Household employer templates
Domestic staff job description templates
A useful nanny or housekeeper job description defines the role summary, recurring duties, what is out of scope, normal hours, location, working arrangement, gross-pay basis and genuine requirements. It should describe the job candidates are being asked to accept, not a wish list that expands after placement.
What should a domestic staff job description include?
Include a short role summary, the recurring duties, priority order, normal days and hours, work location, live-in or live-out arrangement, intended start date, gross-pay basis and any essential driving, travel, cooking or qualification requirement. State material exclusions where a confused boundary is likely, such as whether deep cleaning, family cooking or childcare sits outside the role.
The job description is a recruitment and role-design document. It does not replace the employment contract or written statement of employment particulars. This is general employer information, not personalised legal advice.
A clear job description has eight parts.
Use the smallest accurate job title.
Nanny, housekeeper, nanny-housekeeper, maternity nurse, mother's help, companion or cleaner should reflect the dominant work rather than a generic “domestic help” label.
Summarise what the role is there to achieve.
One or two sentences should tell a candidate whether the role is childcare-led, household-management-led or a realistic combination.
List work that happens every day or week.
Keep occasional requests separate so the core job remains visible.
State what wins when responsibilities conflict.
This is particularly important in nanny-housekeeper and shared-support roles.
Normal days, hours and predictable variations.
Include early starts, late finishes, weekends, travel or school-holiday differences if they are genuine parts of the role.
Location and live-in or live-out setup.
For live-in staff, describe accommodation separately from working time.
Use a clear gross-pay basis or range.
Keep salary separate from agency fees and household employer on-costs.
Explain why each essential criterion matters.
Driving, a qualification, language or travel should connect to a real recurring duty rather than operate as an arbitrary screen.
Nanny job description template.
Adapt the bracketed elements to the actual family rather than copying duties that do not apply.
[Full-time/part-time] [live-in/live-out] nanny for [number] children aged [ages], based in [location]. The role is primarily responsible for [sole-charge/shared-care] childcare during [normal working pattern].
Recurring duties: plan and supervise age-appropriate activities; prepare agreed meals for the children; manage school/nursery runs where applicable; maintain children's laundry and child-related areas where agreed; support homework or bedtime routines where relevant; communicate routine updates and concerns to the parents.
Out of scope unless separately agreed: general family housekeeping, unrelated deep cleaning, adult laundry, family cooking, pet care or work for another property.
Requirements: [relevant age-group experience], [driving if genuinely required], [first aid or qualification if genuinely required], right to work and satisfactory references/checks appropriate to the role.
Housekeeper job description template.
Scale the task list to the property and weekly hours rather than copying every possible household duty.
[Full-time/part-time] [live-in/live-out] housekeeper for a [property/household description] in [location]. The role is responsible for maintaining agreed household routines, laundry and domestic organisation during [working pattern].
Recurring duties: routine household cleaning; laundry and ironing to the agreed standard; bed linen and household linen; kitchen and bathroom maintenance; household organisation; [family cooking/shopping only where required]; reporting supplies or maintenance issues through the agreed household process.
Out of scope unless separately agreed: childcare, specialist garment treatment beyond stated experience, chauffeuring, pet care, heavy or specialist cleaning, care duties or work for another property.
Requirements: relevant household experience matching the property and task list, communication sufficient for the role, right to work and satisfactory references/checks appropriate to the vacancy.
Keep the duty list inside the canonical role boundary.
Use the dedicated nanny duties guide for childcare-led responsibilities and the housekeeper duties guide for household-management work. If a job genuinely combines both, the nanny-housekeeper service and daily-schedule guide explain how to make the split realistic.
A job description that expands every adjacent task into one role creates a recruitment problem before employment even starts. If the weekly hours cannot contain the recurring duties, change the brief rather than relying on “flexibility”.
From our work: the FDS household enquiry already contains the raw material for the job description.
Filipino Domestic Services asks households for the role, recurring duties, location, normal days and hours, live-in or live-out arrangement, intended start date and any practical requirements such as driving, cooking, travel or pets. Role-specific pages then add the household information that changes the job, such as children's ages for a nanny or property context and laundry expectations for a housekeeper.
We use those fields because a short title alone is not enough to match a household role. Two families can both ask for a “housekeeper” while one needs routine cleaning and laundry on three days and another expects full household management, family cooking, formal ironing and regular guests. The candidate needs the second layer of detail before deciding whether to interview.
The same principle applies to nanny roles. Children's ages, sole-charge responsibility, school or nursery schedule and the actual child-related duties matter more than generic phrases such as “must love children”. Evidence can be assessed only when the job description names the work.
In the rebuilt site, we also use explicit exclusions where the boundary is commonly confused. That makes later onboarding and performance conversations easier because the household can compare the job being done with one current written version instead of reconstructing an informal list from memory.
What is the difference between a job description and an employment contract?
The job description explains the role and recurring responsibilities used for recruitment and day-to-day clarity. The contract or written statement records employment particulars and contractual terms. GOV.UK lists particulars that employees and workers must receive in writing, including key information from the first day of employment.
For contract requirements, use the domestic staff employment-contract guide. This page does not attempt to reproduce the legal contract framework.
Domestic staff job-description questions.
How detailed should a nanny job description be?
Detailed enough to explain the children's ages, care responsibility, normal schedule, recurring child-related duties, location and genuine requirements, but not so long that every occasional household request becomes a permanent duty.
What should a housekeeper job description include?
Include the property context, recurring cleaning, laundry and ironing, cooking or shopping if required, household organisation, days and hours, working arrangement, pay basis and any genuine driving, travel or pet responsibilities.
Should salary be in the job description?
State the gross-pay basis or range used for recruitment where possible, while keeping agency fees and employer on-costs separate. The final contractual pay belongs in the employment terms.
Can I add “other duties as required”?
A narrow flexibility clause may not solve an oversized job. The recurring responsibilities and role boundaries should still be clear. Material changes to duties or hours should be addressed explicitly rather than hidden inside a catch-all phrase.
Is a job description the same as a contract?
No. A job description defines the role and recurring work. The employment contract or written statement records contractual and statutory employment particulars. Use the dedicated contract guide for that legal framework.
Should I mention right to work or DBS in the job description?
You can state lawful role requirements, but the actual checks belong in the recruitment process. DBS level depends on legal eligibility for the duties; right-to-work checking follows the separate statutory employer procedure.
Sources and scope.
The templates are grounded in FDS's current household briefing fields. The legal distinction between role description and written employment particulars is kept brief and sourced to GOV.UK.
Turn the household need into one current written role.
Then use the employer guide to move from recruitment into the contract, payroll and before-start obligations.