Live In Nanny Advice... salary but mum is at home most of the day

[tigerbump]

We are exploring Nanny option but shocked by the demands of salary for a live in role in a rural area.

So we are expecting newborn twins and will have toddler (who is part time nursery anyway). Role is working with mum but some sole care more with toddler or just taking twins for a walk. Hours would be from 35/40 to 60 (60 being around birth and first few months of babies arrival). Role is really flexible and nanny gets time off during day to give a good work balance and at least 1.5 days off over weekend.

We are looking at girls who are qualified with 1 years experience.

The role is live in with travel. So would love to hear thoughts.

I would have thought you were looking at a minimum of £250 per week, probably nearer £350 - particularly for a 60 hour week.

Being rural won't really bring the wages down as a young nanny would usually rather live in/near a town, so you would need to set the wage at a level that would entice them. Not getting a full weekend off will put a lot of nannies off. If you have a 2 day weekend it gives the option of going away or going back home from Friday night to Monday morning.

Speaking from experience..... You will need to provide a car (with provision for them to use themselves at weekend) and good standard of accommodation to attract nannies to rural areas. given the need for a car you need to avoid nannies below 23 yrs old because the insurance costs otherwise are prohibitive.

If you need some weekend help then far better to operate a one weekend off/one weekend on than to try to eat into their weekend every weekend. I have learnt to operate a bi-weekly schedule where they work Tuesday-Sunday morning and then Mon-Thursday. That gives them a 4 day weekend every other week - live-ins absoultely love this as they can plan to head off every other weekend.

The more experienced nannies will almost certainly prefer sole care than a side-by-side arrangement, whereas the less experienced nannies might prefer you to be around to support.

nbee is right - the absolute minimum would be £250 for a nanny with experience in a rural area - an experienced nanny would be £350. You then need to pay their tax/NI on top (go to listentotaxman website if you need to calculate the total cost to you). You might be able to get someone transitioning form 'au pair' to 'nanny' for slightly less, but not much less.

Live-in nannies tend to work 55-60 hours as standard so I would advise you to avoid marketing the role as something that will start at 60 and then drop to 35 because (a) they won't want to take the drop in salary and (b) you may factor in reduced costs and then discover down the line that you need the nanny to do the extra hours. Far better to keep hours constant and advertise role as including an element of housekeeping that will kick in as the children move to the nursery setting. That way you can use the spare hours up with family ironing/house chores.

If it is too expensive when you add it up together then why not consider a temp nanny to cover the first 6 months, followed by an experienced au-pair plus? So long as their sole care is limited to babysitting, nursery drop-offs and the like they would be a much cheaper option which could work well seeing as you will be at home yourself? An AP+ will cost around £100 for a 35 hour week (maybe slightly more to get one happy to work with 3 under-3's).

StillSquiffy has given lots of useful advice there. The cost of a live-in nanny will be quite high as they are a Nanny, not an Au-Pair. You are wanting someone with experience, possibly someone with newborn baby experience, possibly twin experience.

An au-pair will be cheaper but they may not have the experience you require. However ultimately you need to decide upon what you can afford and then see who you can get to take the job for a salary you can afford to pay.

thanks all for the replies...