Nanny CV Examples & Writing Guide

A one-page CV for a career nanny applying through an agency and directly to families. The name and families are made up. Families are listed as "private family" with the area; you never put a family's surname or address on a CV you send out.

A parent reading a nanny CV is asking one question: can this person keep my child safe and happy while we are at work? Agencies ask the same, plus whether they can place you quickly. Both look for the same five things before they read a word of your bullets.

• Ages you have cared for, and for how long. "Newborn to 3 years, 4 years total" tells a parent with a baby you are a fit. Put the age range in your title line and in every job.
• Length of each placement. Nannies who stay 2 years or more are what families want. Show start and end months, not just years.
• Paediatric first aid (the 12-hour course) with the provider and expiry date, and an Enhanced DBS check. Agencies will not put you forward without them. A driving licence and clean record matter for most posts.
• The daily work: meals, naps, school runs, homework, activities, light housework. Parents want to see their own to-do list on your page.
• References. Two or three former families who will pick up the phone. You do not list them on the CV, but you say they are available, and you have them ready with permission.

“Families skip straight to the dates. A nanny who stayed three years with one family and two with the next will get an interview over someone with more total experience spread across eight households. After that they want to know about ages, driving and first aid, in that order.”

Nanny work does not come with a company name or a job description, so people leave it vague or, worse, leave it off. Treat each family as an employer. The format below works for agency databases, for job sites like Childcare.co.uk and Indeed, and for a CV you hand to a parent.

1. 1Job title: be exact. "Full-Time Nanny (live-out)", "Part-Time After-School Nanny", "Live-In Nanny", "Nanny Share", "Maternity Nurse", "Summer Holiday Nanny", "Babysitter (regular weekend)". Parents search for these titles.
2. 2Employer line: "Private family, 2 children (aged 2 and 5 at start), Bristol". Number of children, their ages when you started, and the town or area. No surnames or addresses.
3. 3Dates with months, plus hours per week if full-time ("Aug 2022 to Present, 50 hrs/week").
4. 4Three to five bullets: what you did every day, what changed while you were there (milestones you helped with, routines you set up), and anything extra (travel, overnights, cooking, tutoring, a second language).
5. 5Numbers where they are honest: children and ages, years stayed, hours a week, miles driven, meals cooked, trips taken, overnights covered, reading progress at school.

Three sentences: years and type of post, ages cared for, and two or three things that make you a fit (qualifications, first aid, driving, cooking, languages, newborn experience). Use a career objective only when you are new and have nothing to summarise yet; say what post you want and what you bring.

List skills a parent can picture you doing. Agency databases and job sites also filter on these words, so use plain terms, not "childcare expert". Pick 10 to 14 from the groups below that are true for you.

• Baby care: bottle and breast-milk handling, formula preparation, safe sleep, sleep training support, weaning, tummy time, newborn bathing.
• Toddler and preschool: potty training, managing tantrums, routines and transitions, early reading and counting play, screen-time limits.
• School-age: homework help by school year, reading practice, activity planning, playdate arranging, talking with pre-teens.
• Household: meal planning and cooking for children, allergy-aware cooking, children's laundry, tidying, food shopping, running errands, feeding pets.
• Safety and health: 12-hour paediatric first aid, giving medicines with written parental consent, allergy and adrenaline auto-injector (EpiPen) training, water safety, fitting car seats.
• Logistics and communication: daily logs, shared calendar apps, text updates, travel packing, liaising with tutors, coaches and grandparents.
• Extras that raise your rate: a second language, swimming teaching, SEND experience (name it: autism, ADHD, type 1 diabetes), tutoring, twins or multiples, newborn night care.

Nannies in the UK do not have to be registered or hold a qualification (registration is compulsory for nurseries and childminders, not for a nanny working in the family's home). What families and agencies expect instead is a short list of current certificates and checks. List each with the provider and the date or expiry.

• Paediatric first aid: the 12-hour course is what agencies and Ofsted registration look for. Renew it every three years and put the expiry date on your CV.
• Driving licence and a clean record. Say "own car" if you have one and that it is insured for business use; some families pay mileage or provide a car.
• Enhanced DBS check. Agencies usually arrange their own, but noting "Enhanced DBS, on the Update Service" saves a question and lets a new family check it online with your permission.
• Ofsted Childcare Register (voluntary part, England): optional, but some parents can only use Tax-Free Childcare or similar help to pay you if you are registered. It usually needs paediatric first aid, a DBS check, insurance and relevant training; check the current requirements on GOV.UK. The rules differ in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
• Nice to have: a Level 3 Early Years Educator qualification (older ones may say CACHE or NNEB), maternity nurse or newborn care training, a swimming teacher qualification, a Level 2 Food Hygiene certificate if you cook a lot, and any SEND training. Some families with a newborn also ask about flu, whooping cough and COVID-19 vaccination; add a line only if you are comfortable.

Almost nobody starts with zero experience. You have looked after siblings, cousins, neighbours' children, church crèche groups or holiday club children. The trick is to write that experience the same way a professional nanny writes a placement: ages, how often, for how long, what you did.

• Put babysitting on the CV as a job: "Regular Babysitter, 3 families, Leeds, 2024 to present: evenings and weekends, children aged 2 to 9, about 10 hours a week."
• Family care counts. "Daily after-school care for two younger siblings (aged 5 and 8) for 2 years: pick-up, snacks, homework, making dinner." Be honest that they are relatives.
• Add volunteering and school work with children: church crèche, holiday club, Brownies or Scouts, tutoring, coaching a children's team, a childcare course at school or college.
• Do a paediatric first aid course before you apply. The 12-hour course usually takes two days (some are part online), and it is the first thing a parent checks.
• Use a short career objective at the top: the post you want, your availability and your first aid certificate.
• Collect two references who have seen you with children, even if they are the parents of children you babysat, a teacher or a youth leader.

• One page, two at most. Even a career nanny with 15 years fits on one page by trimming early placements to a line each.
• Order: header (with driving licence, DBS and "references available"), personal statement, experience, qualifications and checks, education, skills. Agencies flip through hundreds of these; keep the headings standard.
• No photo on a UK CV, even though many nanny profiles online have one. No date of birth, no marital status. The agency or job site profile can have a photo; the CV should not.
• Say what kind of post you want: live-in or live-out, full-time or part-time, hours, travel, whether you are open to a nanny share or housekeeping duties, and your expected gross salary (as a nanny you are normally the family's employee, paid through payroll). It saves everyone a call.
• In the US the document is called a nanny resume and is usually kept to one page; the content advice above is the same.
• Send a PDF. If you apply through Childcare.co.uk or an agency portal, paste the same bullets into the profile so both match.