Home » Blog » When is it appropriate to check a Nanny’s reference?

When is it appropriate to check a Nanny’s reference?

by | May 28, 2025 | Nannies

Checking a nanny’s references is an important step to help you make sure you are making an informed decision when hiring a Nanny. It is standard that a Nanny must provide a minimum of two references.

As an agency, when putting forward a candidate for your role, we send references along with a CV & photo of an applicant so that you as the potential hirer may have an insight into the nanny’s personality, work performance, duties etc. that you may not necessarily gain from a CV.  Being mindful of course that references are meant to objective but the can at times be more subjective as they are an opinion of that referee.

Once you have interviewed a candidate and they are interested in your job, an offer is made subject to you being able to confirm references. Assuming the candidate wants to accept your job offer they will then introduce you to their referee’s so that you can have a parent to parent/employer chat. In addition to UK GDPR this also prevents the candidates past employers having to take numerous calls from people when the Nanny has decided post interview that they no longer wish to pursue the position.

There are instances when we are unable to obtain reference for candidates, e.g. A Nanny who has done multiple temporary placements whilst looking for a new long-term position. Employers who have hired a candidate as a temporary Nanny may choose not to stand as a referee for the following reasons:

  • Sometimes dates of employment are so short they don’t feel they are best placed to give a reference, consequently we focus on long term employment.
  • If a nanny has been doing multiple temp roles for an extended period, to satisfy our due diligence depending on the length of time, we will ask the nanny to select employer(s) who are willing to confirm there were no safe guarding issues.
  • We do not condone this but occasionally the employment has been short term and the employers have not paid the required tax on the employee so are reluctant for a record of the employment to “officially” exist.

According to Acas (2024) an employer does not have to give a reference by law unless it’s:

  • in writing that the employer will provide one – like in an employment contract
  • for certain financial services jobs regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) or Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) – usually for jobs known as ‘controlled functions’ (you can find out more about controlled functions on the FCA website)
  • agreed in some other circumstances – for example, as part of a settlement agreement

If an employer has a reference policy this can restrict:

  • how much they include in a reference
  • who can give a reference on the employer’s behalf?

We advise that reference checks be done after a preliminary job offer has been made. If an employer asks for a reference before making a job offer, it can make things difficult for the applicant, for example, the applicant’s current employer might find out they’re applying for other jobs. The applicant might then be overlooked for promotion or lose their job as a result. Nannies are therefore hesitant to allow their references to be checked before you’ve made an offer of employment.

More from the blog

Blog Archive