Advice needed from those who have found nannies WITHOUT using an agency

[Earlybird]

My part time nanny has resigned as her other family have asked her to work for them full time. So, I am starting to think about how to find someone to replace her.

In the past when dd was smaller (and hours on offer were greater), I always used an agency/paid a fee in exchange for vetting/reference checking. Part of me really wants to delegate this to an agency again for ease and peace of mind, but part of me says that for a few afternoons a week (from September dd will be in school until 3.30) plus random evening babysitting, it hardly justifies an agency search, so I should try to locate a replacement myself.

Can anyone who has successfully found a nanny themselves (ie without an agency) tell me how have you done it? Where have ads been placed? What sort of ads have you found most effective/got the best responses from most suitable candidates? How have you asked people to respond - presumably cv, but sent to where? How have you weeded through the responses? What qualifications/references have you asked for, and how have you checked? Trial periods? Anything to be wary of or pitfalls to avoid? Other random thoughts?

Sorry to be so wet about this, but for whatever reason, I feel quite nervous and apprehensive about attempting it on my own! Would truly appeciate guidance from anyone who has successfully navigated an "unsupported" nanny search, and who has been pleased with your results. Thanks for your help.

Nothing beats personal recommendation. I've never had to recruit a nanny 'cold', and wouldn't really want to unless I had no alternative.

Our first nanny I poached from the nursery where she had previously looked after dd1 and had then gone part-time after having her own child.

Nanny no. 2 (for dd2) was the sister of a friend's long-serving and fabulous nanny.

Network like crazy, ask around if anyone has a nanny looking to change her hours or change jobs. Ask nannies you like if they have any friends looking for work. Failing that, I do like Simply Childcare , which is a low-tech but effective way of recruiting, especially good for slightly non-standard, non-fulltime arrangements.

Simply Childcare, we put in an ad.
Interviewed 3 applicants, just knew the third was The One. Rang her references, didn't bother with police check or anything.
Four years later we are still together...
I hear gumtree is good.

we found ours through the pre-school my ds was about to go to. the leader recommended her, and she now works there on her day off too!

You could try advertising as a Nanny share, cuz of little hours. And the nanny may already work for someone so you can ask that family. I think site is nannysharers or sharingcare?
You could advertise, if you want to, on www.nannyjob.co.uk, www.nannyselect.co.uk, www.gumtree.co.uk, www.nannyadverts.co.uk, netmums.com

Basically if you check all references, check for Paediatric First Aid Training, ask lots of questions, then thats about as much as you can do. Or you could get a Nannycam, but tell nanny this first to see how she reacts!! Im a nanny and wouldn't mind if my employers had one, and if I were a parent and could afford it, I would, how bad does that sound coming from a Nanny!
I just know how precious my children would be to me if I had any!

Which agency did you use Jura?

I've found ad hoc nannies through friends, which worked very well. Personal recommendations are better than any agency checks, imo.

I used Simply Childcare, too - put in an ad, but found our nanny by answering hers.
they do an advisory pack about employing a nanny, too.

I've jsut got my part time nanny from ds's nursery, which has closed down. You could try for people from teh local pre-schools/nurseries to see if any want extra hours?

IME schools and pre-schools tend to have a notice board with nanny ads on. Often they have worked for another parent at the school so its nice to be able to speak to the parent to find out about the nanny.

I've recruited nannies through word of mouth, simply childcare and gumtree. I;ve also been sent nannies to interview from agencies. tbh I don;t really think there's much difference. In either case you need to decide your criteria (age, experience, qualifications, hours, wages); you need to interview them; you need to decide whether you like them/whether they fit the bill; and you need to follow up references. Using an agency imo doesn;t get you out of any of these necessary hoops. As far as I'm concerned an agency is just another way of "locating" a nanny, the rest is still down to you (which is why I don;t like using them as I think they aren't worth the money). The only possible difference is that agency nannies may have a better-presented cv and will have a crb as standard. My main piece of advice (which I personally would do in the case of agency nannies) is follow up as many references as possible, phone people with a list of very specific questions. And listen to what they don;t say - more telling than what they do.

Hi Earlybird.... I have only hired one nanny (she is still with us and dd is 15 months...) and I found her on gumtree. I didn't place my own advert, just looked at a load of adverts about a month before I felt I needed her to start, printed off a few that sounded reasonable (I was looking for a native english speaker to live out for 4 days a week), called one of them (an aussie), who came for an interview a few days later, and then I hired her! It felt wierd not interviewing a load of them, but she felt so right (DO pay attention to any instinctive feel you have). I then phoned her references, all of whom sang her praises, and she has been fantastic. Although I do like the word of mouth approach, it's not always possible and I would never trust anyone else's vetting, I would also do my own. I did feel very n ervous to start with and took a photocopy of her passport (!), and felt SO releived when she came back with dd after the first time of taking her out for a walk on her own. We dovetailed for about 2 weeks before I went off to work, but I felt fine about her by then. We had a 1 month trial period for both of us to decide, but we were both happy, and I feel very lucky to have found her. Hope that helps....?!

Ok.... as a nanny i have found my past 3 jobs independantly

1 in the local paper

and 2 on nannyjob.co.uk

with nannyjob.co.uk you WILL get laods of replies from people who have never nannied before etc etc, and as my boss put "people who she wouldnt leave her dogs with let alone her kids"

howver amoungst those people there ARE plenty of proffesional nannies who you would welcome to look after your children

(just got another job from there... and new boss said exactly the same too)

there are several porffecional nannies who keep an eye on the job section (especailly those from parenst) and its a questionof filtering out the 3 or 4 worthwhile applicants from the LONG list of hopeless ones

(incidently my employer who found me through a news paper has since used nannyjob succesfulyl as well)

anoteher nanny frined of mine got her job on nannyselect.co.uk though it seems to me that nannyjob has more traffic

Hi Earlybird. This is my selection process:

1- post ad on gumtree/nannyjob/wherever else. Ask them to send CV and current picture of them selves in this add and give an e-mail address for response (I do this partly because computer/e-mail literacy is a requirement for us)

2- Have a standard questionaire in word format, whcih you will snd to everyone whose CV and pic pass the initial test.

3- Weed it down to about 5 acceptable candidates and ask them for references.

4- Speak to references (assuming they speak your language). Otherwise communicate with them on e-mail making use of an impartial translator. For example, I interviewed an Itallian girl whose last employer did not speak English. But I have an Itallian friend at work who did the translating for me. And I was them able to e-mail back and forth with the Itallian employer.

5- Then of course chat with the potential candidates on the phone. See who seems to "click" with you.

6- If possible meet them in person. But, of course, this isn't always an option.

I have a questionaire. Let me know if you want it.

Oh, how old are the kids? Are you able to accommodate live-in? Would you consider an au pair or are the kids too young / hours too long?

why not try a childminder! i charge £3 per hour and you could get the hours that suit plus they are 'vetted' for you by OFTEAD

Thanks so much for all the thoughtful and valuable suggestions. I've really got my head in the sand about the situation because I dread dealing with it....hence, I haven't even looked at the thread for a few days. Guess I'm hoping the situation will somehow go resolve itself....which of course, isn't going to happen.

What I have done is speak to one of the teachers at dd's old nursery. She lives in the area, and so am hoping she'd be available to look after dd a few afternoons a week. She won't know her schedule for a little longer, so in the meantime, I might be wise to proceed with my own search.....argh!!!

I used Gumtree, simply childcare and nannyjob. Got the best responses from nannyjob, but ended up with one from Gumtree.

Simply childcare was no good at all for me.