Analysis: A closer look at nanny workforce

It didn't win many news headlines, but the Children's Workforce Development Council last month achieved the feat of counting the uncountable. The composition, needs and aspirations of the nanny workforce in England, its report of a year's research commissioned from the Social Issues Research Centre (SIRC), put a new figure on the number of nannies working in the country, as well showing as a clearer profile of nannies by age, education, qualifications and other demographic factors than anyone has done yet.

But throughout the report, peer-reviewed and bolstered by nanny focus groups and interviews, the researchers also point up why the boundaries defining the 'invisible professionals' in the childcare workforce remain blurred.

A fresh look at nannying is particularly timely amid the furore over the new Vetting and Barring scheme. With parents fearing they will no longer be allowed to drive their friends' children to sports activities, and big-name children's authors protesting that they will not be able to visit schools without being registered with the Independent Safeguarding Authority, why does the Government continue to exempt nannies, who work all day unsupervised at home with other people's children?

Voluntary register

The research was commissioned by the CWDC in conjunction with the National Childminding Association and with Voice, which for years under its former name of the Professional Association of Nursery Nurses campaigned sympathetically for nannies to be officially registered.

Tricia Pritchard, senior professional officer at Voice, says, 'We hope these findings will add weight to our call for a compulsory national register of nannies. It is about time that nannies were brought in from the cold and given the professional recognition and status that they deserve. If there can be a compulsory register of parents who educate at home, why not one for childcarers who care for children in the home?'

At present nannies can apply to be listed on the Voluntary Ofsted Childcare Register (vOCR), which will make parents employing them eligible for tax breaks. But, as the report notes, 'Nannies do not fit easily into a single, clearly definable professional category. They are not legally required to have a minimum level of qualifications or experience. Neither are they required to be registered with Ofsted, to have liability insurance or to undergo CRB disclosures.'

They do require these to be on the vOCR, but nannies in the survey often felt that 'the vOCR is marketed to parents more as a way of saving money than it is as a method of ensuring professional standards or safeguarding of children'. And indeed, since the start of tax credits under the Childcare Approval Scheme in 2005, which the vOCR replaced in 2007, nannies have grumbled that is the parent employers who gain all the benefits from their registration, while nannies personally bear the expense of it.

The survey found that nannies in principle supported greater regulation, with nearly three-quarters saying they had an Enhanced CRB disclosure and a majority being positive about the benefits of it, although opinion was divided on the benefits of being registered with Ofsted. Those who wanted compulsory registration for nannies saw it as a way to improve professional recognition and demonstrate their commitment.

Hard to count

The SIRC researchers estimate the number of nannies working in England at between 30,000 and 36,000, using data from labour surveys by the Office for National Statistics, the Home Office and also the Thomas Coram Research Unit. Without a register or a Standard Occupational Classification for nannies, the report acknowledges, statistics are hard to come by.

For years the number bandied about in the media was 110,000. The research shows how this was perpetuated by Sharingcare.co.uk, a web-based nanny-share service started by directors of the agency Tinies - the figure was extrapolated from numbers of nannies on the agency's books, while not taking into account how many of the same nannies may have signed up with other agencies at the same time, how many may have been inactive, and the fact that an unknowable number of nannies never register with agencies at all, or find jobs through word-of-mouth - or, increasingly these days, use internet sites that introduce nannies and families to each other directly.

Putting a more accurate figure on the number of nannies could make them less easy to ignore, and ostensibly less difficult to regulate. Their numbers may even shrink a bit more, if the Government goes ahead with plans to abolish tax relief on childcare vouchers, which parents can claim when using nannies on the vOCR - although nannies are not the preserve of higher-rate taxpayers, as popular image has it. Many parents on quite average incomes prefer them for the flexible hours and one-to-one care they can offer.

But nannies still represent a sizeable, relatively well-trained, relatively well-paid portion of the childcare workforce. So, why does the SIRC research find that more than half of them are so young, aged only 30 or under, and why do nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) of those in the survey foresee themselves working as a nanny for no more than five years?

