Unfortunately, I had a very negative experience with Sarah.

We had agreed for her to start with our family on a specific date, with the contract ready to be signed and everything arranged through NannyTax, a service we paid for specifically for her position.

At the last minute, we also agreed to a significant change to her requested rate, involving an additional cost of over £2,500, in order to accommodate her request, as she explained that she had miscalculated her original figures.

Less than 48 hours before she was due to start, Sarah told us she had injured her ankle and would not be able to start. We were understanding and were initially told she expected to recover within a few days, and then within around a week.

A week later, she told us it might take another couple of weeks. Communication had also become increasingly slow. I completely understood that an injury can be unpredictable, so I asked whether she had been given a clearer indication of her expected recovery time, as we needed to understand when she might realistically be able to start.

A few hours later, rather than providing an indication of when she might return, she informed us by email that her circumstances had changed and that she would be relocating for family reasons.

I appreciate that circumstances can change and that neither an injury nor a relocation can necessarily be predicted. However, the timing of these developments and the way they were communicated left us with a strong sense that the situation had not been handled with the level of transparency and professionalism we would expect.

I cannot comment on Sarah as a nanny, as clearly we never had the opportunity to work together. However, reliability, clear communication and professionalism are particularly important when arranging childcare, and unfortunately our experience fell significantly short of this.

Based on our experience, I would not feel comfortable recommending Sarah to another family.

• Overall
• Setting
• Cleanliness
• Food
• Communication