How to hire a SEN governess in the UAE: the checklist

Hiring one-to-one support for a child with additional needs is a decision most families make once, under pressure, from a shortlist someone else drew up. Here is the order we would do it in.

1. Write the brief before you read a single CV

Not a job description — a brief. What does the day look like now, what are the three things that most need to change, what hours does the role actually need, what languages are spoken at home, and what is non-negotiable? Families who skip this step end up interviewing against a feeling, and a feeling cannot be compared across four candidates.

2. Know what plan she will be working to

If a professional has already set goals — an IEP, a therapy plan, a behaviour plan — that is what you are hiring someone to deliver. If nobody has, get the assessment first. Hiring someone to invent the plan as she goes is how a year disappears.

3. Interview for judgement, not warmth

Everybody is warm in an interview. Ask what they would do in a situation your child actually produces: the refusal at the school gate, the meltdown at the supermarket, the homework that ends in tears every night. You are listening for a method — what they would try, what they would watch, what they would change if it did not work.

Two questions worth asking verbatim:

• "Tell me about a placement that did not work. What did you do?"
• "What would you need from us to do this job properly?"

The first tells you whether they can see their own work clearly. The second tells you whether they have ever been supported, and what they will expect from you.

4. Call both references yourself, or make sure someone did

This is the step most often skipped and the one that most reliably predicts the outcome. Ask referees the specific question: would you hire her again for a child with these needs? Anything less than a clear yes is an answer.

We call two references on every specialist before anyone is put in front of a family, and we tell families exactly what the referees said.

5. Run a paid trial, with something to observe

A few days, with the plan in hand and a couple of goals to work on. Watch how she handles the parts of the day that are hardest, how she records what happened, and whether your child is easier or harder at the end of the week. A trial that is just "come and meet us" tells you only whether the room felt comfortable.

6. Put it in writing, whichever route you take

Hours, duties, the plan, notice, confidentiality, what happens when the family travels, and who she reports to. Where we employ the specialist, we carry all of that. Where a family employs her directly, it is the family's arrangement to make, and it is worth taking advice on the employment terms rather than copying a template off a forum.

We should be clear about one thing here: Special Minds is licensed for recruitment and executive search. We find, screen and place people, and we supervise them where the placement is managed by us. We do not sponsor household staff, and any agency implying that a visa comes bundled with a governess is a conversation worth ending early.

7. Review at week two, not month six

Book the review before the placement starts. What has changed, what has not, and what should the plan do differently? A placement nobody reviews is a placement that quietly stops working, and the family usually notices a term after the specialist did.

Red flags, in order of seriousness

• A CV sent within the hour of your first message, with no questions asked about your child
• No references, or references only from the agency itself
• Anyone charging the specialist a fee to be put forward
• A promise about visas or sponsorship from someone not licensed to make it
• One person offered as governess, therapist, tutor and driver

Our SEN governess page explains how we run the process, and what it costs in Dubai covers the money side.