Ardmore, PA—March 21, 2011—“She seemed like a great person, very articulate, very smart, she seemed so caring and so nice,” said the woman who found the nanny on sittercity.com, a national website that matches parents with local baby sitters and nannies. Her profile and photo showed a 26 year old Villanova law student, who worked part time at her uncle’s law firm. She had experience with infants and young children and passed a criminal background check with flying colors.
The Villanova family learned that this “nanny poser” who began taking care of their 7 month old daughter was actually an adoption scammer –a person who claims to have given birth to a child that doesn’t exist for emotional or financial gain. The “nanny poser” was stealing the identity of her employers, such as using photographs and other detailed information of the family, to show as “proof” to potential adoptive families that she was legitimately putting “her” child up for adoption.
All too true is the fact that people who use on line nanny agencies, without conducting additional screenings, are not immune to being scammed. “A comprehensive background check is needed to ensure an understanding of who you are hiring,” says Wendy Sachs, President of The Philadelphia Nanny Network and Co-President of the International Nanny Association (INA).
For some parents, browsing through websites of Internet based referral services from the comfort of their own home seems like the ideal way to find a nanny or a babysitter. Internet based referral services can provide a viable method for finding child care but a parent must be willing to invest time to screen, interview and check the references of each candidate, “and they must know how to identify the red flags”, says Sachs. For a small fee, parents can gain access to numerous candidates who list “profiles” on the company’s website. Many parents are surprised to learn, however, that candidates who list themselves undergo no screening process before they post their profiles to the site. “Parents should be aware that candidate’s identities are never verified, their childcare references are never checked and their employment history is never validated”, says Sachs and while many online services offer background screening services for additional fees, parents should inquire as to what the screenings include.
While on line agencies can be used as a recruiting tool, there is NO replacement for a comprehensive professional background screening procedure through which a brick and mortar agency would conduct on any nanny candidate. Sachs says, “Parents going the “do it yourself” route must follow through in doing their due diligence and use ALL tools available, understanding nothing can be a replacement of the expertise of agencies who have cultivated their own proprietary tools and developed skills that provide a tighter screening process than what a novice can complete.” Sachs notes that although there is no such thing as an airtight seamless procedure, it’s a best practice to use the most all-inclusive screening method available before leaving young children alone with a nanny. Further, parents need to understand that online screenings and online criminal record databases aren't always as comprehensive as presented. Many agencies offer an “a la carte” screening service for parents who have identified candidates on their own but want to tap into a professional’s expertise.
INA recommends following these practices for background screening, practices that are followed by INA member agencies, like The Philadelphia Nanny Network, in Ardmore, PA.
* Verify and authenticate a nanny candidate’s identity to ensure that the candidate is using real and accurate information about his or her own identity.
* Verify employment and educational history and applicable credentials and licenses.
* Perform state and county criminal record searches for every jurisdiction where the candidate has worked and lived, using any and all names the candidate has used, for at least the past seven years, depending upon applicable state laws.
* Perform a sex offender registry search for all 50 states, D.C., Puerto Rico and Guam.
* Review the candidate’s driving record.
* Comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and all other applicable local, state and federal laws.
* Perform periodic updating of background screenings for all placed nannies and nannies who provide temporary services.
Says Wendy Sachs, “Screening is the necessary key to protecting your children and family. An agency can do all the necessary checking and make recommendations so a family doesn’t have to go through what this Upper Providence family went through.”
