Nanny Job Description in the Philippines: Duties, Boundaries, and Skills

TL;DR: A useful nanny job description in the Philippines explains who the nanny will care for, what safe day-to-day childcare looks like, what the role does not include, and how the family will handle pay, privacy, rest, and emergencies. Clear boundaries protect children, help families hire honestly, and give a nanny a fair basis for deciding whether the role is right for them.

A nanny is a childcare worker whose primary job is to support a child's daily care, safety, routine, and development in the family home. In the Philippines, families may also call the role a yaya or kasambahay, but a familiar title is not a job description. The practical details—children's ages, working hours, supervision, handovers, meals, activities, transport, and the line between childcare and general housework—need to be written down before the first day.

This guide is for families hiring a nanny or yaya through a respectful, family-home process. It is not a substitute for legal advice, medical advice, or a current wage notice. The Domestic Workers Act or Batas Kasambahay is the starting point for Philippine domestic-work rules; use its official text and current local guidance when agreeing the terms that apply to your household.

What a nanny role is—and what it is not

A nanny's core work is active childcare. That can include preparing a child's agreed meals, keeping to a parent-provided routine, supervising play, helping with hygiene, putting away the child's clothes and toys, accompanying the child on agreed local outings, and communicating what happened during the day. The role should match the child's age, health needs, school schedule, and the family's real routine.

Active childcare is different from being generally available for every household need. A nanny should not discover after accepting a role that they are expected to deep-clean the entire home, care for several adults, drive without a safe arrangement, manage cash, administer unfamiliar medicines, or be the only person responsible for an emergency. If a family needs those services, list them separately and discuss whether they require different skills, more time, another worker, or different pay.

That distinction matters especially in homes with infants, toddlers, older adults, pets, or multiple children. A person cannot safely supervise a crawling baby while using strong cleaning chemicals, leave a child unattended to run an errand, or make a medical decision that belongs to a parent or clinician. Good job descriptions make the safe choice the easy choice.

A ready-to-adapt nanny job description

Use the following structure as a starting point. Replace every example with facts that are true for your household. Do not promise a schedule, accommodation, benefit, transport arrangement, or child-care duty that you have not decided you can support.

| Job-description field | Example that makes the role specific | | --- | --- | | Role and location | Live-out nanny for one preschool child in Quezon City. | | Purpose | Provide attentive, age-appropriate childcare during the agreed weekday schedule. | | Core duties | Prepare agreed snacks, supervise play, follow nap and hygiene routines, tidy child-used spaces, and give parents a daily handover. | | Exclusions | No driving, general deep cleaning, care for other adults, cash handling, or overnight work unless agreed in writing. | | Schedule | State start and finish times, meal breaks, weekly rest arrangements, school-holiday expectations, and how overtime is approved. | | Safety plan | List emergency contacts, allergies or hazards that parents must disclose, safe handover people, and when the nanny must call a parent. | | Privacy rules | Do not share photos, location, family information, access codes, or children's routines outside the agreed household process. | | Review process | Check in after two weeks, then regularly; record material changes to duties, hours, or pay before they become routine. |

The role can then read like this:

Nanny: We are looking for a reliable, caring nanny to provide attentive daily care for our child in our family home. The role includes the agreed routine for meals, play, hygiene, rest, child-used spaces, and updates to parents. It does not include general household cleaning, driving, overnight care, or additional family-care duties unless we agree in writing. We will provide clear safety instructions, emergency contacts, respectful communication, and a written process for discussing changes to the role.

That paragraph is a useful beginning, not a complete agreement. Add the child's age range, the home location, expected start date, languages used at home, school or therapy pickups only when safe and agreed, and the practical support the family will provide. The more specific the role is on an ordinary Tuesday, the less likely either person is to feel misled later.

Duties and boundaries for a normal week

Describe work by frequency and by responsibility. A daily routine should be realistic for one person's time and the number of children in their care. A weekly or occasional task should not silently become an extra daily requirement.

Daily childcare duties to discuss

• Supervise children during the agreed hours and follow the family's written routine where it is safe and practical.
• Prepare and serve agreed food or bottles using the family's instructions, including known allergies and safe food-storage rules.
• Support washing, dressing, toilet routines, naps, school preparation, and age-appropriate play without using corporal punishment or humiliating discipline.
• Keep child-used spaces reasonably tidy, put away toys with the child where appropriate, and report broken equipment, spills, hazards, or illness concerns promptly.
• Give a factual handover: meals, sleep, outings, notable behaviour, injuries, medication given by a parent-approved plan, and anything the next caregiver needs to know.

Tasks that need a separate agreement

General family laundry, whole-home cleaning, cooking for adults, pet care, errands, overnight work, transporting children, or caring for a sick child can materially change a role. They may be possible, but they are not automatic additions to a nanny job. Talk about the time, equipment, training, safety limits, and fair pay before adding them.

If a household needs recurring cleaning support as well as childcare, use a separate housekeeper job description or hire for both functions explicitly. If the family is still deciding what kind of care is needed, hiring a first yaya can help structure the search. Clear scope is not bureaucracy; it prevents a child-care role from becoming an unsafe catch-all.

Skills, experience, and questions that are job-relevant

Families should look for evidence that fits the actual role, not a perfect personal story. For an infant, that may mean experience following feeding and sleep instructions. For a toddler, it may mean safe play, patient routines, and clear communication. For a school-age child, it may mean reliable handovers, homework-time boundaries, and a calm routine after school.

