cover when nanny is ill

[binkie]

or other sorts of emergencies? After years of a nanny who never took a sick day, I think I need to get a safety network together. What have others done? I'm signing up with a temp agency (though have found out that in central London to get cover you need to be in the phone queue by dawn) - any other ideas?

Emergency nanny-share contingency - maybe you could investigate this via school?

Are you friends with any of your nanny's friends and employers? i.e have a reciprocal network with other nanny's and employers in the area, either to offer work to nanny's who don't do a 5 day week, or who are happy to take an extra child in an emergency - share the cost with her employer and give her some extra, too.
I have recently brought in relatives, DS's sort-of-godmother, other Mums in our NCT tea group with whom I still keep friendly....Now I owe a lot of favours!

I have my mother who lives about an hour and 15 mins drive away and a lady who lives up the road who is a retired nanny who fills in occasionally.

Usually dh or I just take unpaid leave

Could you do with a local chilminder for emergencies? If Im in a bind, I call the childminder we used to use (she loves and desperately misses DD so she's always willing). Failing that, when I had a sudden departure of my au pair / nanny last summer, I called a local childminder who took for the couple weeks it took me to hire a new nanny. She was great too. In fact this is one thing that I think is great about the chilminder/ofsted ste-up in this country: I can go to a webpage and get a handful of available childminders in my area.

Might want to check out childcarelink.go.uk (or something like that?)

yes I would definitely consider a childminder - that's something mumsnet has really opened my eyes to. Thank you for the link - several showing vacancies v close to me.

and yes, when school starts again I will put some effort into that network. Pity is that the school is a bit of a distance & our immediate area is transient soulless bit of Bayswater - all cosmopolitan yuppies & not many families. Another reason why it would be nice to get to know the local childminders.

Tinies are pretty good at emergency cover - they normally have a gang of temps at the ready....or Childhood Nannies are good as well.....

Does your employer provide any emergency cover. I didn't realise for ages, but mine old firm had emergency places at a nearby nursery for employees. You were allowed to use 10 days a year.

no offence intended but everyone gets sick occasionally and as a nanny before i had my own baby, my boss made it quite clear it was an inconvenience to her which then made me feel even worse for being sick. I do feel that nannies do get a raw deal because of the type of work they are doing. This isn't directed at anyone but it makes me feel better to have a rant. sorry.

of course everyone gets sick occasionally! I sent our nanny off to a private gp with a blank cheque and then insisted she take off more than the one day she was planning!! I'm only talking about what options I have to cover her time. Don't use this as an excuse to drive wedges between people where there are none.

in my 10 years of experience i'm afraid ther have been many wedges involved. not all employers may see things like you do. like i said it was not directed at you but trust me these things happen all too often

ah I'm sorry for that, Jo. I guess it's because of that sort of story that I'm so keen to do the right thing by ours

Prufrock, emergency nursery is exactly what was needed today. I will definitely ask - and if not will agitate (for the sake of others, as when ds turns six in 10 days I think we'll be out of nursery territory)

I'd take a day's leave or make DH take a day off (and have done so). If it goes on for a bit longer, either try and negotiate working from home for a few days or call on granny to help out for a bit.

The one we went to in Canary Wharf covered 6months to 7 years in teh emergency centre

Prufrock, that's extra-interesting, hmm wonder if I can guess which one your ex-firm is.

I have already dared to raise the issue.

We and most people I know would simply have to take leave - either holiday, unpaid or time made up later depending on the job. Obviously this is harder to do with some jobs than others but sometimes there is no alternative, and you are entitled to do it in emergencies. (I use a nursery so it is only the odd day here and there when ds's are sick - I guess if you had a nanny who was sick for a prolonged period that would be different - and an utter nightmare! There are very few childminders with vacancies in my area.)

American (aren't they all!) Top 2 investment bank and doesn't begin with G. Are you in the wharf as well?

They did actually have good firmwide family friendly policies in place - I just don't think many of the actual managers did more than pay lip service to them. IIRC you could actually pre-book places to cover nanny holiays as well as use them for an emergency. Wasn't much help for me though, as dd attended the nursery, so was only off when she was too ill to use the emergency care. It was free to employees as well - firm picked up the tab. And the nursery was very good- they had 3 centres and the emergency care kids were kept seperate from normal attendees so as to cause minimal distruption to them.

kept separate? weird

Not really bundle - we are talking a big nursery - 20 kids and 5 staff in each room, and by the time dd left at 23 monthys she had been through 4 rooms. Each one was full to capacity, so you'd have had to put extra staff in with the emergency kids, who might not all fit into the same age group. I think they also felt that seeing brand new faces amongst their normal friends might be strange for the kids - although all the age groups and emergency places did get to mix in the big playroom at arriving and hometime. And emergency was usually quite full - around 20-30 kids per day

well, there you go, if only I'd known. New nursery in the Barbican (Prufrock, I'm still City not Wharf), no formal retainer through work but arrangement that we'd be helped out whenever necessary, if I'd called them on Tuesday they'd not only have taken ds & dd no problem, they had enough room to spare them their own nursery nurse so they could have gone out to library etc.

Moral: find out about stuff before you need it.

actually, moral is mumsnet is fount of all wisdom & practical info too

We are currently in this position - nanny signed off for two weeks due to some early pregnancy problems (nothing serious). I am taking some time off this week and trying to bring work home. Next week kids are back to school so I will work through from 9-3pm, DD1 will stay in Montessori until 2pm, DS2 will go to my sisters until 3pm and DS1 gets home at about 3.30pm. However I have to sort out some other back up should I need it again.

Our nanny has offered to come in in a few days but I have insisted that she take her two weeks as instructed as I would feel very responsible if anything should happen her if she came back too soon.