge number of applicants, but found 3 'possibles' for each job, which is 2 more than you need!

Both our after school nannies have been 'nanny + 1' - ie nanny with their own young baby/child. I've found that that's the perfect solution, as often nannies who are mums returning to work are looking for the part time hours.

I had a job doing this a few years back when I was fresh out of university and had got myself a good job (something entirely unrelated, am not a childcare professional) but it was only part time (but flexible). I worked in my 'proper' job Monday to Thursday, 9-2, then went to my after school job for 3pm (took the dog out before the children arrived home at 3.30). The kids were about 7, 9 and 13 at the time. It worked out really well. During holidays I sometimes was able to work a few days full time in my proper job and then a few days full time with the kids. I got the job from seeing an advert on the customer notice board in the local Tesco's, randomly...

You might get a student but would you weant a student looking after your DC ?

??Why not? There are 16 YO students and 50 YO students, learning all sorts of thing and with varying maturity, experience and attitude. I don't think you should generalise.

I did not think of age, I meant no police check etc. Its just the original posts DC is only young.