Getting a nanny for the first time

do you mean elusis that you expect your nanny to use her holiday if she is sick

NO WAY would i agree to that either.

incidently i have been off sick once in the past 7 years which was for 2 half days, (i struggled into work on the morning of the middle day and went home feeling very poorly at 11am! but it allowed my GP boss to at least attend his morning surgary) followed by a full day in January this year.

I was paid as usual

personally i wouldnt sign a contract where i was not entitled to choose any holiday, or where my holiday days included bank holidays either.

should anyone want me to work for them then they have to give me at least 20 days (at least half my choice) + bank holidays!

Oh, I forgot to say, I think if you want to make any of her days off unpaid you should do the ones she chooses. I think not paying her for a day that you chose to be unavailable is dodgy ground. Much fairer if it is a day she chose not to be there.

Another thing I would worry about is if she uses all of her holiday before the end of summer, will she be more likely to pull a sickie when she needs a day off. Statistically live-out nannies do take more sick days. So, I might be inclined to say 10 holiday days are given every six months.

I sort out the holiday requests at the beginning of the year. My nanny has no contractual right to choose any of her holiday. But, in practice we sit down, I ask her what she wants, I check my calendar to see if I can accommodate and more often then not she chooses all of them.

However, I am one of those "unusual" one who gives 20 days including bank holidays. So that leaves her with about two weeks. The rest of my holiday is spent on covering kids doctor appointments, when she is sick, etc.

And, of course, we end up giving her days here and there when she can be off and we of course pay her. So she does end up with more like 4 weeks plus bank holidays. For example, I am American, so she can pretty much bank on not working Thanksgiving and the 4th of July. I take off the kids' birthdays as well (and give her the day off).

I have never had a nanny complain that she doesn't get enough holiday. I'm sure she'd like to have more, but hey so would I!

You should also put in the contract about gross misconduct, probationary period and i have a confidentiality agreemant in my contract. My bosses also use nannypaye and they have been great.

Millarkie...

just to reassure you i dont think any of my nanny freids would even dream of acting so unprofessioanly!

I mean isnt it obviouse tht we work for you so that you can work and therefore pay us? lol

yes would a good idea to be very upfront about it a interview and in the conract but i really cant imagine many nannies would have a problem with it!

We had 2 weeks notice in the contract but she didn't take any notice of that - would ask and then put me in the situation of knowing I'd either have a grumpy boss (and I had just started a new job so bad first impressions) or a sulky nanny.
I know that she was unusual, and as I have said to 1dilemma I would still choose a nanny over nursery..but I would be more wary and up front about how important it is to book leave well in advance with the next nanny. I ended up in tears twice explaining that if I looked so unreliable in my job then I wouldn't have a job soon enough but she just didn't 'get it'.

well no of coourse i wouldnt...

i have in my contract at least 4 weeks notice (on both sides) to take anuual leave

if my bosses dont give me 4 weeks notice it doesnt count.

and i have to give them 4 weeks notice as well

but NannyL I'm sure you wouldn't ask for Friday off on the Wednesday of a week repeatedly and then sulk if your employer couldn't get the time off - which was the situation I was in almost once a month this last year..despite the fact that I happily raced home from work early when nanny had family emergencies (several) or when she wanted to visit her gran in hospital and she wanted to go to the early visiting hours, or the 10 days at short notice spread out over the year when her car had problems (ended up giving her my car to use for 6 weeks when her clutch went and she didn't get around to getting it repaired (she only needed her car to get to work, she used my car during the day).
I ended up with b*gger all annual leave to spend with my family for a planned holiday (we had 1 week's camping in August) and the most of the rest of my annual leave entitlement on covering nanny's sick leave, annnual leave and 'emergency days'.
So, once bitten, twice shy in my experience..I would rather discuss with a new nanny the idea of taking holiday in blocks (which I could, if I had to, find emergency nanny cover for) than live with the continual worry that I would have no childcare the next day.

Sorry that was a bit of a rant - but wanted to explain where the 'blocks of hol' came from.

Short answer is I wish there were more nannys like you nannyL.

also i would never agree to take my holida in blocks of 5 days in my contract!

No way, Ever!

Im just adding my 2 pence worth here.

from your original post 1 delimma!

Firstly it sounds like you are doing your best to be a lovely person to work for

This is how 'I' work...
in the very (unlikely) event that my boss is 5 / 10 mins late then i dont mind (It is very unusual), on the otehr hadn should i need to leave 5 / 10 mins early for a random reason (or even an hour or half an hour) they dont mind!
I think its called give or take if they are held up in traffic, fine, i only live 3 mins away (1.5 miles) but a couple of days there has been a bad crash on the only roundabout between my house and theres which has causes gridlock in our area and my 1.5 mile journey has taken me half an hour.... they are fine with that too!

