Untitled Document

Excerpt from article in The Daily Telegraph, Saturday November 16, 2002

Overcoming the nanny state
(Filed: 16/11/2002)

How can you be sure the person who cares for your children is who - or what - she claims to be? Sarah Lonsdale investigates

There have long been calls for a central nanny register - which the Government claims is impractical - or, failing that, legislation to force agencies to check references thoroughly. The Government promised that it would bring in new measures to ensure proper checks were made in the aftermath of the Louise Sullivan baby killing. Six-month-old Caroline Jongen was killed by Sullivan, an Australian nanny, in 1998. But the promised legislation has never materialised and is now not due until some time in the next Parliament.

According to a Department of Trade and Industry spokesman, nanny agencies will have access to a new, fast-track system of establishing whether potential employees have any unspent criminal convictions. However, this system will not help if agencies fail to check these records or if the nanny's shortcomings are not criminal but simply laziness, unreliability or having a strange compunction to cook paella all day.

"We are in a ridiculous situation where we now have more nannies working in this country than childminders," says Tricia Pritchard, chairman of the Playpen campaign for nanny registration.

"Childminders are subject to rigorous checks but there is no protection for children being looked after in their own home. The Government is encouraging more and more mothers to go out to work but is doing nothing to regulate nannying," said Ms Pritchard, who is also an officer of the Professional Association of Nursery Nurses.

Tania Fallon decided to do something about what she saw as the slapdash approach of agencies after searching for a nanny to look after her son Max, now five.

"I was sent all sorts of unsuitable nannies, then, while I was waiting for one to turn up, I decided to call up a referee," she says. "I spoke to the mother and she was absolutely shocked that she had been used as a reference - she had sacked the nanny after two weeks when she overheard her referring to her daughter as a 'little bitch'. What shocked me was the fact that the agency had obviously not checked her references at all."

After leaving her job as a television producer, Ms Fallon, 33, and her business partner, Eve Tomlinson, decided to set up a website to provide parents with a list of reputable nanny agencies. They used an investigative reporter to pose as a nanny seeking work, and were shocked at how easily she was given interviews with parents, often without having been seen by the agency at all.

"The worst case was when she was offered, over the phone and without having been seen, sole charge of 18-month-old twins," says Ms Fallon.

Their website, www.bestbear.co.uk, offers nannies, agencies and parents a talking shop and magazine. Parents can swap advice and information with each other on topics such as what to do about nannies making personal calls on their employer's phone and the merits of installing a "nannycam" to keep an eye on things at home. There is much lively debate on the latter concerning the children's safety versus the nanny's civil liberties.

Good nanny agencies are as desperate as parents for the promised legislation. It will, they say, sort out the wheat from the chaff. Karen Murphy, of Ideal Nannies in west London, says that her agency already conducts police checks and previous employer checks before sending any nanny for an interview.

"We actually want a proper register so nannying is more of a profession, like nursing," she says. "At the moment it is terribly difficult, especially for first-time mothers, to know who to trust."

Professional Association of Nursery Nurses: 01332 372337
Bestbear: www.bestbear.co.uk; 020 7352 5852.