By Filipino Nanny | Updated 21 August 2026
Choose a nanny when childcare is the primary responsibility, a nanny-housekeeper when childcare and household work are both substantial parts of one job, and a housekeeper when the role is mainly about the home rather than regular childcare. The clearest choice comes from defining duties first, then hours and working arrangement.
This guide compares the three roles Filipino Nanny Agency places for London families. It is a role-selection guide, not a claim that one option is best for every household.
Quick comparison: which role fits which need?
| Role | Primary responsibility | Typical secondary duties | Best fit when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nanny | Childcare | Child-related tasks such as children’s meals, routines, school runs and child-related laundry where agreed | Your main problem is childcare coverage and continuity |
| Nanny-housekeeper | Childcare plus defined household duties | Cleaning, laundry, household organisation, cooking or errands where agreed | You genuinely need one combined role and can define how the two sides fit within the hours |
| Housekeeper | Household care | Cleaning, laundry, ironing, household organisation, cooking or errands where agreed | The workload is mainly household-based and regular childcare is not part of the job |
Choose a nanny when childcare comes first
A nanny is an in-home childcare role. In England, nannies care for children in the child’s own home and do not have to register with Ofsted, although they can choose voluntary registration. See Ofsted’s current nanny registration guidance.
The job description should focus first on the children: their ages, routines, school or nursery timetable, meals, activities, transport and any additional needs. Household tasks should remain child-related unless the role has explicitly been defined more broadly.
If substantial cleaning, family laundry or wider household work is expected every week, calling the role simply a nanny can create avoidable role creep. That is the point to consider a nanny-housekeeper instead.
Choose a nanny-housekeeper when both sides of the job are real
A nanny-housekeeper combines childcare with agreed household duties. The important word is agreed: the family should decide which tasks sit on the childcare side, which sit on the housekeeping side, and what takes priority when both cannot be done at once.
For example, a school-age household may need childcare before and after school with housekeeping during school hours. A family with a baby at home may need childcare to take priority for much more of the day, leaving less realistic time for household work. The job title alone does not solve that scheduling problem.
Use our nanny-housekeeper duties guide to define the role before you shortlist candidates.
Choose a housekeeper when the home is the main responsibility
A dedicated housekeeper role is primarily about maintaining the household. The brief may include routine cleaning, laundry, ironing, organisation, cooking or errands, depending on the property and the hours available.
If the role involves regular responsibility for children, especially sole-charge childcare, it should not be hidden inside a housekeeping job. See our housekeeper duties and standards guide for a clearer boundary.
How our enquiry form scopes the role
Our live client enquiry form records the role separately from the working pattern. Families can select Nanny, Nanny-Housekeeper, Temporary/Holiday Nanny, Temporary/Holiday Nanny-Housekeeper or Housekeeper. The same form then asks whether the need is full-time or part-time, how many hours are required each week, which days are needed, the postcode and the intended start date.
That separation is useful because role and schedule are different decisions. A part-time nanny and a part-time housekeeper may work the same number of hours while solving completely different problems. Likewise, a full-time nanny-housekeeper only works if the combined duties are realistic within the agreed hours.
We use the family brief as the starting point for candidate matching. The role name should describe the work being offered rather than acting as a catch-all label for whatever the household later needs.
Working pattern adds another layer to the same dataset. Of the 203 submissions, 118 selected Full Time and 85 selected Part-time, and every submission included a weekly-hours value. We do not treat that split as evidence that one schedule is preferable. It shows why the intake needs separate fields for role, hours and days. A family can select Nanny-Housekeeper and Part-time, for example, but the label still does not tell us whether the requested childcare and housekeeping workload will fit the hours. That question has to be resolved in the brief, not guessed from a category name.
Full-time, part-time, live-in and live-out are separate choices
After choosing the role, decide the working arrangement. A nanny, nanny-housekeeper or housekeeper can be full-time or part-time, and some roles can be live-in or live-out depending on the household setup and candidate availability.
Live-in describes accommodation, not round-the-clock availability. Working hours, rest periods, duties and any evening or overnight requirements should be agreed clearly. If you directly employ someone to work in your home, GOV.UK explains that the household is usually the employer and may have responsibilities for contracts, payroll, minimum wage, holiday, pension duties and right-to-work checks. See GOV.UK guidance on employing someone in your home.
What if you only need short-term help?
If the need is for defined dates rather than an ongoing role, consider temporary or holiday nanny cover. A short-term booking still needs a clear brief covering dates, hours, location, children’s ages and duties.
If the short-term need includes substantial household work as well as childcare, describe both parts when you enquire rather than assuming the nanny can absorb extra duties informally.
Five questions to answer before you choose
- What is the main problem we are solving? Childcare, household workload, or both?
- Who has responsibility for the children? Is regular or sole-charge childcare part of the job?
- Which duties must be completed every week? Write them down before discussing candidates.
- How many hours are genuinely available? Make sure the workload fits the schedule.
- What working arrangement fits the home? Full-time or part-time, live-in or live-out, permanent or temporary?
If your question is about childcare type rather than household role
This page helps choose between the household jobs we place. If your decision is whether a nanny is the right childcare model at all, compare nanny vs nursery, nanny vs au pair and nanny vs childminder.
Acas recommends recruitment criteria that relate to the actual requirements of the job. That matters here because the clearest brief is based on duties, experience and practical requirements rather than assumptions about nationality or personality. See Acas recruitment guidance.
Next step
If childcare is the clear priority, compare our Filipino nanny services. If the role genuinely combines childcare and household work, see Filipino nanny-housekeeper placements. If the job is primarily household support, see Filipino housekeepers in London.
Once the role and working pattern are clear, you can use the client enquiry form to send the agency your requirements.