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Discuss everything related to paid childcare here, including childminders, nannies, nurseries and au pairs.

Where to advertise for a nanny?

18 replies

Dadstu · 28/11/2011 22:43

Hi All. Some advice from your breadth of experience please ...

We have decided to move from our currently nursery arrangement to a nanny, really because we need more flexibility, plus think it will better for the kids than being dragged up at 7.30am and doing a 10 hour day at nursery. We have two boys aged 20 months and 7 months.

My question ... where can we advertise for a nanny? I have tried very friendly ads on nannyjob, childcare.co.uk and gumtree but have had no responses ... I'm pretty sure it is not my ad writing skills (although could be!) and I have made no mention of salary as yet.

Where have people had most success? I am trying to avoid using an agency because of the costs as I'm quite happy doing the recruitment side of things.

Thanks for your help with this.

Best wishes,

Stu.

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
nannynick · 29/11/2011 05:53

Why no mention of salary? I feel that's a mistake, as a nanny needs to have at least a good idea of what salary is on offer to consider applying for a job - we all have bills to pay.

Is it a location problem - are nannies common in your area?

Could you link to the nannyjob ad, so we can see what you are writing in the ad? Or copy & paste with a little editing to remove any personal information you are not happy having on here?

You mention wanting flexibility - are you perhaps wanting too much flexibility? Nannies may want to work fixed hours - I know I like to know what my hours are in advance.

mrswishywashy · 29/11/2011 06:19

Very unusual to get no responses from the sites you mentioned.

I would definitely put the salary range or even just the starting salary (in both net and gross) in the ad.

I've been looking for a nanny position for quite a few months now and send emails to positions with the salary expectation, the work area and if I feel the job description fits.

It would be interesting to see the ad so we could give feedback.

south345 · 29/11/2011 06:53

Have you viewed any nannies profiles on childcare.co.uk, if you do thet'll get an email and may reply like that or you could pay and message some.

Dadstu · 29/11/2011 09:39

Thanks. Ad here -

www.childcare.co.uk/profile/drstucoo/

OP posts:
nannynick · 29/11/2011 09:49

Profile is in moderation queue - you've changed something. Should be active later today, so will take a look later.

www.childcare.co.uk/profile/drstucoo

Dadstu · 29/11/2011 09:52

Yes put on a salary as suggested above. Thx for taking a look later ..

OP posts:
nannynick · 29/11/2011 18:40

First impressions:

You have a lot of animals - does that mean nanny would be doing animal care?

Home refurb - could mean it's a building site.

8-6 nice hours

Flexible start/finish times - hmm, not so good. If someone mentions that in an advert and says "at times" then I would think that might actually happen quite often.

Babysitting - ok but does that need to be mentioned at all?

EYFS stuff - being put off the job. Parents may be high maintance and want more a pre-school.

Ironing - I don't do that but that's probably just me.

Quals/Experience - ok for me (though I can't locate my food hygine cert from a course done many years ago - so how valid is that?) but many nannies may not have that level.

Salary - good to see it mentioned. I wonder if it's a bit low, nannies with the experience and qualifications you desire will be wanting top end of that range.

That's my first thoughts on it. Will take a closer look later tonight.

What local advertising are you doing. Looking at location, I am wondering where potential nannies might live - would they drive out of the city? Would they live in the cheaper part of GG. Does GG post office village store permit local job advertising, many do. If so, do you have an ad on their board/in window?

NotTheBlinkingGruffaloAgain · 29/11/2011 20:18

thegumtree.com is very good for this

Karoleann · 29/11/2011 21:42

Hi, I'd try reposting but remove the food hygiene cert - it sounds a bit anal, I'd also quote weekly salary £350-400 rather than hourly as it sounds a bt low.
Good luck x

nannynick · 29/11/2011 22:28

Pay Rates for Nannies in the Midlands message thread was started today and in that the OP is paying a nanny £10 gross per hour, which is above what you are proposing Dadstu. Given the experience level you desire I feel you are going to need to offer a bit more money - sure you might find someone local who doesn't require that high a salary but at the moment you have no applicants at all, so something is wrong with the ad. Leave salary as it is for now, see if that improves response rate, though do recalculate what is affordable... would say increasing to £10 gross be out of the question?

Agree with Karoleanne - Wanting someone who already has a food hygiene certificate is limiting your applicants. You could always teach someone basic food hygiene yourself (or provide access to online courses (links to example from a online course), or pay for them to do an evening class) if you feel it really is something you need someone to have, as a course costs £12-£20 online. A bit of paper does not mean someone knows what they are doing - it may mean they can attend a class, they can complete a test. How they put that knowledge into practice I feel is the important thing, not that they have a certificate saying they did a course. Saying that, I'm now interested in doing a course as it has been a while since I did one, so I may well do one online - is the one for Catering the most suitable, given that nannies are preparing food rather than selling it, or mass manufacturing.

