Live in nanny outside of London - how likely to find and where to look?

[Missmidden]

I would be grateful if anyone can offer any advice here. We will be looking for a full time nanny to start in the new year and live on the Beds/Bucks border. For various reasons I have a slight preference for a live in rather than a live out nanny, but the (very few) local agencies I have spoken to so far seem to only really have live out nannies on their books.

I guess that this is just not an area where there are a lot of nannies around full stop. However we are pretty close to London so had thought the job might suit a younger person who wanted easy access to London at weekends but was happy to live in a more rural location in the week.

Should I try London agencies on the assumption they will have more nannies wanting to live in or would anyone registered with them be set on a London job, do you think? Or do I need to accept live out is the only real option in our location? Any thoughts very welcome, thank you.

Are you very set on using an agency? If you don't mind doing the recruitment and background checks yourself I'd recommend placing an advert in the local paper or one of the online sites (I've used www.childcare.co.uk before, there are others)

You'll need to check references and arrange for a CRB check, plus sort out the contract and tax (google "nanny paye" and it will bring up some tax agencies who'll sort the tax for you).

Alternately, recruit yourself then approach a nanny agency for the management side.

Oh, and you should be able to find someone. We're outside of London and have had live in and out.

Thanks for your input, Mono. I am not completely set on an agency, but as we haven't done this before I was thinking it would make the process less daunting! More homework to do, I guess, but good to hear that I am not seeking the impossible.

We've had Live in Nannies when we lived in Manchester- so I don't think you should have a problem.

If you want to go down the agency route- try contacting one that covers the whole of the UK- they do exist.

Gumtree is a great place- although I do find outside of London your advert gets a bit "lost". NannyJob and Childcare are good too- but you have to pay for them but obviously significantly less than an agency.

Have you tried Tinies?

I was a live-in nanny in Herts which I found advertised on the London Gumtree site, you could try that. My then employers said they had had very little response from the more local Gumtree boards.

Avoid agencies and advertise privately. Gumtree (post in your local site and London), childcare.co.uk, nannyjob, netmums and your local mumsnet site are all good places to advertise.

Tinies is an agency that covers everywhere so that's a good place to try if you'd rather use an agency. Otherwise look at London agencies as they'll have more nannies on their books.

Many thanks for the further responses. Tinies are on my list to call, so I will do that. And will give more thought to not using an agency too; it just seems like there is so much to consider I was hoping someone else could do a lot of the hard work for us

On the subject of hard work, if you do decide to employ yourself then you'll also need to sort insurance. Your home insurance should cover the employers liability bit and your Nanny can take out a Nanny insurance policy (which you can reimburse).

MonoNoAware - you cannot reimburse your nannies insurance. If the company find out and you need to claim, they wil not pay out as it is a conflict of interest. Your nanny must pay her own insurance. And as it us only £71 per year, it won't break the bank.

I would def consider using gumtree, childcare.co.uk. I am a nanny myself and have got all my jobs from these sites. Even if you use an agency you will still have to interview several nannies that the agency chose for you. These are very expensive.
I suggest advertising on above sites first putting in your ad if you require them to be qualified, minimum experience, hours, rough pay and if you will be requiring them to be registered with ofsted. Try this for a bit and then if your not happy go for an agency.

Whoops

Maybe just take the cost of nanny insurance into account when you make your offer then