Nannying in London for Beginners

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Hi there

I am posting on behalf of a friend who would like to start nannying in London and would like any advice anyone has.

She is 25 and from Italy and is nannying in Brighton (for about a year) on a live in basis, and enjoying it. Her English is a good standard but not more than that, and she is a very bouncy and warm person seems to be popular with the kids. No nanying qualifications.

Moving to London ... there are so many options. But perhaps someone has some advice about how to go about it.

And which areas are good to get jobs in, which areas are good to live in ...

I told her it would be good to try and arrange things to avoid long commutes on the tube and have a bit of greenery near you.

She is looking for a live out situation.

Well anyone who may have some advice as to how to situate yourself and make good choices about where to live and where to look for work, this would be much appreciated.

Thanks for you help

J Trillo

Oh ... and I wonder if there are other places in the country which are good for nannying ?

If she's in Brighton has she contacted Tinies? They may not be able to place her due to lack of experience (unless she's not nannying for the first time?) but the Brighton team are quite good and may be able to offer her advice, they advertise London and Surrey jobs quite frequently so will be able to tell her what people are looking for and where she's more likely to find work.

RE other places, the South East is generally good, if she wants to stay city-bound or in Sussex but is happy to commute she could easily commute from Brighton to the surrounding villages, lots of jobs around here at the moment. A lot of part time ones too but you can (just) live happily on a 30 hour a week nanny wage down here.

Hi. Well at the moment she is live in and gets £120 a week.
I am not expert but it's really not very much.

Is it better to go through an agency ? I assume that's what Tinies is.

Don't they take a chunk of salary ?

Experience wise she has done about 10 months from what I understand with this family.

Is she in an au pair position? £120 sounds like an AP wage, but if she's doing more than 30 hours they're probably taking the piss. Once you have experience it's better to go through an agency ime, but also good to keep eyes open at jobs advertised elsewhere. Agencies usually don't place nannies with less than a couple of years experience, they were helpful to me when I first moved to Brighton with only 15 months experience nannying, but were quite blunt about the fact that they probably wouldn't have anything. They've placed me twice in the past year though with a couple more years under my belt.

Agencies take a fee from the families, not the nanny. We pay nothing unless we don't have DBS (police) checks, and they'll facilitate you ordering one.

Direct her to childcare.co.uk as well, she'll be able to get a feel of the areas she's most keen on moving to.

Why does she think she is a nanny? Surely she is an au pair.

Sounds like an au pair situation. She might find it difficult to register with agencies as they usually state they want nannying experience and can be quite dismissive of au pair experience. Doesn't hurt to get in touch with them though.

Also, it can be easier to get junior nanny jobs as a live in. Is she adamant she wants to live out. Lots of nannies start out in junior live in positions before moving on to live out positions that pay a good wage, especially in London!

Hi, well I don't know really.
She is live in with a mother and her son who is about 6 I think, and takes him to school, looks after him when the mother is at work every day, I think she gets 1 or 2 days off a week. In the holidays she is 12 hour days. Reads with him, plays with him, takes to the park etc..
I think the sum total of her experience is 5 months with one mother and child, and 5 with this one.
Hours ? well she must do more than 30 that's for sure, more like 40 or 50 depending the school holiday situation.

No quals and ten months experience over two families - she needs more experience before looking at nanny jobs.

My advice? She needs to get a Paediatric First Aid certificate. She needs to get good, written references from every family she's worked for. The references must be able to be contacted by parents or agencies. Then she needs to look for a junior nanny/au pair job that involves sole charge, and she needs to aim to stay for around two years. Those jobs will be far easier to get if she is happy to live in (as most of us do at the start of our nannying career when we have virtually no experience!)

she says she will have a total of 12 months exp with 1 family when she goes up to london, the first half of it was live out, the second live in