Hiring a nanny/childminder - please help

[cheeky78]

Hi
I'm a Dr and first time mum about to go back to work. I'm planning on hiring a nanny on a part time basis. I'm lost in the world of childcare please help!

Do I need to add tax on to the basic hourly rate?
What is the average rate for West London nanny?
Where can I advertise/find a good nanny? The agencies seem to charge alot.

Any other useful nuggets of advice welcome

Thanks,

S

Yes you'll need to add tax if you are talking of net pay, much easier to think of salary in terms of gross.

I'd say start at £8 gross for no sole charge experience or qualification, average £12/h gross for 3-10 years experience, £15+ gross for lots of experience and qualification.

I've found mine in Gumtree and by word of mouth.

Do I need to add tax on to the basic hourly rate?

A Gross rate is BEFORE employee tax and NI deductions. You would need to add Employers NI.

A Net rate is AFTER all deductions. This is not recommended, especially for part-time nannies, as their personal tax allowance could all be used in another job.

calculator.kistax.com will give you an example of the figures. A payroll company - there are many, www.payefornannies.co.uk for example will do a lot of the paperwork for you, for a fixed annual fee.

What is the average rate for West London nanny?

London rates can be fairly high, I'd say £9-12 gross per hour would be typical for a qualified nanny... with higher end of range being for very experienced nannies. A newly qualified straight out of college may accept a lower wage, best to work out what you can afford to pay... then offer a bit less, so there is room to give a payrise later on.

Where can I advertise/find a good nanny?
www.nannyjob.co.uk
Childcare.co.uk

Advertise on both sites... putting as much information as you can in your advert, especially covering things like working hours, working days, a salary range, expected duties - some nannies will expect to do some child related housework, others won't. So be clear as to what you would expect. I don't Iron (as I'm useless) but I do load/unload the washing machine and dishwasher, push the vac around on occasion. Make sure you specify if you want a Driver.

As a Dr you probably won't get childcare vouchers (unless you are an employed Dr, then you might) but do check with your partner if they can get them, as Childcare Vouchers can be used with a Registered Nanny. If you will be using vouchers to part-pay the nannies salary, specify in the advert that you want someone already registered.

Consider how far someone is travelling to the job. Reliability is very important, so you don't want someone who will be travelling quite a long way in London traffic.

Search this section of mumsnet for lots of useful info about things like Contracts, expected duties, potential issues/problems. You can use Advanced Search to search using a keyword and limit it to just this topic.

For salary indication may be best to look at other jobs being advertised in your local area. As mickytoo has put, it can be as high as £15 gross or even higher in some parts of London for a very experienced nanny.

NannyJob: London Jobs (Live-Out, Part-Time). You will notice jobs advertised as Net (usually by agencies!) so simple maths is to add 20% to get a more relistic figure, though far better to enter it into the [[http://calculator.kistax.com Net to Gross calculator - use tax code BR (which means that no personal tax allowance is taken into account).

Why only part-time? Whilst you may only work part-time, would having a nanny around a bit when you aren't working be useful at all. Consider say the next 5 years... would say a 4-day a week nanny be better than only 2-days?

What are you meaning by part-time? A Doctor can work various hours these days... depending on what you are actually doing. It isn't always a 9-5 job!

Oh that link messed up... try again:

NannyJob: London Jobs, Part-Time, Live Out
Net to Gross Calculator

Thanks for your help, it's all very useful.

I'm going back to work 3 days a week. I would love to have a full time nanny but money does not allow.

I find all the tax rather over whelming. So as I understand it , it's prob better to advertise for gross salary and then work backwards. I presume as well it's our responsibility to pay the tax directly to the government?

Yes, your responsibility. Use a payroll company, they can explain it to you and take out most of the hassle. They will produce payslips and tell you how much to transfer to HMRC plus when/how to do that.

Some nannies don't understand Gross, so may want to know the Net. However without knowing their tax code you don't know their Net. So you can use the calculator to give them a guide but only a guide. Write the gross amount into the contract.

I noticed in your title that you are considering possibly a childminder. Childminders are self employed so they bill you for the work done. They work in their home rather than yours. Some childminders offer a pick up/drop off service but not all. Others offer cooked meals etc etc but i suggest to research to who meets what you want for your childcare needs best and take it from there.

Looks like you have had some good advice here if you do decide to go down the nanny route.

Whatever you decide I hope that you will be very happy with the childcare you choose in the end :)

great, thanks guys