Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Child Caregiver
What to ask and what to verify before someone is alone with your child.
Knowledge · Child Care
Preparing Your Home for Child Care
Most of what makes the first week work is decided before it starts — what has been written down, what has been agreed, and whether the caregiver arrives knowing how your household actually runs. This covers that preparation. It is about arranging care, not about raising children, and it takes no view on how you parent.
When this is useful
In the Days Before a Caregiver Starts
Written for the parent doing the organising, usually while also working. It is a household checklist, not a child-rearing one.
- A start date is set and you are not sure what to have ready
- This is the first time someone outside the family will look after your child at home
- You are returning to work and the handover has to be quick and clear
- A previous arrangement was unsettled and you want to start better this time
What families should know
Four Things Worth Doing Before Day One
None of these takes long. All of them are much harder to do once the arrangement has already started badly.
Write the day down, with timings
Meals, naps, school or playgroup, activities, bath, bedtime — as they actually happen, not as you would like them to. A caregiver working from a written routine settles into a household in days rather than weeks, and your child experiences far less disruption because the shape of the day does not change just because a different adult is in the house.
Put the essential information in one place
Both parents' numbers, a second contact if neither is reachable, your child's doctor's details, and anything about allergies or a condition that your doctor has told you a carer must know. Written on paper and left where it can be found, not held in one parent's phone. This is the part families most often postpone and most regret postponing.
Decide the house rules that actually matter to you
Screen time, snacks, whether your child may leave the house and with whom, visitors, phone use during working hours. Households differ enormously on these and each assumes its own version is the obvious one. Naming three or four you genuinely care about prevents most of the friction that otherwise surfaces in week two.
Plan an overlap, not a handover at the door
Where you can arrange it, be at home for the first day or two. It gives the caregiver a chance to ask questions in context, gives you a chance to see how they work, and means your child is not meeting someone new and being left alone with them within the same hour. Helping a child settle in covers that first period in more detail.
Practical considerations
The House Itself
Ordinary household arrangements. Nothing here is child-safety certification or a substitute for your own judgement about your home and your child.
Show where everything is kept
Clothes, spare clothes, medicines as your doctor has arranged them, school things, favourite toys. Ten minutes walking someone through the house saves dozens of interrupted phone calls in the first fortnight.
Agree which rooms are in use
Where your child plays, eats and naps during the day, and anywhere that is off limits. Being explicit removes an awkward conversation later.
Sort out keys and entry
How the caregiver gets in, what happens if nobody is home, and who else has access. Decide this deliberately rather than improvising on the first morning.
Name who may collect your child
A short written list, and an instruction that nobody outside it takes your child anywhere without you confirming directly. Unambiguous, in writing, from day one.
Agree how you will hear about the day
A short message at a set time, or a few minutes when you get home. Setting this up early means you hear about small things before they become large ones.
Tell your child what is happening
In whatever way suits their age, before the day rather than on it. Children handle a new arrangement better when it is not a surprise — that is a practical observation, not psychological advice.
General guidance vs our service
Where This Guidance Ends and Our Service Begins
Everything above is general household preparation any family can do. This is the part our child care service is actually responsible for.
What Quality Care can help with
- Identity, address and background verification, completed before anyone is placed with a child
- Matching on temperament and relevant experience for your child's age
- Briefing the caregiver on your written routine and house rules before the first day
- Agreeing hours, scope and collection arrangements with both sides in advance
- A local team you can reach while the placement runs
What we do NOT advise on
- Parenting. How you raise your child is yours to decide. We describe how to brief a caregiver, never what your rules should be
- Child health, illness, medication or feeding plans
- Developmental milestones, or whether a child is ahead or behind on any of them
- Behavioural or psychological assessment of any kind
- Discipline methods or any parenting philosophy
- Certifying that a home is safe. We can suggest ordinary arrangements; we cannot assess your house
We arrange practical care at home and write about arranging it. For your child's health, development, feeding or behaviour, speak to your paediatrician or a qualified professional who knows the child. If it is an emergency, seek immediate medical help.
Common questions
Questions Families Ask Us
What should we write down before a caregiver starts?
The daily routine with timings, who is allowed to collect your child, both parents' contact numbers and a second contact, your child's doctor's details, any allergy or condition your doctor has told you to communicate, and the house rules you actually care about. Written down and left in one place, not held in one parent's memory.
How much detail is too much for the first week?
A single page that covers the day is more useful than a long document nobody reads. Cover the routine, the non-negotiables and who to call. Everything else is better learned in the first fortnight by working alongside them.
Should we be at home when the caregiver first starts?
Where you can arrange it, yes — at least for the first day or two. It lets the caregiver ask questions in context, lets you see how they work, and means your child is not meeting someone new and being left with them in the same hour.
What house rules are worth agreeing in advance?
Screen time, snacks between meals, whether the child may leave the house and with whom, visitors, and phone use during working hours. These are the ones families most often assume are obvious and most often turn out not to be shared.