How it Works

There are several advantages of having a nanny looking after your child(ren), and also your home.

Flexibility: a nanny will adapt to your working schedule and work the hours that are convenient for your family.

Convenience: a nanny will care for your child(ren) in your own home, which means you do not have to stress about drop-offs and pick-ups. If your child is ill, the nanny will still be there to care for them and you will not have to worry about finding an alternative/emergency care or staying home from work.

Personalised approach: a nanny is able to adapt to your children’s specific and individual needs, and also focus on the areas you want them to spend more time on.

Help around the house: you will benefit from their help with all childcare related duties around the house (i.e. nursery duties), such as doing children’s laundry, tidying up their bedrooms, preparing the meals for them and cleaning up after them.

Some nannies are happy to do additional light housekeeping (e.g. laundry for the entire family, cooking for the entire family, running errands), however any such additional duties need to be discussed and agreed clearly.

A nanny’s main and most important responsibility is caring for children, their safety and development.

A nanny is in charge of your child(ren)’s development, their learning, well-being and overall care. Typical nanny duties include changing and dressing the children, preparing meals, feeding them, cleaning up after the meals, tidying up their toys, play areas, nurseries or their bedrooms, organising age appropriate, educational or fun activities, arts & crafts, reading to them, playing different games, taking them out for walks, to parks or playgrounds, taking them to organised activities, attending playgroups, taking them to school or afterschool activities, picking them up, getting them ready for bath and assisting with bedtime routine.

Apart from general nannying duties, they will also take care of the housekeeping and even cooking, depending on what your needs are. Typical duties include hoovering, mopping, deep cleaning, cooking, general tidying up, changing the sheets and laundry for the whole family, ironing, polishing silver and similar.

Nanny-housekeepers typically perform the housekeeping duties when the children are in school/nursery, asleep, at different activities or looked after by the parents.

Full-time: A full-time nanny, nanny-housekeeper or nanny-PA will typically work between 45 to 60 hours a week, spread over five days although that depends on each family, their schedules and specific requirements. It is uncommon (or at least undesired) for nannies to work over weekends full time, or to work more than five days a week, although some nannies will consider such schedules.

Part-time: Working hours of a part-time nanny, nanny-housekeeper or nanny-PA vary; it all depends on what you are looking for and when you need help with your children. A part-time nanny could for example work three days a week, from 8am to 8pm, or five days a week for a couple of hours per day. A part-time nanny could also help you during the weekends only. Part times jobs that offer full-time hours over a couple of days (e.g. Mondays and Tuesdays, 9 hours each day) are much easier to fill than jobs that offer only a few hours, but each day.

Afterschool: as the word already suggests, an after school nanny will be looking after your children in the afterschool hours. They will typically collect the children from school and care for them until the parents come back from, or finish their work. Offering less than 30 hours a week of work makes any job less attractive. We therefore suggest that you try and combine nanny work with household work, and offer at least 30 hours of work a week.

Live-in: a live-in nanny (or a nanny-housekeeper, nanny-PA) will be living with your family, or in an accommodation otherwise provided by you. At a minimum they will need their own room, and a private bathroom is desirable. Sometimes families offer the nanny their own floor in the house, a studio within the home or a completely separate accommodation, close to the family’s home. About 15% of all nannies in London are live-in.

Live-out: a live-out nanny (or a nanny-housekeeper, or nanny-PA…) does not live with your family, they have their own accommodation and will commute to work every day. About 85% of all nannies in London are live-out.

Based on our experience we suggest you start your nanny search between 1 to 2 months before you actually need them to start.

We do not recommend you start looking for a nanny more than 2 months in advance – nannies typically have 1-month notice and they usually won’t start looking for their next role more than 2 months in advance. Their situation can change quickly, so if you start looking for your nanny in March, and you will only need them to start in September, chances are most of the nannies will not be planning that far in advance, which can result in having fewer matches for your family.

That depends on the family, type of the role and requirements of the role. Each nanny might have their own requirements as well and every family should be very up-front from the beginning on what they are willing to offer as a part of the role.

What you should always provide is a welcoming, comfortable, clean and safe working environment (which is essentially your home) for the nanny, which they will then in return help to maintain.

If you are looking for a live-in nanny, you will have to provide accommodation and food for them. The accommodation could either be their own room with a bathroom (that can be private, en-suite or shared with the family), studio within the family’s home or a separate accommodation in the proximity of the family’s home.

Sometimes a family also provides food for the live-out nanny, however nannies can take care of their meals on their own. If they cook for the children for example, they might eat the same food with them during the meal time.

Some families might cover the travel costs for their nanny, especially if the nanny lives further away from them, by providing them with an Oyster card for example, or train tickets etc. If you require your nanny to travel with you, you will have to pay for those travel costs (and extra hours) as well.

If you need your nanny to drive your children to and from school and/or after-school activities, you will typically have to provide a car for them to use, unless they have got their own and are able to use it for work.