As for holidays i expect (in my contract) 20 days plus bank hols, 10 of my choice, 10 of theirs.
Howevere i always know that i actually 'get' 6+ weeks holiday per year (because that is what my bosses get)

my bosses have never had a problem with me choosing 12 / 13 days per year either.
Any extra time you suddenly dont need your nanny you must be prepared to pay ehr for afterall she is avaliable to work for you.

as for kitty money, what i personlly do is spend my own my money and keep most receipts (if i dont loose them and then i get it all back on a friday
this is because i find it such a jassel carrying around 2 purses of money theirs and mine, or putting it togther gets too confusing for me!
That works for me but i know other nannies who refuse to spend their own money

Query, is this a live-in, or live-out nanny, as employment law does not often cover live-in domestic staff!

Employers Liability Insurance - this is usually in your household insurance policy, though check with your insurer, especially if you have accidental damage cover.

Doing payroll for one employee who works for you full-time and has no other employment is really quite easy, you don't need to use a payroll service - see P49 . HMRC will provide much of what you need in the new employers pack, including a CD-ROM for PC which has calculators on it to help fill in the paperwork. If you want the reassurance of someone else helping you do the paperwork, then use a payroll company, but don't feel that you have to do so - my employer doesn't use one. I would suggest trying to start it yourself, and if you find you get really stuck and with the New Employer Helpline's help you still feel stuck, then use a payroll company.
If you do want to use a payroll company, use TaxingNannies or NannyPAYE , both seem to know what they are doing and are friendly to non-clients making initial enquiries.
Not sure the £250 money back thing still exists. Online Filing 2007 indicates that it is £150 for the 2006-07 return. The TaxingNannies website also mentions it being £150 and dropping to £100 and then £75 over coming years. Avoid factoring this rebate into your calculations - see it as being a bonus if you get it, as over time it is likely to reduce and getting the payment is not guaranteed.

Not sure I understand what you are trying to do regarding the holiday entitlement. Presuming the nanny is live-out, then you have to give the statutory holiday entitlement - currently 4 weeks, thus 20 days if working 5 days per week. Holiday Rights information - Possible increase in Holiday Entitlement from October 2007 As NurseryJo has said, using the Accural System may be best, so your nanny gets holiday based on how long she has worked for you. The Accrual System can only be used for the first year of employment.

Coming home a little late... this happens in my job on occasion due to the M3 traffic. Over the course of a year, it evens itself out, as some days you will be early, others late. If you find that you are 'owing' time, then you can always give your employee a day off.

Contracts - if using a standard contract, make sure you add to the Gross Misconduct section, so that it shows clearly what is considered to be a sack-able offence. Tribunals don't seem to like there being lots of things in that section, so make the disciplinary procedure clear, so that when it is not gross misconduct you can issue a written warning, and after two of those then you have reason to dismiss your employee.
ACAS is a good place to visit for information about how to prepare a contract, including Producing disciplinary procedure .

CRB checks - employers still can't get these done on individual employees. But if you register your nanny on the Ofsted Childcare Register (in England), then they will get an Enhanced CRB check via that process. Your nanny will need to be on the OCR scheme if you intend to pay using Childcare Vouchers.
OCR officially launches on Monday (16 april) so for now old scheme can be found at Childcare Approval Scheme website .

By the way the online tax return bonus from the Revenue is not £250 anymore. It is £150 for 2006/7, £100 for 2007/8 and £75 in 2008/9 then it stops. The CD comes in a couple of days and seems pretty comprehensive but I havent actually used it yet as the nanny doesnt start for a few weeks - she is coming to pick up the draft contract tomorrow.

No idea on the DIY tax return - I am lazy and use nannypaye
You, need Nannynick - he is great at links to relevant websites and I think that there is a CD Rom you can get from the IR that helps you.
As to what nannys prefer - it depends on the nanny.

We found our summer hol nanny via her ad on gumtree I was thinking of putting an ad on looking for someone, but saw her ad, emailed her, met her, getting refs now (dh is insisting on photo id plus copy of CRB plus phone calls to referees just in case she has stolen someone else's identitiy )

Yes, you get £250 back from IR if you pay your tax using an electronic return, which helps pay for the payroll service - but on the other hand if you submit your own return you get the whole £250 to yourself!

Holiday-wise - I would discuss with your chosen nanny again..the legal min is 20 days PAID hol, but this can include bank hols (although including bank hols is very unusual). If nanny wants time off in July but you can't cover it you can a) say no (but have an unhappy nanny) b) accept it, take time off to cover her hol and be happy knowing that after Sept you won't have to worry too much about covering future hol since most of it is used up. c)give her the time off and hire a temp to cover it (not too hard to find a temp in summer hol time as people like school nursery nurses are looking for hol jobs (we are employing a trainee teacher as a nanny this summer).
If he/she leaves after taking more than the proportion of annual leave that she is due then I should think that you could claim a representative part of his/her last month's pay - OR you could make it clear that her leave is ACCRUED, so can only be taken in the amount it is earnt. eg> 1.6days accrued each month (I had an employer a while ago who insisted on this, it was annoying..I had to work for a few months before I could take a full week off)