School leaver as nanny. Advice please

[chocolatehobnobs]

I am returning to work in the autumn and will need childcare from 7.15 am till 6pm (occasionally later) Monday to Friday to look after my 12 month old. Because of the long hours and need to be flexible we are planning to employ a nanny. The nanny would have 1 week in 8 off plus 3 weeks additional holidays. We are in North Bucks.

The 18 year old daughter of a family friend is leaving school in the summer. She told me she wants to look for a job as a nanny in the autumn. She has no formal experience of childcare although she does occasional babysitting and did a week's work experience in a nursery. She is a bright pleasant trustworthy girl who is mad about babies and plans a career as a midwife.

I have planned to take her on a first aid course for babies and toddlers at Easter and will invite her to spend some time at our house to get to know our family better and play with the baby (which she has said she will love). The job will simply involve playing with and looking after the baby, making food for him and a bit of laundry mainly baby clothes and we would encourage her to take him to local playgroups most days. He is generally quite an 'easy' baby. She lives close by with her parents so would live out (unless she wanted to stay over the odd night) and we would be happy for her to take the baby to her own house if she wanted and to have friends for coffee at our house. She would also join us on holidays such as a ski trip and would be treated as a member of the family.

Do you think this arrangement could be successful and what sort of pay would be reasonable? Any advice on things to mention when drawing up a job description and contract to avoid things going wrong? We would be prepared to increase her pay after 6 months when she would be 'experienced'.
Thanks

My gut reaction was are you mad? but you say she want to be a midwife, is she on some sort of childcare course?

I have a few reservations:

Firstly her lack of experience, but you say her family is nearby and you are going to take her on a first aid coures (great idea)

Secondly, if she is planning on being a midwife, do you know how long she intends to leave it before she goes back to college?

I would go with her if you absolutely cant find anyone else, but because of her not wanting nannying to be her career i would be wary as she may not stay long term. Good stop gap for her, and you though.

Good luck x

No she's not on a childcare course although she did talk about doing an nvq or similar part time. We would be prepared to consider giving her time off to do a course. She would be going to uni /college 12 months after starting work for us and she has talked about her career being probably midwifery or something else connected with young children and babies.

I suppose if she is sensible and mature it should not be to much of a problem.
If you are happy that she will only stay for a year, that too should be fine, many families would prefer a nanny to stay longer.
I was 19 and straight from child care college when I got my first sole care nanny job.

I had my first nannying job, sole charge for an 8 month old baby, when I was 18. It worked well as the parents worked in a different building on the same site, so they were easily accessible if i needed them, and also I lived locally so lived out. Looking back on it, it was quite a responsibility, and if an emergency had occurred I'm not sure that I would have known what to do. My danger radar has definitely improved since having my own children, so you may need to really spell out to her things which you consider to be quite obvious. Good luck. It worked well for me!

She's got to get experience some way. If she's mature and reasonably responsible then it could work out for you all quite well. She could study for the CYPW from home if she did end up doing a course as well.

I am wondering how being your nanny for 1 year benefits her. I would have thought that she would be better off going to college if she wants to be a midwife. Looking at this from NHS it seems to be that she would need 5 GCSE's at Grade C or above, plus 3 A Levels. Entry requirements for specific courses may be different, example.

If she does not have the required grades at the time of leaving school, then I would have thought she would be better going to college to do whatever she needs to improve/add so that she can then go on to midwifery training at university. It's something she needs to think about... if she want's to be a midwife then she needs to have the academic background.

Thanks for the links. She is a bright girl and would meet those requirements . She is currently doing 3 science a levels. Her reason for working for part of her gap year (16 months in total) is not to facilitate her career /get her onto a degree course but to earn some money to help put her through a few years study and also to allow her to travel this summer. She said she would prefer to work as a nanny than waitressing or working in a shop like her mates.
Thanks. Any idea about pay?

I did exactly that chocolatehobnobs - took the nannying job to fund travelling in my gap year. What I didn't tell my employer at the time was that I only wanted the job from Sept to April - not until the July as she was expecting... Might be worth checking what the travelling plans are.

