To ask what you'd pay?

[Barone245]

Due to changing work commitments, DH and I are looking at hiring a TA from a local primary school to do afterschool pickups, care and tutoring for our two children. DS 7 and DD 9. DS is autistic and she has great SEND experience with a child at the school.

The TA is a trainee teacher at university. She actually used to be our cleaner so we know her well and the kids like her.

We need her approx 3-4 days a week from 3:30-5pm. She will collect the kids from school in her car, do some tutoring and homework help then ideally I'd like her to do a bit of ironing or have a tidy/straighten up before we get home.

She has said £15ph but DH is saying this is too much for a babysitter? I am not sure as we have paid £10ph for a babysitter before but obviously you don't ask a babysitter to tutor, tidy and pick up your kids for you? It sounds good to me but I need help convincing DH.
Thoughts?

£15 is an absolute bargain! When exactly is she expected to fit in ironing/cleaning in the 1.5 hours after pick up, sorting snacks, tutoring etc?

15 hour for tutoring and collection is tight but fine, but asking her to tidy as well is proper taking the piss.

£15 an hour is the minimum nanny rate around here. You can’t pay her less than minimum wage legally or morally. If she’s driving them - is she charging you for mileage etc? Will she be self employed or will you employ her? I take it she’s not Ofsted registered so you can’t pay via tax free childcare? She won’t be able to do ironing - I would say the best you could ask for is the house to be found as it was left.

It would be wise to discuss if she has insurance for self employed childcare roles too, Childcare .co.uk may provide this. She may also need to add business use to her car insurance.

Indeed.

£15 per hour isn't enough and it's outrageous that you'd also expect cleaning and ironing!

I pay £15 per half hour for a tutor.

I think £15 per hour is more than fair
She is doing pick up, caring for dc with additonal needs and has sen experience, that's pretty priceless tbh

Plus homework - aka tutoring and you want her to tidy up or iron.

£15 is fair for after-school care but not enough for a tutor. I think your DH is being very unreasonable.

I’m assuming by tutoring that you mean homework supervision accounting for
the extra input a child with Sen requires? I think £15 per hour is a bargain for that and would offer £20.

and no ironing.

That sounds like a bargain but i wouldn't be expecting her to do housework/ironing for that. Tutors are expensive and she only has an hour and a half with 2 kids. Tidying up after kids would be reasonable though.

I would have said £45 to £50 per afternoon.
Your DH is crazy.

Finish school then get them in the car, home, snack, homework/study - all in an hour and a half and you still expect ironing/ tidying up? And yea £15 is perfectly reasonable- or one of you could finish early and well, parent?

15 an hour is cheap. U cannot expect her to do anything but supervise and tutor. She will not have time to iron. I would not do it for double that

She is not babysitting

Put it this way I paid £25 for afterschool club per child in primary, without the luxury of someone sitting woth them doing homework and that was 4 years ago

That is 1) an absolute bargain and 2) far too much to ask her to do in the time.

If it’s only an hour and a half she’s getting £22.50 a day for this role. She’ll have travel on top and the timing will limit her flexibility for other priorities whether that’s work, study or her own time. And she uses her own car for collection so she’s saving you travel money as well as time.

She has massively undervalued herself in my opinion, I’d probably pay £50 a day for this service (which would cost me less than two after school club places at our local state primary). Definitely accept and don’t negotiate. And don’t ask her to do the ironing!

She’s not a babysitter. You’re asking her to tutor your children in this time. I think £15ph is quite cheap for 1:2 after school care and tutoring. Especially from someone with good SEND experience.

Does your 1 and a half hours last longer than mine?
Drive home, homework x2, tutoring x2, ironing and a bit of tidying up all in such a short space of time isn't doable.
If you want a tutor, pay a tutor. If you want a cleaner, hire one, but don't insult the lass by laying on extra chores for a shite wage.

£15 an hour seems like a bargain. And I wouldn’t expect any tidying or ironing, other than putting plates in dishwasher and generally tidying up any mess that’s made by the kids in her time

£15ph is an absolute bargain and you would be ripping her off honestly. I’m not sure where in the world you are, but in the East of England where I live the going rate for a Nanny is £15-18ph. A tutor is £35-50ph!

A babysitter needs to at least earn minimum wage. Most in my area charge £12ph evening babysitting (kids asleep most of the time) and £15-18ph for daytime childcare.

Well you have to pay the minimum wage so your OHs idea is illegal. You are also so lucky to get this arrangement. And she's undercharging. How would you replace her otherwise. Babysitting is not in working hours when children are active and have work to do. And tutors are super expensive

(When I say plates in dishwasher, I mean from the afterschool snack. Not that she should be tidying up your kitchen)

I think £15/hr is about right. I would expect to pay around £12-15 an hour for this sort of thing generally but the particular qualities she brings makes it worth the top end.

I also think it's unrealistic to expect her to do much ironing/tidying - at most I would expect her to make herself useful, e.g. empty dishwasher

We pay £16 per hour for our afterschool nanny. She doesn't do anything other than play with DS while she's here - no homework (although he's only Reception) but sometimes they read a few books, she gives him a snack but no dinner and doesn't do any kind of chores.

15 p/h without ironing and tidying up plus covering of fuel costs and it will be a very good bargain imo.
She has to collect and do homework with 2 kids, one of them with additional needs so obviously you can’t just ask anyone to do this.

Are you absolutely sure about homework by the way? Children with autism often need some downtime after school, they are often masking at school and then let it go at home. She would probably have your autistic child at the most tricky moment of the day and going straight to the homework might not be a good idea.

Your husband is a CF. She's not going to be doing the role of a babysitter, even if she was why should she work for less than minimum wage?

Oh and you're a CF to think you can hire someone for childcare and tutoring and expect them to do domestic tasks as well. And then trying to underpay her.

I hope she doesn't accept the position because sounds like you think you can give her a tenner and she's basically your slave.