What to ask a nanny when interviewing

[Altjtoday]

That probably seems a silly question, but I am interviewing myself and not using an agency, so whilst I am confident about the basic questions and formalities I might not be thinking about other stuff that I should really be asking
Also is it standard procedure in
Interview / meet at home, or initially at a coffee shop etc, with a view to a second meeting at the home?
Thanks

I suppose it depends how many interviews you intend to do... you could
do initial via phone, then arrange to meet at your home with children present.

Fully go through the fixed things in the job... salary, any current routine, working hours, working days, will you need them to come on holiday with you or not, how much holiday entitlement they get and how much notice is needed plus any restrictions. Dietary requirements, medical, possibly discuss religion if you have a specific thing they need to do to be able to work within a household of a certain religion - use of two sinks for example.

How/why they became a nanny. What they enjoy/dislike about being a nanny.
What they did on a typical day in their last nanny job - if with older children perhaps have them say what they did in school holiday.
Do they like to cook, what would they cook for a child of your child's/children's age?
How do you see nannies role changing as children get older? (could be useful if your job may become more nanny/housekeeper role once children are school age).
What communication methods have you found work best between yourself and parents? (example: sending photos, keeping in touch via email, using online calendar. You don't want someone who will be constantly phoning you but you do want to be kept informed of what is happening.)

Another question we found useful was around consistency with parenting approaches: how important is it for nanny and parents to be consistent with each other? How did you handle differences of approach in your previous roles?

Going through the job spec in detail is really worth doing though. I only went through the headlines and then had some wrinkles to iron out at the contract stage. Worked out OK in the end but made things unnecessarily stressful later on.