Nanny job description guide
Nanny duties & responsibilities
A nanny's job description should centre on the children: safe care, routines, meals, school or nursery logistics, activities and child-related organisation. Household duties should be stated separately and kept realistic.
What does a nanny normally do?
A nanny's core job is to care for the children during the agreed working hours. Depending on age and routine, that can include supervision, meals and snacks, school or nursery runs, naps, activities, outdoor time, homework, bath or bedtime routines and communication with parents about the day.
Child-related organisation can sit alongside direct care. Preparing children's bags, keeping children's areas usable, washing children's clothes, organising activities or making simple child meals can be appropriate when the hours allow. General cleaning for the whole property, extensive adult laundry or running the entire household is a different workload and should be described openly if it is genuinely part of the role.
Nanny duties checklist for the job description.
Use only the rows that apply to your household and state frequency, timing and responsibility clearly.
What should not be assumed from the word “nanny”.
Optional duties are still duties. Put them in the brief instead of relying on different expectations after the person starts.
Duties change with the child's age and schedule.
Sample nanny job-description wording.
Use this as a scoping example, not a legal contract clause.
Provide safe, attentive care for two children aged 4 and 7 during the agreed working hours, following the parents' household routines and agreed priorities.
Prepare children for school, manage drop-off and collection, organise bags and clothing, provide snacks and supper, and take children to agreed local activities.
Plan age-appropriate activities, encourage reading and outdoor time and support agreed homework without replacing a specialist tutor where one is required.
Handle children's laundry, keep children's areas reasonably tidy after use and organise everyday child-related supplies. Whole-house cleaning and adult laundry are excluded.
From our work
We ask for the duty list before treating “nanny” as a complete brief.
Filipino Domestic Services' current nanny enquiry asks a household to define the role, postcode, working arrangement, normal days and hours, children's context and recurring responsibilities before candidate introductions are assessed. That matters because two jobs described as “full-time nanny” can be operationally very different.
A baby role may involve near-continuous direct care for much of the day. A school-age role can have concentrated school-run and after-school periods with a different block of child-related organisation while the children are at school. If a household adds adult laundry, whole-home cleaning, family cooking or extensive errands, we treat those as real responsibilities that need to fit the available hours rather than as invisible extras.
We also use the duty list to separate nanny and nanny-housekeeper positions. A nanny can reasonably handle child-related tidying and organisation, but a household that genuinely needs substantial housekeeping should say so before introductions. That gives candidates a clearer picture of the work and makes it easier for the family to compare experience, salary expectations and whether the role is sustainable.
Keep the job description connected to the real childcare outcome.
Duties describe what the nanny does; the adjacent guides explain how those activities support family routines and children's development.
Questions about nanny duties and job descriptions.
What are the main duties of a nanny?
The core duties are childcare: supervision, routines, meals or snacks, school or nursery logistics, play and activities, homework where relevant, and communication with parents. Child-related laundry and organisation can also be included when agreed and realistic.
Should a nanny clean the house?
A nanny can reasonably tidy children's areas after use and handle agreed child-related tasks. Regular whole-house cleaning is a separate domestic workload and should not be assumed from the nanny title.
Can a nanny do children's laundry?
Yes, child-related laundry is commonly compatible with a nanny role when the working day allows it. State whether bedding, ironing or adult laundry is included rather than leaving the boundary implicit.
Should a nanny cook for the family?
Preparing meals for the children can fit a nanny role. Regular planning and cooking for the whole family is a broader duty and should be agreed explicitly if required.
How detailed should a nanny job description be?
Detailed enough for the candidate to understand children, hours, core duties, school or nursery logistics, travel, optional tasks and what is excluded. Avoid a minute-by-minute script unless the household genuinely operates that way.
What if I need childcare and substantial housekeeping?
Consider a nanny-housekeeper brief rather than adding general housekeeping to a nanny job after recruitment. Define the duty split and test whether both childcare and household responsibilities fit the same working hours.
Turn the checklist into your actual family brief.
Send the children's ages, schedule, postcode, working arrangement and recurring duties so introductions begin with the job you genuinely need.