Experience with after school nanny?

[Lench]

Single parent and my workplace is moving from 50% attendance locally to 100% in office attendance about 1.5 hours away.

DD is in year 6, we live a bus journey away from primary school. The bus comes every hour and is pretty unreliable, so she can’t walk home or rely on the bus service.

The school wrap around care closes at 6pm and can’t guarantee I’ll be back by then, in fact it’s quite unlikely.

I’m thinking I’ll need to get an after school nanny from 4:30pm - 6:30/7pm. And I wondered if anyone had any experience of this? (Although I can’t think of who these hours would suit…)

There’s no point in submitting a flex working request (never going to be approved) or asking family to help out (no one lives close enough by).

Any suggestions of how to find someone or any experience in this would be very gratefully received!

any parent groups?
I have four little ones but know myself and other mums at home would happily take another for that sort of timescale.

Thank you for luck, I think I need all of the good luck I can get!

Everyone else in my team either doesn’t have children or is married and their partner is supporting school drops off and pick ups.

I’m not in any parenting groups. I’ve spoken to a few local mums to see if they know of anyone but no luck so far, it’s early days though and I’m hopeful I can get a plan in place soon.

You might be able to get a university student who has finished and hasn’t got a job yet. Although I still think a taxi is a more reliable solution.

The taxi should be easier to sort out, but I don’t really want her to be home alone for two hours Monday-Friday. If I can find someone she could be with I would rather do that.

This is unlikely to work as most taxis won’t take unaccompanied children, and the majority of those that will ( and are dbs checked) are already busy at that time on council contracts for SEN children.
In your situation I’d be looking for a new job. While they’re perfectly entitled to want you back in the office full time ( unless you’re contract says your home based), doing so with no flexibility and presumably little notice is not the sign of a good employer. Any chance they’d let you leave early so you could make the after school club pickup given it’s only until July? Although you’d still need to figure out what to do for the holidays as holiday club hours tend to be worse.

Ask on your local fb group and see if there’s anyone who already does this or another mum who’d be happy to earn some £

Summer holidays isn’t going to be an issue.

Of course looking for a new job is an option, but I have a six month notice period so leaving isn’t going to help me solve this problem right now. Securing a new job will also take time, so I’m currently focused on childcare in the very short term.

Zero flexibility re: school runs - was very clear in the FAQ they issued!

Local or street what’s app group. Anyone with an older child home from uni? An e mail to all the local schools - some have online notice boards to see if any TA might be interested. Local morning only nurseries might have staff keen to top up their earnings.

Another vote for Koru Kids. I needed pretty much these same hours just for two days a week and found two nannies through them

I was an after school nanny for a couple of years. The family paid me for full time hours and I worked after school and full time in the school holidays. It worked for me, but obviously depends if your finances can cope with the hit for a few months.

I did this - I asked if anyone was interested in the class group. One of the Mums was delighted with the opportunity - she did bring her own DD with her which was fine and I think this made it an option. But it’s only until the summer holidays - so someone might be happy to do it. Would you consider paying for her to go to a registered childminder? Not ideal or maybe

It's not ideal but you might be able to create a patchwork of solutions - at this point in the year I would happily have a Y6 come home with us once a week. I wouldn't have volunteered any earlier in primary school, but now it is only 10 weeks or so.

One of the staff at DD's after school club takes one of the kids home - so the child is in after school club until 6pm then the staff member turns into her nanny and takes her home until her parents get home. Is that an option?

There's a difference between school run at the normal time and picking up from after school club. My office is an hour away and when in the office I work 8-4 so I can make it home before after school club closes, though this may not help if you also have to drop off. If you submitted a flexible working request for something along those lines the onus would be on them to provide the business reasons why it wouldn't work.

I’m very familiar with flexible working requests and the law. Lots of flex working requests have been submitted, all have been declined. Appeals have been put in, appeals have been declined. Unfortunately, zero flexibility, zero tolerance.

I’m a full time single parent and have to do drop off and pick up, so 8-4 isn’t possible either.

We've done this for years - SEN kid with no after school provision.

1. Advertise locally - role (for us) is 3-7 termtime, full time in holidays
2. We've had a few different people over the years. A musician who recorded in the days and then worked for us 3-7, one was a writer. We interviewed ex teachers who were looking for part time... lots of people up for a few hours a day.
3. We pay an average salary based on adding up all hours over a year and dividing down by months so the person has a salary they can live off (as no one can live on 4 hours hourly pay a day).
4. We use the agency nannytax to pay all taxes etc. Don't do a cash arrangement - not worth the criminal charge if you get caught, which you will.

I find these kind of comments so frustrating - OP you asked if anyone has experience in after school nannies and get a bunch of responses of 'don't do that, do this' - yikes. As though you don't know how to run your own life.

Personal fave being that you should 'just quit your job' - FFS. Maybe just give up on food and electricity then as you have explained you're a single parent? Is this the best we women can do for each other? Just don't work rather than solve a childcare problem?

Very helpful @MyKindHiker, thank you. LOL @ tax evasion. I’m scared of my own shadow on tax matters, no chance I would be taking that risk!

Taxi wouldn't be easy anyway btw. They won't take an unaccompanied child unless the driver is DBS checked and DBS cabbies are hens' teeth.

When my DS was in Y6, the after school club closed suddenly in the Easter holidays. I used a taxi to get him home for that last term - I used the same company as has the schools contract - so a DBS checked driver - just paid for it myself. It was £££ but far cheaper than actual childcare.

Not sure where you are or when this was but when I looked into this for my kid 2 years ago they wouldn't take private bookings, only council / school contracts

Definitely not accusing you 😂just given how daft everyone on this thread seems to be today I'm sure some eejit will be waiting to tell you to just pay cash and not bother with an agency.

I pay an averaged salary based on 4 hours a day in termtime and full time in school holidays. Works out same price (maybe a bit more) as after school clubs for both kids and full time clubs in holidays would do. (NB: this is only a theoretical comparison as my SEN child can't do clubs anyway).

This means a person can actually afford to live on the salary I offer - the challenge with finding someone for just 3/4 hours a day is you can't live on that number of hours but when the hours are in the day prevent a nanny getting any other employment for the rest of the time which massively shrinks the pool of candidates.

Essentially my sum is:

18 weeks of school holidays less the 4 we are usually away = 14 weeks x 5 days per week x 10 hours per day = 700 hours

34 weeks of termtime x 5 days x 4 hours a day = 680 hours

Total hours = 1,380

Average month = 115 hours, which is an amount that is livable on so we get lots of candidates who are up for a chat.

You have no idea what her job is.

If she's a heart surgeon it would be completely understandable that she'd be expected in person. She might be a garden landscaper. Or a forklift truck driver. She might work in retail, or hospitality. Or any manner of things that can't be flexible for all manner of reasons, not because the employer is a big meanie, but because that's not how the world works for many of us!

@MyKindHiker true, but given she's been wfh up until now that seems unlikely. Although with a six month notice period I assume it is something either very specialist or very senior, so concede finding a new job may not be that easy.

If you know any collage age young people I think it would really suit them, my niece would love a job like this she’s 17 and drives and at the moment collects glasses in a pub we’d all prefer her working your hours than till 11 at night! I think lots would bite your hand off! Ask around or contact the collage to ask if you can put it on their notice board! You’ll have to interview to find the right candidate I imagine!