Have been looking for a new nanny for a while and just been pipped at the post. Is it wrth registering with more agencies?

[fridayschild]

I registered with Jura's recommended agencies for SW London at the end of March, as my nanny goes on maternity leave at the end of June. We saw some people, got down to two we liked. One then decided she actually wanted a 4 day week, and the other met my two darling lovely boys and accepted a job with someone else less than 24 hours later. So much for being organised!

So now I have chased up the agencies again, and put an ad on Nannyjob. The agencies are sending me candidates I didn't want to see the first time and who have not managed to get a job in over 2 months of looking. Nannyjob has thrown up a number of candidates who seem to think that my list of requirements (relevant experience, English mother tongue, etc) is a wish list describing optional qualities. I cannot believe that Gumtree will be better and in fact suspect it will be much much worse.

Specifically, one agency has sent me a cv of someone I had already seen from another agency. I am getting a bit short of time now, so if I register with agencies Jura does not recommend, will I just get sent the same candidates again, do you think?

Probably - most nannies (self-icluded) register with every agency going. June is a tricky start date so, if you're looking for a perm nanny, is it worth getting someone else just for the summer?

Are any of your requirements slightly negotiable is someone fits everything else? Not EMT? Slightly less relevant experience? Live in/out?

Hi - I'm in SW London and know a very good nanny agency: have recommended it lots of times and I know lots of nannies who are happy with it. If it is not in Jura's list, that might help.

I can be persuaded out of the amount of relevant experience, and whether s/he is qualified. I do know I'm unlikely to get someone who ticks all the boxes! But I don't want someone whose only experience has been gained during the childcare course she has (nearly) completed, nor someone whose first line is that she is Hungarian with poor English. EMT a bit of a personal bug bear for me, I'm afraid.

How does looking for someone just over the summer help me? Would there be nannies who only wanted a temp job? I thought they would all go and work for Mark Warner in the Med. We do have a lovely paddling pool...

Anchovy - stop teasing - what's it called?!

I am with KiwiOz, Gina's Nannies (the Jura list), and Tinies, who were good before but are being lacklustre now.

Childhood Nannies. They were based between Battersea and Wandsworth but have moved somewhere else'ish but have a strong connection round there/Clapham/Putney/Wimbledon/Barnes type way. I've used them twice and been v satisfied - my old nanny and some of her mates say it is very good from their perspective. Can't remember the number but Google it.

I know they do temp nannies: one of my colleagues whose wife is a SAHM put her back out quite comprehensively and they got her a great temp in about 48 hours - Balham/Clapham way.

Basically I think temps are not too hard to find. Lots of people with 2-6 months left on visas who want to stay in town as long as they can.

I need full time, sole charge 11 hour day type nannying and have always actually found that, peversely, quite easy, as you are offering the sort of job a lot of them like.

Gail at Childhood Nannies will deffo weed out the unsuitable ones.

Thanks - it is the 10 hour FT sole charge type I am after

I also used Eden Nannies. They are old-fashioned and hugely posh but have some great nannies. I got the rec from here, backed up by some colleagues at work (am a lawyer and they sort of serve the market for people who are prepared to pay for fairly full-on nannying requirements).

Eden's fee is gargantuan. But - and it is a big but - they found me quite possibly the best nanny in the entire world who has been with me for 2.5 years and we very much hope will be with us a lot longer. If I don't have to find another nanny for several more years, the fee is well worth it.

The nanny I got from Childhood Nannies was with us 4+ years and is still very close friend to all of us. DD is going to be her bridesmaid!

I tried Eden Nannies before and they didn't even send me a registration form. I thought at the time that my postcode might be wrong for such a posh agency (Kennington, and the postcode starts with SE, which is never chic, darling) and they were too snooty well bred to tell me.

Now I am in leafy suburbia they might be prepared to take my money. On the basis of your recommendation I will try not to let on that DS1 goes to a state primary.

LOL - the nanny I got from Eden is just fantastic. She has nannied on the "sleb" circuit before coming to me and I get the impression that those are the type of clients they have a lot of, altho frankly hard working lawyers like me are probably their (somewhat dull) bread and butter!

Do try Childhood Nannies - Gail who runs it is great.

Just to add one of my best nanny friends who is by far one of the best nannies i have ever met has taken 4 months to find a job,

there have simply been NO jobs at all in our area

so just because they have been job hunting for 2 months does NOT mean they are not good nannies

Regarding qualification, my current nanny is fab fab fab, best one I ever had. I took a risk in hiring her because she didn't have any proper experience or qualifications. No degree in childcare and her experience was just babysitting here and there. My kids are 5 and 2 (almost 3).

She is fantastic and I will be on here crying buckets of tears when she leaves in September.

