Hiring a nanny for the first time - what are the next steps after making a job offer?

[pecanpie]

I'm about to hire my first nanny to take care of my 2 children. I've made a list of all of the things I need to cover once I've made the job offer:-

Writing a contract
Finding a payroll company
Getting Ofsted registration for nanny so that I can part pay in childcare vouchers - how do I go about this?
Nanny insurance

Is there anything else I should be looking at?

Also, we have a very strong applicant who has previously looked after DD1 at day nursery. There's a clause which says we can't solicit nursery staff for 6 months after leaving in our contract. The potential nanny replied to our ad rather than us soliciting her, does anyone have any experience in such circumstances? I am prepared to wait out a period of time to still be able to employ her or to pay a 'fine' of some sort if absolutely necessary but given that finances are quite tight and it's only just about worth going back to work, it will put on additionalpressure if we have to.

Thanks!

Hi Pecanpie,

This clause it quite common for nurseries in my experience. Most nursery charge a finders fine if you do 'poach' their staff and my friend had to pay this for her nanny (it was £2000).

The Ofsted registration is really good, i asked my nanny to do it but she just couldn't even get started as ofsted were not very helpful. In the end i asked my payroll provider and they sent me a step by step guide which was perfect, it only took about 20 minutes and i did it with her. Then they posted a from which she filled in and posted off (i cant remember exactly but i think she had to go to the post office with some ID with the form that they sent). The actual certificate took about 6 weeks to come through after that.

For the nanny insuarnce i use Morton Michel, i think they are the biggest company, it was 60-70 roughly per year. I have had no problems with it, but mind you i have never had to claim thankfully. One thing i did find was when they sent the renewal letter it was more expensive so i cancelled it and bought a new policy instead.

The payroll company that i use is nannypaye and i could not be happier with them, i have used their expertise a lot, just with general questions, but they have been a real lifeline. They did my contract as well, which me and my nanny were both happy with.

With the nanny from nursery, i would be tempted not to tell the nursery and ask her to do the same... if you generally did not 'poach' her then your conscience is clear...

Good luck.

Writing a contract
Get that done as soon as possible so you have got the nanny signed up as it were. Remember to specify the Gross wage in the contract.

Finding a payroll company
Plenty around. PAYEforNannies is currently one I suggest as they do mine.

Getting Ofsted registration for nanny so that I can part pay in childcare vouchers - how do I go about this?
You don't.
This is for the nanny to arrange. Nothing you as the employer can do to sort that one out - though you may want to contribute towards the cost.
It can take many months, so ask the nanny to get that started as quickly as possible... using Ofsted Online Application ideally.
Better still, if an applicant is already registered - they can just provide their registration number.

If you are already getting vouchers, then you can save them up for a while. If not start the ball rolling with regards to your work in terms of setting up the salary sacrifice scheme. However you may need the Childcare Provider Registration Number (which in your case would be your nannies Ofsted Registration number) which you won't have until your nanny is registered. So get things to the stage where you are awaiting that. Then once you have it, sign the work documents to start the scheme from the next payroll run.

Nanny insurance
You don't
Again this is something the nanny needs to sort out and must pay for. Michel is one of a few providers.

Employers Liability Insurance
This is something you need. It is usually part of your home contents insurance. Check the policy wording.

Car Insurance
Is your nanny going to be using Your car? Are they going to be using their own car?
Insurance needs to be minimum of Business Class 1, could be argued that it's Class 3 and some nannies (who use their own car) may want to get the wording even better by having a specialist policy such as from MortonMichel (same provider as Nanny Liability insurance).

The nursery staff member could work out expensive. While they have nursery experience, consider how relevant that is to nannying. Some of it is but it's Group Care which means that they may not have had much authority, they may not have been doing the planning, they may be used to having breaks during their working day. There are pros and cons... so write pros and cons lists for each applicant to get a feel for which is more suitable.