Child Care

Our childcare services include a range of options, including: nannies; mothercraft nurses and babysitters.

Because working with your children is so important, we take the utmost care in the selection of our child carers. They are all interviewed and screened by our management. All Help On The Way child carers must:

• Provide three relevant references which we verify
• Have a current 1st Aid Certificate
• Must update their CPR annually
• Hold a current Police Clearance
• Hold a Working With Children Card
• Are insured

We will send you a child carer who is experienced with children of similar age and needs to your own. You will need to provide your child carer with written instructions for any medication that is to be administered. These instructions need to be signed by a parent and the child carer. We have child carers who are able to assist children with any special needs including food allergies, anapalyxis, asthma, ADD/ADHD, autism, etc. Please let us know when you book if we can help with any such needs.

Nanny - Casual Daytime

Your nanny will organise age appropriate activities, prepare nutritious meals and apply positive parenting techniques at all times. You can give your nanny guidelines for your children that will always be adhered to. If time permits, the nanny may also undertake some light home duties but is not a cleaner. Many of our nannies are trained in food issues and allergies such as nut, dairy and coeliac disease. Please inform both the agency and the nanny of all allergies to ensure appropriate food and drink is given to children.

Permanent Nanny - Full Time Or Part Time

Help On The Way Nannies organise age appropriate activities, prepare meals with an awareness of nutrition and apply positive parenting techniques at all times. Many parents thinking about employing a nanny often find the whole interviewing process quite daunting or simply just don’t have the time. Help On The Way uses a time-proven process to source, screen and interview our helpers which ensures that we can provide you with the right nanny to meet your needs.

How To Choose A Nanny

We will research candidates for you and provide a short-list for you to meet. In order to help us with the process and make things as efficient as possible, we will ask you to provide an outline of your needs, including:

1. Which days and how many hours per day is the nanny required?
2. How many children (& ages of each) is the nanny looking after each day?
3. What duties are expected of the nanny
4. Will a car/driver be essential?

Suggested Interview Process

When you interview nannies, you will be able to observe them with your children and also have the opportunity to ask some questions. Observation

• Do your children appear to be at ease with the nanny?
• Does the nanny instinctively interact & play with your children?
• Does the nanny appear relaxed and display a sense of enthusiasm?

Questions

• What appeals to you about taking care of children in a home situation?
• What are your thoughts on discipline and use of positive parenting skills?
• What do you find to be the most challenging and interesting part of working with children?
• What age appropriate activities would you initiate with our child/children indoors, outdoors or in a public place?
• What television shows do you feel are appropriate for our child/children?
• Have you ever had to handle an emergency situation? If so, what happened and what action did you take?
• Are you willing to supervise friends of our children who are invited to our home while you are in charge?
• Do you envisage being a nanny as a long term career?

An information pack will be sent to you which includes details relating to wages, tax, super, workcare, our terms and conditions and placement fees. We also include an agreement form to be signed and returned by the client before the nanny can be placed with you.

Our staff at the agency are always happy to give you a verbal quote before sending out any information.

The nannies' hourly rate is negotiated with the agency depending on your requirements, for example the number and ages of children to be cared for.

Please take a look at our suggested employment agreement (pdf 53kb).

Live-In Nanny

A live-in nanny becomes a member of your family. They live with you and look after your children from about 7am until the day ends when the children are bathed and fed - which is approximately 7pm (depending on ages of the children and job requirement the nanny may have some time off during the day). Live-in nannies are difficult to find.

You need to provide the nanny with their own room, and preferably their own bathroom or one shared with children only.

The nanny usually works a 5 day week and has 2 consecutive days off. This doesn't have to be a Saturday and Sunday but keep in mind many nannies are from the country and would like to return home on the weekend.

If you need your nanny to babysit at night, it is by mutual agreement and the nanny is either paid an additional hourly rate or given time off in lieu.

If the nanny uses her own car on your behalf, there will be a charge of .80c km for petrol. If you want the nanny to drive your car, you need to check your insurance policy for age limitation.

After School Care

Please note that after school care can be challenging to find since most nannies are looking for a full days of work, but if you need this kind of assistance, give us a call and we will do our best for you.

Babysitter

When you need someone to take care of your children in the evening, then our babysitters can help.

Your babysitter can read stories, play games and - if relevant - give baby bottles and change nappies.

Once your children are in bed, your babysitter will check them every 1/2 hour regardless of age.

When you return home, please check your children with your sitter to ensure that everything is in order before the sitter departs.

Mothercraft Nurse

Our mothercraft nurses are highly experienced in their field. Many were formally trained in maternity hospitals meeting the requirements of a rigorous certificate. This first hand training unfortunately no longer exists so our mothercraft nurses are now considered rare specialists. (There are now uni/TAFE courses to train nurses but the experience is very different.)

All Mothercraft Nurses have many years experience coupled with recent methods in all aspects of mother and babies' needs especially:

• sleep routines
• breast feeding concerns
• multiple births
• post-natal care

Night Nanny

Our night nannies are highly experienced, particularly with newborns. They arrive in the evening and will stay on duty until they leave in the morning. They will settle baby/children to sleep, feed, and change nappies as required.

Please Note: Our night nannies are not mothercraft nurses. Please see Mothercraft Nurse for specialised care.

Short Term Live In

We have nannies that specialise in Short-Term-Live-In positions - from 24 hours to a few weeks.

They are all very experienced "Sole Charge" nannies who move into your home and take over responsibility of the household. They are totally responsible for the care of your children and running of your home on a 24 hour basis.

Your nanny organises age appropriate activities, prepare meals, pick up and drive children to school/kinder or any other. Your nanny will always abide by any outline you give them. Rates are based on age and number of children and whether it is during the week, weekend or perhaps school holidays.