Bulgarian nanny

[Manoxlon]

Hello, my kids are half-Bulgarian and we are looking for a full time live-in nanny who speaks fluent Bulgarian to help take care of them. We live in Kent (25 mins to London). I've contacted a few agencies, no luck so far. Any ideas? Thanks!!

childcare.co.uk?
Bulgarian embassy?

The embassy- thanks for the tip, I should have thought of that..!

Gumtree London is your best bet as you're not too far from London.

Will try tx!!

Try Aupairworld, you can specify applicants and language spoken. Many candidates are highly qualified, and would make great Nannies.

Thanks HRHRQueenMe- you have used them before?

Yes I recruit all my aupairs from Aupair world??
I only employ girls from my home country so they can help me speak my language with my children. The site is very easy to use.
Look at a few other families adverts before you place yours to get an idea of how to phrase your advert. Put several photos up.
Set your search preferences to Bulgaria only and specify bulgarian spoken. Your Easyfind tab will now display suitable candidates only.
Apply to the candidates you like. Log in every day to keep your profile getting bumped to the top.
Any Criminal checks and references will be easy as you will be familiar with the system in Bulgaria. Good luck!

www.aupairworld.net/aupair_detail?&a=2941906#letter_two

One of many, this girl is already in London!

That's great, thx a million!

HRH - OP wants a full-time nanny not an au pair - there's a enormous difference.
Mano - we have had au pairs and nannies before and although pairs can go on to be great nannies, the majority lack the experience to look after children on a full-time basis. Please don't put your children at risk.

Thanks KaroleAnn, I am aware of that but there are many candidates on Au pair world who have all the qualifications required for a great Nanny. Its upto The OP to offer a Nanny position to a suitable candidate. I very much doubt a nanny agency can whizz up a bulgarian Nanny in a few weeks, so Ap world is a great way to start looking.
I need a similar set up and tried unsucessfully for a year through agencies to find Full time live in Nanny with language skills. I had No applications. Zero. I now have wonderful au pairs highly qualified girls with the language skills required, and they do the Ofsted required first aid training here in their first week. They also get registred with Ofsted as Im a childminder and get full DSB so can go on to a full Nannyjob if they would like to. (They do not work with my mindees but are in charge of my children and their after school activities. )

Thanks Karoleann, I am very aware of that and many au pairs would not be suitable for my childcare needs. However some- not most- candidates advertising on this site (and similar sites) are highly qualified (ex nursery teachers, child education graduates, etc...) plus they have the language, which in my case is an important factor currently.

On childcare.co.uk you can put a search term into the 'advanced search'. It will just look for that term anywhere in their profile, but with Bulgarian that's likely to be either nationality or language. I found our fab nanny that way - but my language is more commonly studied at school here, so I had to trawl through quite a lot of CVs which listed exams taken!

HRH - I assume that you work from home though? So you're actually around in some capacity to check how your au pair is looking after the children and also around to ensure that the house is being looked after.
OP- wants full time too, so you can't just pay usual au pair rates either.

Mano - There are some great candidates on au pair world, but the vast majority of them will not have any sole care experience with young children. Even if they do they will be new to the UK.
(I have just realised though, I don't know your children's ages and if its school age - an au pair will be fine.)

The only work 25-35 hours per week, they need time off for language school and they generally need supervising and if you're working full-time do you really want the hassle of having to do a daily schedule for an au pair? If your children are younger you need to the factor in some form of nursery so that their hours aren't too long.

Generally, au pairs only stay 6-12 months too, so if you do have young children its a huge upheaval for you and them.

I've said before, I work in au pair central and I meet a few au pairs who are doing nannies jobs and unless one of the parents are woking from home, it just doesn't work. Either the child isn't cared for properly and/or the au-pair feels exploited and either leaves or just becomes detached from the situation.

KaroleAnn, I didnt mean for the OP to employ an au pair if thats not suitable but she might find a suitable nanny candidate on Aupair world and can offer a Nanny role, including everything that comes with it incl pay. There are many older highly qualified people on Au pair world who are all interessted in working in the UK and as the OP understands the Bulgarian system she can easily check on references and criminal checks and Im sure she can decide weather any candidate is suitable for her needs. As I am in the same situation Its a good option.

In Europe many people study childcare as a sixth form career path which makes them qualified to work in nurseries, daycare and afterschool care. The degree often includes first aid and they apply for an enhanced CRB as part of their degree in their home country. These girls make great aupairs and with a few years experience even greater nannies. I interviewed several the last time I recruited.

HRH - in your situation when you're at home too some of them time, I think its a very credible and viable situation...and then they go on to be a nanny or do nursery work.

I also assume you pay them a lot more for a much longer working week and then you have to try and fit language course in and have to pay tax and NI.

But my point was that the OP is NOT at home which makes everything more difficult, its not their home enviroment and if something goes wrong and they can't speak english properly, young children would be at risk.

Thanks a lot for the f/back and yes, as HRH has pointed out, there are many nannies who advertise on "au pair" sites but they are not au pairs and are not coming to the UK to learn English. I am actually interviewing someone currently from greataupairs (unfortunately aupairworld did not work for me this time). She has worked as a nanny previously and also in a nursery (or crèche) for over 10 years. She studied Children's Pedagogy at university (many nannies in the UK are not university graduates actually) and has done some additional training in the UK. Her English is good enough. Will see how she gets on with the kids before offering- So fingers crossed!!