The report notes 'a general recognition that, as a nanny, one can "hit a ceiling" career-wise in a relatively short space of time', and 'a lack of established pathways between nannying and other jobs in childcare and education.' Yet it found a high level (47 per cent) of nannies saying they had professional ambitions or goals, and most saw themselves as equals with other childcarers.

It is in the nature of the job that nannies are continually becoming redundant as the children they care for get older and no longer need them. The report acknowledges the strain, for some, of regularly having to find a new family and starting again from scratch. It suggests the lack of continuing professional development is 'rooted in the disparity between the expectations held by nannies and those who employ them'.

Certainly, one of the unique features of nannying is that parents in their own home are like no other employers. Many nannies in the CWDC survey 'felt that parents take career development less seriously than company employers. One reason for this was the workplace boundaries - ie, strong associations between working as a nanny and mothering'.

In a section headed 'Ambiguity of nanny-employer relations', the report states, 'Often, the language of friendship and, at times, kinship used to define the nanny's status within the parental home make it hard for nannies and employers, alike, to negotiate conditions of work. Financial arrangements, in particular, can become taboo subjects when placed within the framework of love and caring.'

Add to that ambiguity the apparent fact that nanny registration is being driven more by the financial gains for the parents, than by child protection, and it is perhaps not so surprising that nannies don't stand out as a distinct part of the childcare workforce.

The CWDC report, while not profiling parents' awareness of registration schemes, does highlight their confusion over a nanny's role or remit in the home. It is ironic that in the case (Nursery World, 24 September) of the two women police officers stopped by Ofsted from looking after each other's children while they job-shared, all that the mothers would have had to do was go to each other's homes as if they were nannies, and Ofsted would have taken no interest.

The research found only 29 per cent of respondents saying they were on the vOCR, and not many nanny agencies requiring it before placing them. Similar proportions of nannies reported that they found the process of getting registered either difficult or easy - which could point to the need to make the procedure simpler and more accessible - with some nannies resenting that they didn't get the same subsidies or training support as other carers, such as childminders, with whom they saw themselves as equals.

Source of childcare

In the broader picture of the childcare workforce, nannies may represent a waste of self-motivated, well-trained professionals. Despite the CWDC's best efforts, the Government still declines to regulate or promote nannies as a valuable source of childcare for working parents. Nor does it look likely that a new Government would; Conservative Party thinking is to champion 'informal' childcare and avoid state interference.

But the Vetting and Barring scheme makes nanny registration an issue that can't be ignored. The curious 'hands-off' attitude towards nanny employment as a private matter for parents is not necessarily doing nannies, let alone children, any favours. As Tricia Pritchard said, it is about time that nannies were brought in from the cold.

MORE INFORMATION

'Research into the composition, needs and aspirations of the nanny workforce in England' can be found at www.cwdcouncil.org.uk/research/projects/nanny-workforce

WAYS TO GO

Helen Kewley, owner of the agency Nice Nannies Now near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, has found that the availability of full-time positions with perks has been falling for years, but is optimistic about the directions nannies can go in.

She says, 'One trend I have noticed is that once a nanny has her own child, she quite often goes into school work as a Learning Support Assistant - schools are employing far more LSAs now. And now that the BTec national and CACHE diploma have A-level equivalence, some people nanny for a while and then go on to train as teachers. From the outset some nannies have a career plan, and there are a lot more "sideways" openings for qualified childcarers - health visitor assistant, hospital play specialist, social services home support worker. With the dearth of full-time nanny jobs now, some just settle for the long-term security of a nursery job.'

A regular on Helen's books is Ann Ryall, who has been nannying for 17 years. She did the NNEB and wanted to work in schools but found the pay too low. Ann is happy juggling three part-time jobs, plus lots of babysitting, at the moment and says most of her friends now are in nannyshares or busy raising their own families.

She says it's a good idea for nannies to be Ofsted registered - 'It is a professional qualification' - but has felt frustrated that many people still don't know the difference between a nanny and an au pair. 'The last family who interviewed me didn't even check my references.' She keeps her CRB clearance up to date through the agency but gets frustrated with its limitations for voluntary work - it allows her to go in with her charges and assist at a pre-school but forbids her accompanying them into the toilets.