Covering nanny's maternity leave

[Spockster]

Our lovely long term nanny is about to take her second bout of maternity leave, so we have a period of approx 9 months to cover. She does after school care and full time in the holidays.
I am torn between the hassle of finding a temp nanny who will do the same hours who the kids will like ( they are 8 and 11 and love status quo so might be picky); or the even more hassle of a childminder.
I love not having to drop off and pick up, kids sleeping in in the school holidays, one to two attention....but we haven't interviewed a nanny for nearly 8 years and I don't know where to start!
Should I go to an agency or try childcare.co.uk?

I'm interviewing for my first ever nanny this week so not a huge amount of use but I decided that I could do the initial sifting myself and save an agency fee so we advertised on Gumtree and nannyjob, the latter cost me about £25. We've had a great response although a fair few people have either not read the ad properly so not actually been suitable (ie because they don't drive or because they can't do the days we want, all of which was v clear in the ad) when I've discussed it further with them over email. And then quite a few applicants have sounded great and when I've got back to them (within a few days if not the same day) to ask them to discuss it further, they just vanish on me. Very odd. But I've got three interviews lined up this week and the applications are still coming in. I think in your situation I would tempted to place some ads and see what you find to maintain the status quo of a nanny. An 8yo and 11yo are unlikely to be happy with being turfed out of their beds to go to a CM's in the holidays and I think it would be better to stick to what you know. An agency would probably remove the hassle factor that I've had but I'm on maternity leave so have the time to deal. If you don't mind paying upwards of 2x gross weekly salary (depending on where you live) in agency fees then that would be the least hassle I think.

Thanks.. Yes I am coming round to this way of thinking too!!