day nanny queries

[Pussinflatboots]

Starting to think about childcare options for DD, and have vaguely decided that when she's one, I'd like to employ a part-time day nanny. I work at home so can be flexible with hours, but rough thinking is for about three mornings a week (12 hours). When she's a little older (3ish), I expect to send her to nursery part-time.

My concerns are mainly to do with nanny long-term sickness or potential maternity leave 'what ifs'. Would I be responsible for paying wages throughout? Can afford to pay for one nanny, but not one off-sick and a replacement one IYSWIM.

Are there any other costs I should consider? (I know about tax and NI).

thanks

SSP and SMP are reclaimable so yes you would be paying both but you claim back on one set of expenditure.

Other costs:
Feeding nanny
Kitty for outings
Insurance if you want nanny driving your car
Possible additional premium to your home insurance to add employer's liability
OFSTED registration if you need nanny to be registered

If you can be flexible you're quite likely to find a local nanny with charges at school/preschool wanting a second job to fill the time (although this makes it doubly important to negotiate gross).

Holiday pay!

Would a 3 mornings a week job appeal to many nannies? It would not appeal to me as I need the income to pay my bills and finding other work to fit around it could be tricky.
Nanny would have all the usual employment rights, so factor into costs of things like Holiday Pay. Maternity/paternity leave is always a possibility when employing someone, as is someone being sick.
Perhaps you would be better to use a childminder or nursery where you don't have employer responsibilities, though if childminder is sick you may still need to find alternative care.

More than happy to pay holiday pay, and if SSP and SMP/SPP are reclaimable, then that's great news. Also happy with the other costs outlined above (insurance, kitty, etc etc).
Looks like main concern will be finding someone looking for a part-time post. Although as frak says, I may be able to find a nanny share as I can be very flexible with hours.

Final question... When should I start looking? Dd is only 3mths so am jumping the gun a bit, perhaps. Am in the midlands.

I think you will easily find a nanny share (at least assuming you are in London or another area whre lots of people use nannies). There are a lot of people trying to find the solution to the issue of what to do about childcare once kids are at school. It is very hard to find a nanny just to do afternoons becuase of the cut in wages, and having a different charge in the morning helps with this. I think the main issue would be what to do about school holidays, i.e. if the other family in the nanny share wanted the nanny to do full days during school holidays, would you be happy for your DC to be looked after along with the older children. If so, this is likely to make it easier to arrange a share.

Yep, I'd be flexible on that too :)

I'm in the Midlands, and know of lots of nannies looking for that type of work as often they are students or have another job. I worked 4 afternoons per week for a while whilst in my first and second year of uni.
You may be able to employ someone who works in a breakfast/after school club setting and could nanny for you during their day-time hours.

I have a nanny who works 3 days a week, and she works with another family for 2 afternoons - it's a great way for her to get variety, and my children have some days at home and 2 days in the nursery. I put an advert in gumtree, and got lots of responses... my nanny is really wonderful! I have however had a bad experience with nannytax... they have been extremely disorganised so I would look for a different (and cheaper) company to organise the tax and NI for you - this costs from £150 per year.