Nanny off on maternity leave, need to cover her maternity leave. Any suggestions??

[ziopin]

Hello, my nanny is going off on maternity leave at the end of the summer term (July). My husband and I are both teachers so will be off with the children during the summer holidays.

My dilema is what should I do from September to Christmas?

if you move quickly you could be on maternity leave in September as well

Hope other responses have less drastic suggestions...

If I was you I should make sure she definitely wants to come back after having the baby. I was a nanny for 10 years with the same family and during that time had my ds took 2 weeks off and then returned to them though they were school age so only had them a couple hours a day and full time school hols. I was certain that I wanted to go back but one of my friends was in same position and left her family hanging until almost the end of her maternity leave waiting for her to come back and then changed her mind!! Might be worth having a really long chat with her before you end up in that situation in the new year

I'm sure I'm saying this because I have too many lawyer friends and friends in HR but you might want to think carefully about how you embark on a discussion like that, depending on what your nanny's like. I totally agree it's just the sort of thing you'll want to sort out but if she's at all awkward you would never want to be accused of using her pregnancy as a reason not to keep her on blah blah blah...

I'm sure I'm being paranoid and probably it's fine to talk to her...

How do you know she is coming back in December? Is she bringing the baby with her? I do not envy you!

Try Occasional & Permanent Nannies.

Put an ad on Nannyjob website/Gumtree.

Put the word around & someone may be willing to share their Nanny for a few months?

If you hire a temp nanny make sure it's a fixed term / temporary contract to cover maternity leave until the nanny comes back. And make sure you can end the contract with no more than 4 weeks noticce because that is how much notice the nanny on mat leave needs to give you that she is returning. (so you aren't stuck payong two nannies at the same time)

Some options:
Hire a temp nanny, via an agency, or recruit yourself.
See if any local childminders expect to have suitable vacancies for your children and are able to provide childcare for the hours you require.
Consider using a day nursery on a temporary basis.

Also ask around at school with regard to how other teachers have sorted out their childcare - does any of them have a nanny who you share for a few months?

Where are you based ziopin? I have a temp job til the end of the summer, and am probably starting a course in February, so I was wondering what I was going to do between September and Christmas too...

Could you (would you want to) take a term off school yourself to look after the DCs? If one of them is under 5 you could use your parental leave entitlement for part of the time, and I would guess for a school it might be easier to have a teacher off for a whole term than a month. And if DH's school is short of male teachers they may do anything to keep him happy! This leaves you exposed to nanny deciding she wants a longer maternity leave than she had first thought, of course.

You can ask your nanny what her current thoughts about returning to work are, accepting of course that she is entitled to change her mind later. I get lumbered with this at work and actually the responses tend to be a pretty accurate predictor of what will happen.

Hi RahRahRachel

Am based in Cardiff. Any help to you??

Clearly things haven't gone well, but do consider that any agency that you may now deal with are obviously going to be understanding and helpful.
If/when they find a suitable candidate who you take on, they they will get their full fee.
Had you been with Eden or any other agency the first time, you may well not be having such a positive experience.

I have been using O&P as a nanny and maternity agency for more than 15years. I have been incredibly fortunate with their help, understanding and support over the entire period.

I do hope you consider speaking with the MD of O&P rather than tarring them so negatively on a Zombie thread from 1997!!

Ye gods this thread is 7 years old!!!

Aelloyd- your thread will actually come up on a google search if you start a new thread, you just need to put the agency in the title.
You have every reason to be annoyed - I would consider taking them to small claims court.

Yes thread is years old and not sure if the relevance in the reply as nthing to do with finding a replacement nanny while on ml

But

1. £5k is a huge fee / are all London's agencies this?

Shouldn't be done on nannies salary but a flat fee

2. not sure you can blame the agency. Did you not discuss the staîrs etc at interview and nanny accepted it. Not the agencies fault she left - you said it was made clear yet you hired her. I think your problem is with the nanny not the agency. She took the job on under false pretences

Generally after 8 weeks if a nanny leaves you won't get a refund