What is a "Nanny Share"

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Hello - first time poster, long time lurker, hopefully this is in the right place.

I'm starting to look at options for my baby boy who will be around 6 months old when I return to work in September. Obvious options are Nursery - which seems an easy choice if a little inflexible in the hours. I would like to combine with a childminder but finding one seems a bit needle in a haystack as I'm sure they're all equally qualified so really personaility/values match is more important but how do you go about working that out without interviewing every CM going?

Anyway, point of the thread is - I don't know anything about the third option - a nanny share. How does this work? Is it that the nanny works FT but each family has her PT or does the nanny take children from two familes?

You wouldn't have much of a chance of interviewing every CM to be honest, a lot of the good ones would be full so you will only get a chance to interview ones who have a vacancy.

A nanny share is the nanny taking children from 2 families and looking after them at the same time. The nanny gets a higher rate per hour for doing this, but as this is split between the two families it is still much more affordable than having a nanny yourself.

It does, however, come with lots of drawbacks! Finding a compatible family who share your values, want roughly the same hours etc is not easy.

It's both, actually. There are two types of nannyshare; and they are just as you describe. A nannyshare can be quite complicated, but it can also save you some money.

Thanks! I do prefer the CM option but as you say it's hard to find one who's available and then is a match - I totally don't know where to start. Though I have been considering just hanging around my local surestart hoping to overhear conversations...

Possibly a starting point would be to establish how much you can afford to pay for childcare... as that could then rule some options out, especially a nanny.

You mention that nursery is inflexible on the hours... does that mean you need childcare on hours that a nursery is not open? If so, what hours do you need childcare? That could also rule out some options.

Local childminders may not attend the local surestart, so maybe start on the CM hunt by obtaining the list of local childminders, then finding out if any of them might have a space come September for a baby.