Good nanny agencies in London (ideally SW) and ones to avoid?

[Furzella]

I'm still getting nowhere in my hunt for a PT nanny, Monday to Wednesday, despite having placed two ads on nannyjob, one on gumtree, one on Families Online and one on a local newsgroup. I think it's the part-time issue that's narrowing the field substantially rather than any other problem with my ads because the ads are fairly precise and it's not a grim job! I think I'm going to need to go down the agency route. Can any of you recommend good ones or steer me away from the shockers? Last time Nightingale Nannies and Wimbledon Nannies were both helpful.

Have you tried a nanny share. sharingcare.co.uk

I think others have had some luck with kiwi oz. But, I personally have never used an agency.

Maybe I'm being dopey, but can you split a nanny share so that the nanny looks after your children for three days then another family's for two? The dds have a packed schedule and I want a nanny to have sole care of them on the days I work rather than splitting their time between two sets of children. For me almost the best thing about having a nanny is that the girls are calm, bathed and being read to when I get back from work, which I think would be hard to manage with another set of children involved.

Yep, basically you get together with another family who also wants a prt time nanny (assuming your schedules are compatible) and you hire nanny M-W and other family hires Thur-Fri. So the nanny gets a full time job and you pay for three days while other family pays for two days.

You can search by post code on nannyshare.co.uk (the new address for sharingcare.co.uk). Nothing to lose. I think you can register for free but have to pay to contact someone.

Can i ask where in london you are?

Lisa

Have you tried SimplyChildcare?
Not an agency as such - you can advertise, and also nannies advertise - and other families looking to share. You simply subscribe to 3 issues of the listings magazine they produce. We found the perfect arrangement through them.

I'm in Furzedown which is between Tooting and Streatham, kind of just south of Tooting Common.

I haven't tried Simply Childcare - will go have a look there now. Thanks.

Maybe the nannyshare thing is a good option, although I've enjoyed having nothing to do with the other family my nanny looks after on Thursdays and Fridays! It keeps the whole thing cleaner - no responsibility to negotiate with another family about holidays (happy to negotiate with our nanny of course!), nice and straightforward for tax and NI, etc. I may be biased though as her other family sound like they'd be a nightmare to deal with.

Oh, and who was the agency who e-mail all of their prospective clients without blocking the addresses, hence revealing the entire client base to all other clients? If anyone deserves to be named and shamed, they do.

Avoid 'Little masters and misses' (if the name isn't enough of a health warning in itself). Based in Thornton Heath. Problems too numerous and tedious to catalogue.

I haven't heard of Gina's nannies - brilliant, thanks v much. Yoiks about the one who emailed the world - astonishing!

I wouldn't recommend Eden Nannies either.

Abbeville Nannies in Clapham were good but they might not stretch as far as you. I also like Tinies, not least because they send you details of the conversation they had with each nanny's referees when they post out the cv. My current nanny came from Tinies and she thought they were a good agency, which might also be relevant.

Your problem with a nanny share will be finding another family who only works 2 days a week, I think. IME most part-time mums work 3 or 4 days. Could you cope with a nanny looking after your dds and another dc for one of the three days?

I had a really good experience with Eden - they found me the best nanny in the world. Buggeringly expensive, though.

I'm in SW London and also think Childhood Nannies are good - they cover the general area.

I've just remembered that Abbeville Nannies were very helpful before - someone called Katherine there I think. I shall try her again. I wasn't aware of Childhood Nannies - thanks. And had somehow thought Tinies was about nurseries so shall definitely give them a go - a nanny's recommendation is v useful.

As far as I can tell, it's all pretty blisteringly expensive if you go down this route. Are Eden worse than the rest? Although on this thread the negatives for Eden outweigh the positives so far anyway...

I probably sound really precious about not wanting to do a nanny share where my dds are looked after with another family's dcs, but it's only because I kind-of load up the after school stuff to be on my work days rather than my home days, so the girls have gymnastics, swimming and ballet to get through in three days (not both doing all three, but between them) and usually one after school playdate. I guess if the other family had a little one that they didn't mind being bundled around in the after-school shuffle, it would be okay. I think if I were the other family though I wouldn't want to shell out for an expensive nanny if half the time they were ferrying someone else's kids to and fro. It's that and also the end of day routine, which I think I probably am precious about. Having happy, bathed, chilled out girls when I get back from work is absolutely wonderful and so nice for them too. I just flopped down on dd1s bed last night and had a long gas with her about school lunch, playground politics, papier mache bears and there was none of that frantic bombing around you get when there's a pick-up of another child involved. Maybe I just need to get over myself though. I know it works for masses of other people.

Sorry, long ramble. This is taking up a lot of head space at the moment...

"I think you are totally there"

Have you like been hanging out with your teenager?

As a nanny I would utterly recommend Abbeville - they were kind and super helpful, which is always good. I would not however touch Tinies with someone elses bargepole!

jura - thank you! Was feeling like a real sociopath for not wanting to share my nanny!!

Eden are just snooty. They didn't like my postcode and consequently failed to send me the nanny cvs they had promised.

I looked at nannies for Monday to Wednesday but one of your problems will be that LOADS of families only want Monday to Wednesday. Friend of ours who has always done these days has been through about 3 nannies in as many years because if they can't place the Thursday and Friday, once they see a full time role, they just leave and go to that to get more money.

I wonder whether you might consider doing Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and seeing if you get more luck (if you are finding it difficult to sort out care for M-Wed).