You could ask people at interview stage about what they know about food preparation and food storage, so get a feel for what knowledge they have around food hygiene already, rather than relying on them having done a formal course.

I feel you need to keep in mind that at this stage you need at least one person to express an interest in the job. So reducing your requirements may be necessary to get someone to reply to your ads. Once you have started a dialogue with someone, you could then see how willing they might be to do some additional training.

nannynick · 29/11/2011 22:52

Timing - when would you leave home, when would you typically get back? 8-6 is fine if you will be leaving after 8am and getting back before 6pm. I would say have a 15 minute window each side so that there is a little wiggle space. 1/2 an hour either side may be better if you and your partner might prefer to get ready in the morning without also getting the children fed at the same time. Children being children will want breakfast when they want it, so delaying it until nanny arrives may not be possible but if nanny can take over on their arrival you then have time to get ready yourself before leaving for work.

My day can start at 7am but my boss may not leave until 7.15, 7.30 or even later. Other days one of my bosses may have left before I arrive and the other leaves very shortly after I arrive. Having some overlap between nanny arriving and parents leaving plus also the same at the end of the day can make for an easier transition for the children, easier for the parents as they don't feel so rushed, and generally all a bit calmer in the household.

Consider what the core hours would be, then add 1/2 an hour either side. If that what 8-6 is, or is 8-6 the core hours? Consider if 7.30-6.30 would work better... is that 5 hours a week worth paying for a more relaxed household at each end of the day? Is it worth having that safety margin in case traffic is heavy either for your nanny arriving, or you getting home? Is it useful to be able to leave home early on occasion, such as if you have an early morning meeting?

nannynick · 29/11/2011 23:14

"planning a weekly activity programme in line with the EYFS"

What do you mean by that? Think about this, are you really wanting someone to do formal education with your children given their current age? Would it not be better that someone did child led activities, encouraged your children to develop their current interest/play schema. Do you really want it planned out in advance - your children may not want to follow the plan.

Whilst EYFS does mention quite often about Child Led activities, if your nanny is planning a weekly programme, how much of that would in reality be child led? I would suspect a lot would be adult led... is that what you want? Or do you want something else? Are you wanting perhaps just someone who will consider what things they are doing each day and how those things can be educational?

I didn't have much of an idea what I was going to do today at work, I never do... I go with the flow. Some parents may not like that idea whilst others are more open to letting young children have an interest in what they want at that time. Today we went swimming, invited 3yr old's friend - as the 3yr old I care for talked about swimming and when I dropped older sibling at school I bumped into 3yr olds friends mum who said her son had mentioned swimming, so it was logical to suggest we both went to the same place. When we got home, 3yr old wanted to make cakes - so whilst baby slept, we made cakes - he loves to crack the eggs and count things.

We didn't do formal learning... we did learning by doing. Sinking/floating, getting dressed/undressed, interaction with other children and adults, following rules (the swimming pool life guards like to blow their whistle when a child tried to go up the slide), talking about what ingredients are used to make a cake, how we weigh things, what happens to eggs when they are mixed, learning to pour eggs slowly into mixing bowl, how to make cake mixture a bit more runny so we can get it into cases, counting out the cases, separating cases, how white icing becomes yellow, what happens to icing when it is left in the air for a while. Children learn all the time, does it need to be formalised?
In the past we have done numerous things on the spare of the moment, from visiting castles to finding somewhere the children could sit in a helicopter (I couldn't find one they could really fly, that's a bit tricky, but the next best thing for them was to sit in a real helicopter and pretend to fly it). If I was to have planned it, it probably would not have happened as I may not have thought of it. Instead I listened to the child and they said using one word what they wanted to do - helicopter. Castle. Train. Whatever it was that took their fancy that particular day.

Your children will soon start school where they will do more structured learning. You may enrol them in pre-school in the year or so before starting school. So the early years may be the only time they get to choose what to do themselves... if you have a child who loves castles, shouldn't your nanny try to take them to visit one?

Consider how important this planning of activities is to you, is it vital or are you just after a nanny who will do various activities with your children during the week?

pinkdelight · 30/11/2011 09:13

Lots of great advice here. I'd just add - rather than wait for responses, why not search for nannies in your area on childcare.co.uk and approach them? That's how I got mine. Much more proactive, all moved very quickly.

pinkdelight · 30/11/2011 09:17

And that does seem quite a low gross amount. Especially when you want them to see it as more than just a job. Isn't that more like what you'd pay someone just starting out?

ContentedChildcare · 30/11/2011 11:52

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Message deleted by Mumsnet.

Dadstu · 30/11/2011 13:01

Thanks for all your helpful advice. Funnily enough just after posing the question we had a flood of enquiries. My thanks again.

OP posts:
nannynick · 30/11/2011 13:17

Have you worked out why you got enquiries - was it adding a salary figue to the ad that made the difference? Anyone applied who looks a likely potential candidate?

mollymole · 30/11/2011 13:22

If you are advertising again why not try 'TheLady' - quite good for nanny/housekeeper positions

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