Hi- whereabouts in London are you? I`m not qualified, but have six years of nannying experience, CRB checked, qualified in first aid, English is my first langauge...

If you fancy a kiwi, I had quite a good experience with One World Nannies - they are quite small but tend to have people on their books who may not have registered with other agencies. Worth bearing in mind that quite a lot of NZers have ancestry visas, so it's not necessarily the case that you would end up with someone who could only work 12 months.

Ah Jura, your list is the one where the agency charges a fixed price, rather than some multiple of the nanny's wages.
Abbeville Nannies used to do this but have changed their terms, sadly.

Purplesocks - Barnes SW13. The children are 5 and 3, and the job is live out Mon - Fri 0830-1830 plus one evening babysitting. CAT me your cv if you are still interested.

Thanks for the other agency recommendations, I will try them in my lunch hour.

Update so far

Wimbledon Nannies - very proactive, quick to respond. I see exactly why they would be the agency to use for emergency care. They do have a significant overlap of candidates with Ginas Nannies, though that's not surprising.

Eden Nannies - remain as posh as ever. The registration questionnaire asks about second homes and staff, lol. My consultant is also very clued up about the good schools in the Barnes area: we agreed there were plenty and I moved the conversation on swiftly . They have reluctantly admitted that the £400 net I was offering might be enough, which makes me think it is actually market rate. Equally they have offered me a nanny who would like to earn £510 net a week - as well she might.

Childhood Nannies want to visit me before they put me on their books, which is fine, but they want to charge me for the visit, and charge extra for visits at weekends and in the evenings. I don't think this is on. For some reason this is not mentioned either on the website or even in the first phone call.

OneWorld Nannies are so relaxed they have not replied.

How about Elite Nannies in Battersea? I've used them when I was looking for work. Kim, the woman who runs it was really helpful.

How about putting an add in the lady magazine or Nursery world magazine. I know you would have to check out the nannies your self but Im thinking your situation is to get the nannies in the first place that are suitable. Best of luck . £510 a week I bet she would . LOL

I do remember about the visit thing for Childhood Nannies - it was £25 or something but they didn't charge me last time. I think it is just to deter timewasters. Their fees are I think lower than most, as the flipside. You could try calling their bluff and citing market conditions. TBH I really appreciated them coming round - it meant they had a really good ability to see what you and your house was like and good for matching up. I think it was worth it.

I'm not sure of your hours, but I would think £400 a bit on the low side round here (I am close by and pay quite a bit more, but I do have reasonably long hours and sort of price in for the "everything going completely pear shaped" contingency, so it may be apples and pears).

Eden weren't too snooty with me, but I do know what you mean - I do not have second home or staff, unless I can talk up my cleaning lady somehow! They do have very good candidates. My nanny who I got from there went to some stunningly posh, name droppable interviews!

We had a reasonably good experience of Wimbledon Nannies, but I thought the experience mainly constisted of them just firing a squillion cvs at us and telling us to take our pick and sort it out ourselves, which was a bit daunting whe looking for our first nanny. Childhood Nannies were much better at sifting/matching/advising.

www.lady.co.

sorry try this
www.lady.co.uk

PS I'd love to know what made the grade of "good schools in the Barnes area"!

www.nurseryworld.co.uk

FRIDAYS CHILD - re your comment about wondering what is wrong with nannies who after 2 months haven't found a job. It took me longer than that ,there is nothing wrong with me! I am very good at my job but I didn't want to-
1: work 6 days a week
2: work for someone who be-littled her sisters parenting skills in front of me(at 2nd interview)and her sisters nanny-as I would not like to be spoken to like that infront of others!
3: live in what was basically a bed in a shed in the garden
4:work Mon-Fri 7-8pm Sunday 7-2pm AND have to do 5 babysits a week
5:Work for someone who's 8month daughter had all ready had 4 nannies none of whom worked out - I know sometimes this happens and twice have been the nanny to take over from a "brief" nanny and then stayed in both jobs for 3 and 4 years
6: have sole charge 12 hours a day, do all the cleaning ,laundry etc for 60pounds per week.

Ok rant over - but just wanted to point out that some "good" nannies are looking for a while because they want to find the right job where they will be happy and want to stay -specially live-in nannies. Very early on in my career I took a job for the sake of it and I was so unhappy and would not want to feel as awful as I did the time I was there,.

def worth registering with more agencies - unless they charge a fee

as nannyl and daisylilac pointed out - sometimes it does take more time for a good nanny to find a job because of whatever reason wages too low/12hr days/no car/live in/etc - and most of us more mature/reliable nannies wouldnt take a job on that we have worries over as a last resort, only to leave 2months after as a better one appears!!

Hope you find someone soon