Useful questions are practical and consistent across shortlisted candidates:

1. How would you organize a typical morning for a child this age?
2. What would you tell a parent immediately, and what could wait for the end-of-day handover?
3. What would you do if a child was hurt, could not be found for a moment, or became suddenly unwell?
4. Which child-care tasks do you enjoy and which tasks would need more instruction or should be outside the role?
5. What do you need from a family to do this work safely and respectfully?

References can be helpful when requested with the candidate's consent and treated as one input rather than a guarantee. A paid trial can also be useful when its duration, pay, tasks, supervision, transport, and decision date are agreed beforehand. A family should never call unpaid work a trial, and a candidate should never feel pressured to surrender original documents or a personal phone to prove trustworthiness.

Pay, schedule, and written terms

Start the pay conversation with the genuine workload: live-in or live-out arrangements, hours, children's ages, number of children, responsibilities, location, overnight expectations, and any specialised skills. Do not use a generic social-media figure as a promise. The Helpers salary calculator can help a family prepare for the conversation, but current official requirements and local conditions should be checked before an offer is final.

For domestic work, write the agreement before the start date. The full text of Republic Act No. 10361 is a useful legal reference, alongside current official guidance for the household's location. Record the role, work address, start date, duties, salary and pay date, hours, rest arrangements, meals or lodging if offered, and a fair process for raising a concern or ending the arrangement.

Keep the terms responsive to real life. A new baby, a move from Cebu to Metro Manila, a change from live-out to live-in, or a different school schedule can all change the job. Pause to discuss the impact on time, safety, privacy, and pay instead of treating the change as a small favour. For questions about SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG processes, use the current official employer pages for SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG rather than relying on an old checklist.

Safety, privacy, and child safeguarding

A nanny may learn a child's routine, home address, building access, family schedule, allergies, school details, and private conversations. Treat that information as sensitive. The National Privacy Commission's Data Privacy Act guidance is a helpful baseline: collect only what is needed for the hiring decision, explain why it is needed, store it carefully, and limit who can see it.

Families should agree on a few non-negotiable child-safety boundaries before work begins. Name the adults allowed to collect the child, the places a nanny may take the child, any transport rules, the emergency contacts, and the situations that require an immediate call to a parent or emergency service. Share practical health and allergy information that is necessary for safety, but do not expect a nanny to diagnose illness or make clinical decisions.

Set respectful discipline boundaries too. Parents should explain household rules, comfort routines, screen-time preferences, and the words or actions that are not acceptable. A nanny needs a private way to ask for help if a child is distressed, a family member behaves inappropriately, the workload becomes unsafe, or a parent instruction is unclear. Child safeguarding works best when the adult responsible for the child is reachable and the nanny is supported to speak up early.

Privacy has to work both ways. Families should not ask for account passwords, keep unnecessary copies of IDs, disclose a candidate's personal history in group chats, or make a public accusation based on an unverified concern. Nannies should not share children's photos, address, schedules, access codes, financial papers, or family conflicts. Explain the household's rules before the first day, then revisit them whenever the role changes.

A fair first day and ongoing review

The first day should be an orientation, not a test of whether someone can guess every family preference. Walk through the rooms and safe storage areas, show where supplies are kept, introduce the child slowly, confirm the handover process, and explain emergency contacts and building procedures. Give written instructions for appliances, medicines that are only used under a parent-approved plan, and any hazards in the home.

Use a short two-week review to ask what is working and what needs to change. Families can ask whether the routine is realistic; nannies can ask whether duties, communication, transport, or boundaries need clarification. This is much easier than allowing unspoken problems to accumulate. A monthly check-in can then cover schedule changes, upcoming holidays, the child's developing needs, and any training or equipment that would make the role safer.

Before making an offer, use this checklist:

• [ ] State each child's age range, routine, childcare duties, and excluded tasks in plain language.
• [ ] Agree on salary, pay date, hours, meal breaks, rest arrangements, and how overtime or additional work is approved.
• [ ] Put the terms in writing and check current Philippine requirements for the household's location.
• [ ] Explain paid-trial terms, references, and any identity check with the candidate's consent.
• [ ] Set privacy rules for children, photos, documents, keys, access codes, and family information.
• [ ] Provide emergency contacts, safe handover rules, household hazards, and clear escalation steps.
• [ ] Schedule a two-week review so expectations can be corrected before frustration becomes routine.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should a nanny job description include in the Philippines?

Include the children's ages and routine, childcare duties, excluded tasks, schedule, pay and rest arrangements, safety rules, privacy boundaries, emergency contacts, and a written process for changing the role.

Can a nanny also do household work?

A nanny can take on clearly agreed household tasks connected to the children, but general cleaning, cooking, driving, or care for other adults should never be assumed or added without discussing time, skills, safety, and pay.

Should a family use a written agreement with a nanny?

Yes. A written agreement makes the role, pay, schedule, rest arrangements, privacy rules, and notice process easier for both sides to understand. Check current official Philippine guidance for the household's location.

What safety boundaries should a nanny job description set?

State supervision expectations, safe handover rules, medicines and allergies that must be disclosed, emergency contacts, transport limits, discipline boundaries, and when the nanny must call a parent or emergency service.

What information should families avoid asking nanny applicants for?

Collect only information that is relevant to the job. Do not ask for account passwords, hold original IDs, retain documents without a reason, or share a candidate's personal details beyond the people handling the hiring decision.

Hire with clear expectations from day one

The best nanny job description gives a family and a caregiver the same picture of a normal day. It puts children's safety first, respects a nanny's boundaries and privacy, and leaves room to discuss change before it becomes a conflict. When your scope is ready, browse nanny profiles and use the same clear, respectful expectations in every conversation. Childcare professionals who want to present those expectations in their own profile can sign up as a helper.