Who we place, and how we assess them

Every nanny on our books has passed a rigorous assessment in several stages before her name reaches a family. We assess not just skill and experience, but character, judgement and values: the things that matter most when someone is caring for your children. Each stage is a gate. We do not pass on nannies we are not confident in.

01
Application

Every nanny completes a detailed application covering her personal details, her experience and skills, the work she is looking for, and what she is comfortable doing. Her name and date of birth must match her NIN record exactly. She must be able to read and write in English, and she must agree to a medical when asked; the form doesn’t let anyone continue without both.

We ask her to tell us honestly about past dismissals, medical conditions and any criminal conviction. A past dismissal or medical condition doesn’t rule her out. Honesty is what matters.

02
Identity verification

Before we even call her, we verify her identity through a fraud-prevention platform that checks her National Identification Number (NIN) against Nigeria’s national identity records. Her full name and date of birth must match the record exactly. A document can be copied. A live record check can’t.

03
Phone screen

A structured call with our team covering her availability, the work she wants, her background and experience, and why she wants to work with children. We go over anything she disclosed on her application, and we listen to how she expresses herself in English throughout. Anyone who can’t communicate clearly in English goes no further.

04
Practical knowledge and values assessment

An assessment in person at our office, in four parts: childcare, safety situations, confidentiality and character, and her own welfare. Some answers are an automatic fail, and she must meet our threshold in childcare and safety on their own, not just overall.

Where a few answers raise a concern, we talk them through with her to tell a gap in knowledge from a problem with values, and the decision to continue is made by the agency’s lead. If her answers show she may not know her own rights at work, we make sure she does before any placement.

05
Scenario assessment

We show her real-life situations and ask what happened, whether anyone was right or wrong, and what she would have done. It shows us how she reasons about honesty, fairness and harm: whether she tells the truth when it costs her something, and whether she puts a child’s safety first. A poor result ends her visit.

06
Competency interview

A structured interview covering childcare knowledge, safety awareness, communication and professional conduct. We test her reading and writing in English on the spot, and check the skills she claims wherever they can be shown in the room. Anything that can’t be demonstrated is recorded as unverified, not assumed. We also ask whether her commitment will hold: who needs to agree to her working, and what else she has planned.

07
Background checks
Guarantor and referee

Every nanny provides a guarantor and a referee from outside her family, and we speak to both. Her guarantor signs a written undertaking. We receive the signed original, verify the guarantor’s identity, and call to confirm it is genuine before she goes any further.

08
Preferences

A conversation about the household she works best in: the ages she enjoys, the tasks she prefers, pets, travel, and what she needs from a family. We also record the households she won’t work in, and check every family against them before her profile is presented. A match has to fit both sides.

09
Orientation and declarations

We take her through our four standards (honesty, reliability, discretion and care) and the standards we hold in every home, from how she dresses to keeping her phone away while caring for your children. We also tell her what we expect of families, so she knows we protect her too. She initials each point and signs.

10
Medicals

Every nanny consents to medical testing as a condition of joining us. Before she starts, she is tested in the way the family chooses: arranged by us, or at the family’s own clinic. A family may waive the medical in writing. The options are on our Services page.

This is what it means when we introduce a nanny to you. By the time you meet her, we already believe in her.