As a gap year thing it sounds fine. Is it Live-in, or live-out?

Yes good point, it would be annoying if we took her on as unexperienced and she then dropped up in it to go off travelling or took up more highly paid work as an experienced nanny.

In London you would be looking at an absolute minimum salary of £7.50 NET p/h for a full time live-out of her age with very limited experience. It may well vary in your area... I suggest you call some local agencies for advice!

If you would like a contract template to use, email me and I'll send you the one we issue to clients who employ a nanny through us: [email protected]

12 month old easy babies turn into quite challenging toddlers. Think what your requirements will be over the year and whether she will cope.

In principle I would have no problem with a school leaner with that profile but the bit that rings alarm bells for me is that she's the daughter of friends. How would you deal with it if she needed disciplining or you had to let her go?

The other thing to consider is whether she will need time off for interviews/other work experience. Midwifery is mostly about pregnancy so nannying a toddler won't help her as such, she will probably want to be shadowing community midwives, trying to get nb experience etc to support her application. Does that work for you?

My first thought was 'god, no!' then remembered that I started my first sole charge nanny job at 17 years 3 months to a 10 month old baby.

I had been babysitting since I was 13 and picked up a 2 and 3 year old from nursery, took them home, gave them (prepared by mum) tea, bathed and put them to bed, 3 days a week 4-7pm when I was only just 14 years old.

I had no formal qualifications, I had been on the NNEB course for 6 weeks and wasn't enjoying it at all, a lady who came into my parents shop regularly, mentioned to my mum that she was looking for a nanny, mum spoke to me about it, I went to see the lady, fell in love with the baby on sight and took the job! Baby is now 26 years old, happy and healthy, e-mails me once a week (lives in Sydney!) and always tells me he loves, as I do him!

Having said that, I am a much different nanny now!!!

I can't see why it wouldn't work, particularly as you are planning on spending a significant amount of time with her over the summer, so any issues would probably come to light and you would have a pretty good view of how you would feel about leaving your ds with her.

To me age has nothing to do with it, I know some very lovely teenagers, and some really dippy 40 year olds that I wouldn't leave my cat with!

What do her parents think about it?

Her mum thinks it is a good idea. Her parents were happy to let her take sole care of a 14 month old for a week when the mother was in hospital and apparently she did a good job. She is a really sensible teen (to the point that the parents joke) eg didn't go on a birthday night out for her friend because the other teens were planning to get drunk on a school night.
The mum is a friend of my sisters. I have met her around 6 times but can see that they are a lovely family. I'm not a personal friend though so would not have to worry about losing a friend if things went badly and we had to let her go.
She would live out. Any other thoughts about a fair wage?

I wouldn't be paying £7.50 net. Gross maybe if she was fab. Probably more like £7gross to start.

The other thing to consider is whether she'd be able to register with OFSTED if you want her to use vouchers and whether a nanny is affordable without it. Apparently young unqualified nannies have had trouble getting nanny insurance (which is something to consider anyway) plus she would need at least a basic childcare course.

Fraktal is right RE insurance. I struggled as I had less than 2 years experience and no qualification. Nannyinsure did cover me though.

RE wage:
If it helps to compare, I'm 22, living in SE, no formal qualifications (but working on a level 3), about 19months experience nannying now though 15months experience before my current families with older children. 5/6 years experience in either full-time, part-time or volunteer positions relating to children. My charge in one job is 15mo and I'm on £9.50 gross for that job.

I'd say £7.50 net is way too high for an 18yo just out of college. I was going to say 50p-£1 over the average wage in your area that people get (in any job) at 18yo.

Chocolate - I started nannying when I was 16 with no childcare qualifications, (though I did have a bit of experience) looking after a 3yr old and a 10month old. I was lucky enough that my boss was willing to give me a chance. I'd say go with your gut, if you trust her then go for it. You may be the chance she needs! Re a wage-£7.50 sounds too much, I second what confusedpixie says.