Is this just not on?

Paying half pay might be an issue if it was under national minimum wage requirements too.

I see. We pay about £10/hour but had forgotten the free hours. Can you get childcare vouchers?

It can be hard to determine nanny rates... in the current market there seems to me to be more nannies than there are jobs. As the employer you set the salary you will pay, if you put that salary in a job ad, then nannies can decide to apply for the job, or not.

Childminders decide on the fees they charge for providing their service.

With both types of childcare there can be additional costs involved beyond the annual salary/monthly/hourly rate. So to be able to compare things cost wise you need a good idea of how much each type of care will cost, including things like Employers NI (part of the cost of employing a nanny), cost of outings/activities, food, travel, how much time off someone is likely to have (and if that time off is paid - in the case of a nanny they must be given minimum holiday entitlement whereas childminders may or may not charge if they are closed).

I would say that generally a nanny for 2 children will be more expensive than other forms of childcare. However other forms of childcare may not be as convenient (nanny comes to you, so you don't have to get the children up and dressed in the morning), may not provide the hours of care needed (nannies can start early in the morning and finish late in the evening), and a nanny does some household duties - having someone else do some washloads during the week really can help keep on top of the laundry mountain.

Every childminder runs their business differently, some will and some won't charge whilst a child is at pre-school. If a child is at full-time school (10 educational sessions per week) then they are classed in the over 5's ratio, so I would not expect a childminder to charge during the time the child was at school - though would charge for doing the school run and may have minimum charge for before school and after-school session.

Your local Family Information Service (local council or county council) can provide further information about local childminders and provide a contact list, so you can ask individual childminders about availability and costs.

You have to pay a childminder for the pre-school hours if you wanted her to drop off, be available for holidays etc.

Do you have space for a live-in nanny?

What rates are you thinking? I'm surprised that two kids at nursery is cheaper than one nanny.

I wouldn't bother with preschool for the younger one.

What about a nanny share?

Childminder - will do before and afterschool care, plus could do all day care (and pre-school run) for younger child.

Would you do payroll yourself or use a nanny payroll company? I would suggest speaking to various nanny payroll companies (most will offer you advice for free in the hope you then become a client) to establish if the payroll software they use could accommodate different rates of pay and how far in advance you would need to tell them the hours your nanny is doing/done that month at each of the different pay rates.

I would have thought that most nannies are working because they need the income. If they can't work out what the income is likely to be from a job, then would they take the job? Not sure I would.

If you paid a lower rate some of the time and your children then had lots of time off pre-school, you would then pay full rate for those hours, so your cost is not going to be known in advance. I would have thought budgeting wise it would be better for you to know how much things are likely to be costing each month, or even for the entire year.

Agree with those saying just work out what you can afford to pay and advertise the job at that - instead of working out half pay hours/full pay hours/different rates for holidays etc.

If you're saying you can't afford eg £10 an hour 8am-6pm, but could do £10 8am-9am and 12pm-6pm + £5 an hour 9am-12pm - why not just advertise it at £8.50 an hour?

def not on - you need to work out what you can afford to pay as a salary then advertise the job

what many employers forget is what happens if the child is ill/baker day/school holidays/falls over and bangs head etc

yes a nanny isnt always cost effective when children are at nursery etc but you are paying for peace of mind for what if ,,,,,,,,,,,,,, happens

Both kids could go to a local pre-school for 3 hours every morning.

Could - they don't have to do so, do they. I would say that for your 4 year old, it is a positive thing to do as it helps prepare them for school. For your 2 year old I see there being little benefit - they may get more benefit from 1:1 time with nanny at home & out and about in the local area.

Pre-school may not have places available. It can be quite hard in some places to get funded places at pre-schools. You may get offered 3 mornings, 3 afternoons, a mixture of both. You may get offered 5 mornings, 5 afternoons, mixture... but don't expect to get all 5... where I am (Surrey/Berkshire border) it certainly does not happen.

Have you just considered what you can afford for a nanny and advertising the job at that pay for 8-6 or whatever time you need then you have a nanny who knows what they are going to be paid and you will only get people applying willing to work for that amount.

We pay our nanny whilst DS is at pre-school. She works 3 days a week, and he is at pre-school for 2 of those mornings. We don't have other children and she isn't a nanny-share or anything.

She takes him and collects him, and that leaves 2.5 hours or so in the middle. In that time, she does various things like washing, dying it, ironing (only DS' things though), some shopping eg if they are going to make a cake that afternoon, she will get the ingredients in and anything else we are short of like bread or milk whilst she is there, she has bought things that DS needs in town in the past eg mittens etc. Some weeks she batch cooks and freezes meals for him in portions. And I would imagine she also sits down with a cup of tea too!

This is standard as far as I can see. She is paid her full hourly rate for those hours, and so during half term and school holidays or when DS is too unwell for pre-school (rarely), she looks after him and there is no difference in her pay.

I am paid whilst DC is at nursery as:

If he's to ill to go I have to be available and care for him.
If he is sent home ill I have to be available and care for him.
If the nursery is shut unexpectedly I have to be available and care for him.
If the nursery is shut for holidays I have to to be available and care for him.

If I wasn't paid I would find another job in those hours and if I was lucky issues would arise:

If he's to ill to go MB would have to go to work for an hour come back for 3 hours and then I take over.
If he is sent home ill MB would have to pick him up and care for him until I take over.
If the nursery is shut unexpectedly MB would have to pick him up and care for him until I take over.
If the nursery is shut for holidays MB would have to go to work for an hour come back for 3 hours and then I take over.

MB has an important job where she can do the very occassional late start if she books it in advance but she would not be able to do this all the time, hence the need for a nanny.

unreasonable.

she won't be able to get any other work in that time.

yes, completely unreasonable

she can hardly get another job in those couple of hours, and what about during holidays / when kids are ill? presume you will want / need her then?

If the situation was reversed, and your boss said they needed you for a 9am meeting everyday, and then not again til 1, but that you were welcome to go for a walk or read, but sometimes they might want you to be available so you couldn't commit to anything in those hours but they would only pay you 1/2 wage - what would you think? Personally, I'd tell you to get stuffed. But if you think that is reasonable, go ahead...

No, I don't think that's reasonable. It'll only be 2.5 hours max after travel to and from is accounted for and I'm sure you can find her little jobs to do at home, cooking for children, running the odd errand, their washing.

Have you consudered the 'home jobs' the nanny could do in that time? Childrens laundry, rooms, cooking etc? She's not likely to have 3 full hours free, with travel to and from pre school for the pick up.

You can try, but i think it sounds awkward...

No harm in trying I guess. But I would make sure that the nanny fully understand the deal before she starts, otherwise you could be in for a bumpy ride if she feels that she is getting a worse than anticipated deal. I guess that you also need to consider how the nanny will be making ends meet. She will have to be fully employed on the other 2 days for this to work I would expect.

You can always offer that arrangement and see what response you get. You may be lucky and find someone who lives close-by and wants to go home/the gym or something for three hours in the morning. I think you'd have to be lucky though.

You need to think about what happens in school holidays? What happens if one of the children is sick before school or whilst at school? What happens if the pre-school is closed because of snow/flood/other unforseen cirumstance. If you want the nanny available then you have to pay. If you're confident that you will never need her in those three hours then you could try offering the half pay idea.

It may be better though to just advertise the job with the wage you can afford.e.g. instead of saying £10ph 8am-9am and 12pm-6pm and £5ph 9am-12pm, just offer £8.50ph all day.