Where did you find your nanny?

[bonitagbchica]

I'm in need of a nanny for September, and was just wondering where all you lovely ladies found yours at...

Was it a chance meeting? Agency? Gumtree? Nannyjob?

Was the fee you paid worth it?

Would you do something different next time you need/want a nanny?

Thank you for your replies and I look forward to reading them...

Antonia
--x

Came on the west wind joking.

I'm a nanny, my boss found me via an agency. Boss before I found via NannyJob.co.uk, boss before that via an agency.

I'm a nanny and I have found all my jobs through agencies.

I am about to go through it all again, horrible horrible horrible!

Nanny: This one word of mouth, one before that agency, one before nannyjob, one before that agency. I've also used Gumtree and Netmums (temp work mostly).

I prefer to use agencies tbh.

Agency. That is how I am found. Although the note shoved up the chimmney might work next time.

We found our nanny by advertising on gumtree. Well worth it I would say. You do need to do all the legwork as, regardless of how many times you say "please do not apply unless...." you will get some totally inappropriate emails. But still all in all I found that if you start early enough and make your advert and person specification as detailed as you can, it is a good way of finding a nanny.
Good luck in your search!

I used gumtree and had 130+replies for my 2 day a week job. Stopped reading replies after a week! Half of those I read were suitable and interviewed firstly by phone to make sure they could speak english. Then interviewed 10 face to face.
My nanny is still with me 2 years later and has been great.
Personally i wouldn't use an agency - they're really expensive and you often find them advertising on gumtree anyway.
I also put an ad on nanny job, but only had 5/6 replies.

Greataupair.com and have also used nannyjob.co.uk. I tink nannyjob tends to get fewer time wasting responses than gumtree.

Am staunchly anti agency. Would never ever pay their fee.

Oh no, Caillard... what has happened? Wait... didn't you know it was ending. I seem to remember something about a temp job in the middle of nowhere.

Callaird (sorry about my spelling)

I got my first nannying job through Horse and Hound! The next 3 or 4 via agencies and my last job was through Gumtree.

I'm a nanny

All perm jobs through agencies apart from current and that was tho gumtree

I am a night nanny and do some ad-hoc weekend and eve nanny/babysitting work too majority of its through my private ads and work has come through netmums and childcare.co.uk

Have had some work through agencies but often my rates are too high for parents to be able to afford any agency fee also. If they find me privately they havent got agency fees so have more money available to spend on the actual care but suppose this matters more for short term work like night nannying as means they can have me longer or more nights without an agency fee.

one agency I recommend is www.kidsmatter.uk.com and they are nationwide and fantastic!

Agency, every time.

Last time I advertised on nannyjob and didn't get many responses, and the quality of the replies wasn't as good.

I'm fussy about things that don't bother other people. For example, I think English mother tongue is important when caring for the under fives, and now I have a school age child my nanny needs to be able to spell. I got one reply from nannyjob which basically said "hello I am nice Hungarian lady I like to learn English my speaking English is good". You would have thought "I like to look after your children" might come before "I like to learn English" I also have a very strong preference for a nanny with both experience and qualifications. I think if I was less obsessed with all these I might be perfectly happy with nannyjob and gumtree.

Really it depends how well you know yourself and what sort of nanny you are looking for.

I agree with you Fridayschild. I nannied for 10 years before I had my own baby. I got all my jobs though agencies except one which turned out to be a nightmare!

An agency can guide and support you with contracts,tax and all the bits that go with being some ones employer. They will team you up with girls that will actually suit you and your children. Plus you don't have to worry about rejecting anyone face to face, and if the Nanny doesn't like you then she can do the same.

Experience is key to being a good Nanny, Qualifications come second to experience but are still essential. You will know the nanny for you as soon as you meet her.

My biggest tip would be to call ALL her previous employers and check ref as thoughly as possible.

Good luck with your search.

Strix - Yes, knew it was ending, am back temping for an old family (left 3 years ago) on Guernsey, was supposed to be for 6 months but has turned into 9 months. I don't want to leave but have to (bloody housing!)

So back to job hunting, and I really don't like it. I'm rather fussy too, which doesn't help!

Hope you are all well.

xx

This one word of mouth- her predecessor via an agency

I found my first nanny on Gumtree and she was fantastic. As others have said you do get a lot of crap replies too but I established a seperate e-mail adress just for replies. That way I didn't have to wade through them when I logged on to my main adress and it was really simple to keep it all seperate and quickly delete the absolutely hopeless ones!

My second nanny I got from word of mouth through the circle of nannies my first nanny had become friends with and she is proving to be good too.

I do agree that the fees agencies charge are extortionate, I spoke to a few before I got my first nanny and quickly decided to try gumtree first and i've never regretted it. I got a shortlist of 5 and interviewed them by telephone, then did face to face interviews with the top 2.My boyfriend does payrools for a job so obviously he handled all the pay issues but there is a website called nannytax.co.uk that you can use and for a small fee you can pay your nanny via them and they will sort out tax and NI etc - for you.