Would you employ a nanny with no qualifications?

[Thistledew]

It's my first time looking to employ a nanny for my 12 month old DD and reception age DS.

We live in a really rural location so are struggling to find anyone suitable, particularly as we are only looking for someone 3 days per week.

We have made contact with someone who I think would be a good fit with our family in terms of her background and interests, but she doesn't have any childcare qualifications and her own experience is more akin to regular babysitting than a permanent nanny position.

Would this put you off entirely?

If it makes a difference, either DH or I or both of us will be working from home (garden office) at all times.

That's a tough one!

I don't think I could do it. Not so much for safety reasons (if you're around you could respond to an emergency too) but because I wouldn't know if they are qualified to help my child develop appropriately.

It also matters if they are part of a regulating body or the local authority early years system. A nanny who has no professional membership and network wouldn't feel like a good long term choice to me.

But I completely understand it's a tough call! Sometimes going by instinct can be the best way and every parents makes these decisions differently. I'm more of a hard evidence sort of person.

most parents don't have any qualifications in child care and yet manage to bring up a child. If this person is kind & willing to learn then it sounds fine. especially if you are near by.

you could offer to pay for her to do a first aid course if you want?

I would look closely at experience with toddlers. Everyone starts somewhere and one of you will be around most of the time but you want to be able to trust them to work alone.

The two best nannies I have employed didn’t have formal childcare qualifications!

That said, they were both required to do some courses (first aid, which I paid for) and commit to getting up to speed on things which were age-relevant for DC at that point - potty training, sleep routines and phonics

I found the overall attitude much better than qualifications.
Our degree-qualified nanny wouldn’t really muck in with things around the house, empty the dishwasher, put on a wash etc and was a bit too rigid with activities

Our current nanny came to us after working in an after school club, and is wonderful, clearly loves children, is super organised and wouldn’t think twice about sorting laundry or walking the dog.

If someone shows they understand the toddler years and what will happen in the coming months (so knows or is prepared to learn about nap routines, expanding the baby’s menu, developmental milestones etc) I would be inclined to take a chance on them

The key to a successful nanny post is regular and open feedback, so make sure that happens from the start and you have clear expectations and a probation period

Absolutely. A genuine interest and passion for working with children plus common sense is the key combination. If she has both of those she'll be great.

Qualifications are a bonus of course but, as pp said, how many parents are trained in childcare? How many parents are first aid trained even? Not many!

If it bothers you, offer to pay for a distance learning course in childcare that she can do alongside working for you? There are plenty to choose from. Offer her a lower wage to start (as she's unqualified and you're paying for the course) and then pay rise on completion of her qualification.

I would also send her on a first aid course.

Once she has a qualification and first aid she can register with Ofsted and you can use childcare vouchers to pay her, saving you a bit of money (and getting a return on your investment!).

Children are in my opinion the best BS detectors, if children feel happy and relaxed, then you potentially onto a winner

Someone who enjoys children and is enthusiastic about the job may work out better than a person with a perfect resume.

I would send her to a first aid/cpr course before she starts.

It also depends on what you want from a nanny. If you want someone who can completely take charge and needs and wants no direction, then maybe she isn’t the best choice. I personally like to lay out the routine and activities to start and as the nanny gets to know the children let her have more autonomy.

Depends. Why does she went this job

If she is serious about working with children as a career I would want her to maybe do a common core skill course

And onv will need first aid dbs and pli

We have twice. Both women had raised their own families to be good teenagers/young adults. Both had sound common sense and far more experience than an eighteen or nineteen year old fresh out of college with a basic NNEB or CACHE - both only level three qualifications.

Both were excellent choices and we remain in contact many years later.

Yes, I would 100%

I depends what you mean about qualifications. I wouldn't be so concerned about them having a childcare qualification- I would look paediatric first aid, a good level of written English, a knowledge of hygiene and child development, but over all their attitude would be what I was looking for. You can't teach someone on a college course how to generally have good nanny attributes. I actually think these are learned in life when someone is growing up themselves. I would look for experience though.

This really has to be a personal decision. A qualification alone doesn't make a good nanny. A qualification would ensure that the person has been trained in child development and care so they know how to support a developing child however this doesn't mean they know how to use this knowledge in practice. You need someone who offers both qualification and experience which reflects what your looking for in a nanny.

You will need to think about how important this factor is for you, as it seems your options are limited and you may struggle to find someone with both qualifications and the qualities your looking for.

I know others have said that parents aren't often qualified in childcare but still raise children, and whilst this is true these parents aren't all looking for childcare jobs looking after other people's children which is very different and there should be a minimum standard which includes qualification but the nanny industry has no standards at all.

Being a parent doesn't make someone good at caring for children, otherwise we wouldn't require child protection services.

As options in your area seem limited take the time to think about how important a qualification is for you and go with your instincts after all it's usually correct.

Good luck in your search

Keeley - SafeCircle Sitters

No because we rely on tax free childcare, which means the nanny has to have a qualification and be ofsted registered.
Otherwise I would consider it but would expect it to be a bit cheaper.

Thanks for all the advice here.

Sadly, it hasn't worked out with this nanny as she doesn't drive and the commute by public transport would just be too long.

I do have another candidate- and this one has qualifications- so am after advice about interviewing.

Would it be a good idea to speak with her informally on the phone first or would you go straight for a formal interview? Should the interview be when both DC are at home and include seeing her interact with them?

Any other tips on hiring gratefully received!

@Thistledew

Thanks for all the advice here.

Sadly, it hasn't worked out with this nanny as she doesn't drive and the commute by public transport would just be too long.

I do have another candidate- and this one has qualifications- so am after advice about interviewing.

Would it be a good idea to speak with her informally on the phone first or would you go straight for a formal interview? Should the interview be when both DC are at home and include seeing her interact with them?

Any other tips on hiring gratefully received!

I do phone interview first - I find I can screen quite a few candidates out that way! It’s good to see their interaction with the kids but I wouldn’t put too much emphasis on it - lots of nannies would feel under pressure and wouldn’t be natural in that scenario.

If you've found her online so you've seen her profile and she's seen yours and you've sent messages back and forth then I wouldn't bother with a phone interview. It might be useful if you had 100's of candidates to sort through or if you've found her via word of mouth and don't know anything about her, but pointless when you have one candidate who you already know you quite like. Just meet her and do a proper interview.

I wouldn't have the children there. The interview is with you and she can't be expected to answer questions whilst also interacting with the children in the way she would when looking after them. When she's looking after them she won't also be attending a job interview! It's a completely different scenario. To find out how she is with children you need to check her references, that will give you a much better idea than seeing her interact with yours for an hour. If you like her, offer her a paid trial day and then you can see how she gets along with the children.

Yes of course you are around, your baby is 12 months, I assume she has good character refs. Try and take some time off to show her how you want things done first few days.

Parents don’t have qualifications, and Nannys rarely did till recently. If it makes you feel better you could get her to do a NVQ or whatever in childcare while she works for you.

@GappyValley,excellent advice and totally agree.