To consider a nanny?

[Childcarequestionspls]

I’m wondering if a calmer setting might suit our toddler more than nursery. He attends a lovely nursery, but the toddler room is still very noisy and full on and I think it’s taught him to be a bit pushy and aggressive.

Where do people find qualified nannies? And is it possibly out of our budget (around £100 joint.)

You would be best to find a nanny agency in your area. The pay would depend on how many hours they work.

How old is your toddler? If they’re 2 and half or older I’d be inclined to stick with nursery for the socialisation. If you have a young toddler of under 2 then a nanny might be better if they’re struggling. A childminder might be the best compromise though as it’ll be calmer, less busy, there will still be other mindees to play with and it shouldn’t be any more expensive than nursery.

Whereabouts are you located? In London you can expect to pay anywhere from £16ph to upwards of £60k gross for a nanny.

£100 for what? a day? My friend is a nanny (outside London) and charges £12-13 per hour. It's often only cost efficient compared to nursery if you have 2 or 3 pre-school age children BUT there are other benefits as she's often doing household tasks while the kids sleep and can take them to appointments if needed. They still go to local playgroup / toddler groups for interaction with other children.

I'd try a childminder if a nanny is a stretch. Both mine went to a CM which was the right amount of loud kids, but in a homely environment.

We aren’t in London. I know there are brilliant childminders but I suppose I’m a bit wary of him spending big chunks of the day on school runs for older children.

He is not two until January so a while to go yet.

A childminder could also work well and nice be cheaper?

Check agencies in your area and also ads, and ask around. Nanny shares are also quite popular

£100 joint what? Per day? Week?

OK, so if you hire a nanny for 45 hours a week, on £12 an hour gross, that will be £540 a week/£28080 a year for basic salary.
You'd also pay £55 a week in employer's NI and a minimum £13 a week pension contribution. So a total of £608 a week/£31592 a year.
Payroll costs - £100-£200 a year
Nanny kitty - to cover playgroups, softplay entrance etc every week
Food costs - you need to provide lunch for both nanny and child every day
Mileage - 45p per mile if the nanny uses their own car for work. Or you provide a nanny car.
Also budget to cover nanny's annual leave, maternity leave (you get SMP back from the govt but you need to cover holiday pay and recruiting maternity cover), sick pay if you offer it.

Have you considered looking at alternative nurseries or asking for him to be put in with the younger children?

Our nursery keeps children in the baby room until 2 unless they're physically ready to move up

How badly are you paying your nanny that you can keep her salary and all other costs under £1400 a month

Why are you worried about your DC spending time in school runs? Totally normal part of family life

I work 30 hrs a week on an average (probably lower end of average) hourly rate and my take home is about £1400 a month. This nanny must be on a pretty low rate to get all costs and salary under £1400.

How badly are you paying your nanny that you can keep her salary and all other costs under £1400 a month

I'm assuming (hoping) that they have more than one child in nursery

I would look carefully into whether she can actually be considered as self-employed for tax purposes. If she has to work set hours each week for you, I would suspect it's not self employed. You would be the one being fined by HMRC if it's not correct.
can a nanny be self employed?

@Connie2468 has summed up the costs pretty well.

I would add:

Transport costs if they take public transport with your kids.

Consider bank holiday cover if you normally work bank holidays. We gave ours bank holidays plus statutory holiday entitlement.

Budget for gifts. If you have a good nanny, it's great to show your appreciation. We used to get them gifts at Xmas, on their birthdays and little gifts if we went away on holiday. When they finished with us, we also got them a nice leaving gift to say thank you.

My childminder only did the school run once a week, and because she has 2 assistants, she often doesn't have to take the children. On the rare occasions she does, she combines it with something fun like an explore in the woods.

I was never very keen on the idea is nursery - I wanted something smaller and more nurturing. I wasn't expecting to find somewhere truly exceptional, where the children are cooked fresh, quality home made meals (with cuisine and ingredients from all around the world), where each child's individual needs and timetable is catered for, and they are creatively and intellectually stimulated to a degree I could not aim to replicate.

There are many mediocre childminders (and nurseries) but a good one is, in my opinion, the best possible childcare environment.

Her other jobs are irrelevant when considering whether she's self-employed - it's only her terms with you.
If you are setting her days and hours, telling her how to do the job and she has to attend on time and can't send another nanny to cover her, then she is employed by you.

Can't believe you are actually on the internet boasting about low pay and avoiding paying your employee's tax and pension!

@SlappersAndFuiters - ask yourself this. Could your “self-employed” nanny just decide to send somebody else to look after your child for the day? Would you be happy with that? If not it’s extremely unlikely she counts as self-employed.

That's not how it works You can't 'technically register as a childminder' so your employer can avoid paying taxes!

It's still you who is legally responsible for deducting your employee's tax.

'Everyone does it' isn't a great excuse with HMRC...

I could be wrong but I was under the impression that the childminder exception was applied when the nanny was looking after children from multiple families at the same time, as a childminder would.

"Each new family should complete the HMRC Employment Status Indicator to decide whether the nanny should be their employee or can be self employed for the job. The onus for this is always on the employer and it is the employer who can be fined heavily by HMRC for not doing this correctly"

Hopefully you completed this and got the situation okayed by HMRC from your point of view.