Help! Please recommend a London nanny agency?!

[Mummyteachmummy]

I need a part time nanny to have DD (2) from November, though ideally from October if you factor in a good settling in period. I only need two days a week, Tues and Weds.

I've spent the last couple of months going round in circles trying to find a nursery (no places at any I've liked), or nanny and got nowhere. I've been using childcare.co.uk for nannies and found very slim pickings.

Please tell me how to find a really lovely part time nanny asap?! Does such a thing even exist part time? We can be pretty flexible with hours, can offer between about 10-20 pw, depending on their needs...

Where are you based?

We're not entirely certain as we're about to move house and still undecided around a few options. Looking at Pimlico, Clapham, Wandsworth..

Abbeville nannies have a good reputation in the clapham wandsworth area, never used them myself though.

Nappyvalleynet is a decent hunting ground, not an agency but a local forum. I found our wonderful nanny that way (her previous employer was recommending her).

if you only need 10-20 hours a week, you might find it better to look for a nanny share with a family who already have a full time (ish) nanny and want to get a contribution to the costs? That way the nanny is already "pre vetted" iyswim and it is also cheaper, and may be easier, than trying to find a nanny who wants a 2 day job. Try nannyshare.co.uk and you'll find people wanting share partners. You will need to know location first though.

We've found Hanni at Hampstead Nannies to be really good and very helpful. Also a lady called Julie at Knightsbridge Nannies had some good candidates. (We actually live in Clerkenwell as opposed to Hampstead or Knightsbridge, but that didn't seem to cause a major problem.) Also Yvi at Imperial Nannies.

Notting hill nannies are good in my experience because they really quiz the nannies to check they are up to standard and to match them well to your family. Hopefully then you won't need to interview as many before you find the right one. I was shocked when I first went to agency interviews in london and they just asked me "Live in or out? Will you do pets? Travel with family? Full time or pat time?" then photocopied my certificates and sent me out to meet families. www.nottinghillnannies.co.uk

Ooh, lots to choose from here! Thanks all! Going to the nanny share idea too as you're right that trying to pin down a nanny wanting such a tiny role is basically narrowing the field down to empty!

Actually, going further than what I've said above, Hampstead have been absolutely fantastic this week and are going above and beyond to save my bacon in a major way (after a nanny from another agency dropped out on us at the very last minute). So I'm going to give them a bit of a shameless plug, sorry :)

I'm with Eden and Occasional and Permenant.

Eden have the most jobs and their service has improved significantly the last few months as they've hired more staff (i think).
O&P are great, have plenty of jobs and are very friendly and professional.

I've been with both for years and found them to be the most useful.

BabyEm is brilliant!

Hampstead nannies very helpful but charge a whopping 8 weeks net pay

i spoke with KiwiOz nannies and they were fab (charge a lot though) and sent a lovely lovely nannu round for interview but we couldn't make the hours work unfortunately.
I second nappyvalley.net as I found our lovely p/t nanny this way.

nanny, even, not nannu!!!