CHoosing a nanny
Arrange a visit with the potential candidates in your home so that they get a good feel for the setting your child would be looked after in. Once you’ve narrowed down your search it’s important to let your favoured nanny know you’re interested – subject to seeing references – as soon as possible. You can then have a more thorough discussion about the finer details with the nanny, and see their professional documentation and certification – as well as references – before you confirm the arrangements.
Remember: go through all the checks you can with previous employers and with any relevant inspections.
Make sure you discuss a back-up plan for childcare, and how you going to deal with situations. Otherwise you may end up taking your own leave as cover for your nanny sickness or emergencies.
It is really helpful to make sure that all arrangements between you and the nanny are agreed and understood. A written contract will help to do this and will serve as a point of reference for issues that could arise in the future with details of working times, holiday, payment etc written in.
Discussing the care of your children can be the hardest thing in the world to do, but if you are unhappy about something, it's important to address it early on. It's also vitally important to help your child settle into their new routine with their nanny. Perhaps start off by spending a day together and then working alongside your nanny to settle your child over a couple of weeks. Try to build in five minutes at the start or end of each day to talk about what they've been doing, how well they've eaten and so on.
It is important that any qualifications are kept up to date - by sending them to our refresher course once a year, the carer will be more likely to remember what to do in an emergency situation. We are organizing a full day refresher course for the Nannies that will include the following: CPR, chocking, basic First Aid and practicing on manikins. We will have a Police officer that will tell us more on safety at the house, we watch a stimulation DVD and have a practical workshop to make something for your little one.
