Underperforming nanny

[SuiGeneris]

I would welcome some perspective from experienced nannies and parents.

We have had a new nanny since before the summer. She had experience of looking after school aged children before she came to us and she had a two week induction with our previous, very efficient nanny. We then had the summer holidays, which were sort of ok, though she was persistently late, and now school has started it is a complete disaster. School bags miss items on a daily basis, homework is not reliably done and there seems to be an excuse for everything. We have never had to micromanage someone to this extent.
She does get along with the children, but I wonder whether that it because she lets them do what they want. We have had a couple of chats about needing to be able to rely on her doing the basics and communicating promptly when there is an issue, but it does not work. There is always an excuse “I had to leave”, “the children told me x”, “DS said he had done Y”. The children are in primary school and we have explained to her that they should be encouraged to be independent, but an adult must check.

What would you do? I manage a team at work and if this were one of my juniors we’d be well into formal performance management, with HR involved and an eye to swift improvement or dismissal. Here I have the problem that I am not around and I don’t want to mess the children about with too much change, but the inefficiency affects them as they are rushed into doing things, then have to re-do homework not done well enough at the weekend, etc.

Tbh, Id just look for another nanny. Not great on the children to have to change to a new person but I wouldn't be happy with them not being prepared for school and her late a lot. That's just completely sub-standard.

Are they still bad at timekeeping? That would be a reason for them to leave in my view, a nanny cannot be persistently late for work.

If they are no longer late, then if you are generally with them I would try to put some procedures in place if that might help, such as always checking school bags and taking a photo of any letters from school and emailing that to you, always emptying lunch box, always packing school bag the evening before.

Homework is tricky as your children need to be doing that themselves, not have someone do it for them. However it does need supervision and obvious errors spotted and a child encourage to repeat that particular question.

Give them opportunity to improve but come half-term you may need to find someone else.

What age are they ? Yes homework needs to be supervised or least shown afterwards age dependent

Do they understand what they have to do?

Again age dependant they need to have a list wnd check to make sure things are in their bag for that day

Lateness. No need. I would def give her a warning

Is she late for work or kids late for school

How much time does the nanny have between her arrival and then having to leave for school? If it's only a short window and other things have to be done such as prompt children to finish breakfast, get shoes/coats on etc, then I'd say it's too much to be expected that they sort their bags as well, that should be done by you the night before. She can be in charge of the afternoon, going through the bags to check that homework has been completed and any letters/communication gets passed along.

Maybe you could leave her a checklist of things you want done? Just to help her out?

Issues re discipline with the children can be tricky, especially if she has a lot to do in the afternoon after school, and she may just be picking her battles.

If you've employed her with a contract, the usual probation period should be in there. I'd say try to help her fix what's going wrong, and give her until the end of probation to fix it. If it's already passed, near in mind that the school routine is different to the holiday routine, and she may just need some time to adjust

Have you made expectations clear? Nannies who don’t stay overnight are not usually responsible for ensuring schoolbags are packed appropriately and most day nannies in my area would only check that homework is completed not that it’s accurate . Not trying to be rude but I think you need to sit down and decide what it is exactly that you want as it seems you want a nanny / tutor / housekeeper.

Thank you for all the replies.

Just to clarify, the role was afternoons only and she had a number of hours available for other jobs (such as cooking and setting out uniform) before picking up the kids from school.

I am interested in the comments about nannies not checking homework quality. Is tha really the norm? Would a good nanny let a 7 year old get away with filling in a page with illegible scribbles and accept that as “homework done”?

If so, we would need to rethink fundamentally. We don’t want the nanny to do homework for the kids obviously, but they do need to be encouraged to do their best.

No illegible scribbles should be caught. An afternoon nanny should be interested in school development (if they are truly a nanny and not just someone looking to do childcare for a bit of cash)

But I’d be more worried about the child in that scenario than the nanny! Why are they so disengaged from school?

Is it easy to get after school nannies where you live? If it is - I’d just give notice. If not, I’d do a crib sheet for each day.
Eg: Monday: prep dinner, tidy clean xxx room, our washing on.
3.30 collect from school, check bag for letters etc
Homework/check quality and write in book
Dinner, clear away, baths etc

You can put each day in fridge until she gets used to it.

Is she a qualified, nanny or someone who just does child care for extra funds? What is her level of written English? I would expect a trained nanny to do all of the things you desire.