First Week With a New Nanny: Your Home Handover Checklist

Featured image: a conceptual illustration of blank handover papers and a pen. It is not a family’s care record.

Before the first visit: make a short care brief

Put the practical details in one place so the nanny can refer to them. Include the agreed dates, hours, duties and parent contacts. Add a backup contact and clarify what to do if the usual contact cannot be reached.

Describe your child’s familiar feeding, rest and play routines, comfort cues and interests. Note allergies and any additional support needs. Share the relevant healthcare professional’s instructions where these apply, and confirm with the provider which responsibilities the caregiver can undertake.

EduNanny’s current private nanny service page asks families to agree duties before care begins, introduce home routines and plan the first handover. Confirm your own arrangement with the team; a general checklist does not add duties to a booking.

At the first handover: walk through the home

Introduce the caregiver and explain the day’s plan in a way your child can follow. Show where everyday care supplies are kept and which spaces or belongings should be left untouched. Point out the agreed areas for play, feeding and rest.

Allow time to talk through the care brief and answer questions. If you plan to be present initially, or to leave for part of the visit, agree that arrangement in advance. Avoid assuming an extra introductory session is included or that every family should use the same timetable.

Before the handover ends, check that the nanny knows how to reach you, where the written information is kept and which questions still need an answer.

Keep care instructions clear and current

Separate preferences, such as a favourite story, from safety and health instructions. Feeding and health arrangements should reflect your child’s current needs and the guidance relevant to them. Ask for clarification when an instruction is unclear rather than asking the caregiver to improvise.

For babies, review HealthHub’s baby-sleep guidance together. Its safety advice includes placing babies on their backs for sleep, using a firm mattress and keeping loose items out of the sleeping space. Discuss individual health questions with a healthcare professional.

Write down changes to the agreed care brief and make sure the people caring for your child have the current version. Do not use a first-week checklist to introduce a new feeding or sleep technique.

Agree updates that serve the handover

Decide how and when you will communicate, which matters require a call and how the session will end. Ask what information the handover should contain: relevant feeding and rest observations, activities and any question or incident that needs follow-up.

If you want photographs, agree permission, the sharing channel and who may receive them. A practical note can be more useful than a stream of pictures. Do not treat photo sharing as proof that every part of the care plan was followed.

Make room for questions from the nanny as well as updates to you. The aim is a shared understanding of the current care plan, rather than a report that has to show progress every day.

Review the week without a settling-in deadline

Arrange a short check-in after the initial visits. Look at what worked in the handover, which instructions were unclear and whether the practical arrangements need changing. Use specific observations rather than assumptions about how your child should feel by day three or day seven.

Confirm any change in duties, schedule or communication with the person responsible for the booking. Our nanny contract checklist can help you find the relevant terms; the nanny duties guide helps you discuss scope.

Raise a care concern when it arises, rather than saving it for the end-of-week meeting. Our care-concerns guide separates routine provider follow-up from official urgent help.

Your first-week handover checklist

• Booking: agreed dates, hours and duties are clear.
• Contacts: the parent and backup contact can be reached through the agreed route.
• Care brief: routines, allergies, support needs and relevant current instructions are recorded.
• Home: supplies, agreed care spaces and areas to leave untouched have been shown.
• Communication: updates, questions, photographs and the end-of-session handover are agreed.
• Review: open questions have a named contact and a planned follow-up.

This guide covers private nanny care at home. The ECDA childminding pilot and licensed childcare are different arrangements, with their own settings and terms. Check the information for the service you are actually using.

Finish the week with an updated care brief and a clear plan for the next visit. That gives the family and caregiver something practical to work from without setting a deadline for a child’s adjustment.