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Paid childcare

Discuss everything related to paid childcare here, including childminders, nannies, nurseries and au pairs.

Nanny salary

24 replies

Cheeseandbiscuits · 03/11/2011 21:15

We are thinking of getting a nanny for when I go back to work in Feb. They would work 3 days a week, live out and use of a car. We would have a kitty for petrol etc. Idealy we would need them 7.30am till 6.30pm

how much should we be budgeting to pay them? How much would an inexperienced nanny be looking to earn vs an experienced nanny? We are in West London.
Thanks!

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nbee84 · 03/11/2011 21:50

Nannynick's your man with the figures, sure he'll be along in a min - he'll frighten you off with the total annual cost Grin

But to break it down to an hourly rate I would think you are looking at £8 - £9 gross for an inexperienced nanny and £11 - £13 gross for experienced.

Have a look at advertised jobs on nannyjob.co.uk to see what people are offering. Think about what you can afford and then advertise the job at a slightly lower rate (so that you have room for negotiation) and see what sort of candidates apply.

nbee84 · 03/11/2011 21:52

Maybe putting a salary range in the ad, so that you can offer someone with less experience the lower end of the range and vice versa.

nannynick · 03/11/2011 21:56

An experienced nanny could well want £12 gross an hour... so £20,649 a year (based on 33 hours per week), which would cost you as employer £22,522 once adding Employers NI. Have a play with PAYE Calculator. Note: rates can change, so Employers NI could well increase come next tax year, April 2012.

Minimum you could pay someone would be NMW, which for someone aged 21+ is £6.08 an hour. If anyone would accept that wage is another matter.

Have a look at jobs in your area... both childcare jobs and non-childcare jobs. What could someone looking for work earn? Looking at childcare jobs, what are typical salaries on offer? It can be hard to find out but some jobs listed on job sites like www.nannyjob.co.uk, www.greatcare.co.uk will give a salary indication, especially Nursery type jobs (listed at Greatcare). For example Level 3 nursery nurse, Chiswick, £14k+ - it does not say what the hours are, I would assume around 40 hours per week.

How about looking at things differently... calculate what you can afford to pay, including as many of the additional costs as you can (such as the activities kitty, estimated weekly mileage, running payroll, Employers NI). From that calculation you can work out what you have available to pay in terms of salary. Drop the amount a bit, so you have some room to give a bonus at end of year, or a payrise. Then consider if the resulting salary is a salary that someone would be interested in having to do the job - then try to recruit someone at that salary. In my view it is much better to be specific in job adverts about the salary on offer and the skills you expect someone to have to be able to do the job. As a nanny I wouldn't look at jobs which don't give a salary, it's wasting my time and the parents time. I need to pay my mortgage, so I need to earn a certain minimum amount.

Cheeseandbiscuits · 03/11/2011 22:12

THanks everyone, I will have a look. It seems to be a bit pricier than I had anticipated.

We are both doctors, I am returning part time. We have no family to help out and all the nurseries around here only cover 8am-6pm. We really only wanted to pay £70 a day max. Blimey!

Does anyone have any bright ideas how to get around this?

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eastnorth · 03/11/2011 22:22

How about a childminder or a nanny share

Cheeseandbiscuits · 03/11/2011 22:24

I have gone through the local childminder list provided by family services but none that accept children before 8 have vacancies. I have posted on netmums and childcare.co.uk for nanny shares but not had any responses!

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eastnorth · 03/11/2011 22:28

I think there is a site called nannyshare.co.uk, we tried this when we were looking for childcare,did not find anyone but would imagine in london there is more nannies.

nannynick · 03/11/2011 22:51

£70 a day? To include everything? Not going to happen in my view seeing that you want an 11 hour day. If £70 was just salary, I make that £6.36 per hour which is only just above NMW.

Are either of you an Employed Doctor, rather than being say a partner? If you are employed, then are you able to get Childcare Vouchers... might help a bit but they are a salary sacrifice scheme so can affect things like pension. Childcare Vouchers savings. Note: Only registered childcare providers can accept childcare vouchers - so if a nanny, the nanny must be registered with Ofsted on the Voluntary part of the Childcare Register.

Cheeseandbiscuits · 03/11/2011 23:04

Yeh I didn't think it was feasable, thanks nannynick. No we are not partners, both hosp docs.

Will check out nannyshare.co.uk, thanks eastnorth. I think I might need to find someone to drop her off at nursery, then all day in nursery, then someone to pick her up and keep her till I get home Sad

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nannynick · 03/11/2011 23:12

I don't know about hosp docs. Your hospital/PCT may have things in place to help workers with childcare costs. Could be worth seeing what is provided if anything. Some hospitals have workplace nurseries for example.

Cheeseandbiscuits · 03/11/2011 23:21

Would use of family car, likely chance of early finishes, prepaid travel card, helping themselves to family food for meals help sweeten the deal

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StillSquiffy · 03/11/2011 23:34

Fraid not, all those are considered pretty standard (except car if you live in a city)

How about childminder/au pair combo? That would get you most bang for your buck, with au pair doing the very brief wrap around that you need

JustRedbin · 03/11/2011 23:41

The average wage is around £25000 pa. If you want an average person, budget at this sort of level. Presumably your joint income is £150,000 plus.

Cheeseandbiscuits · 03/11/2011 23:43

Haha I wish, justredbin it's about £65 k.

Thanks everyone, will look into all those options.

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JustRedbin · 03/11/2011 23:48

just fishing Grin

Holidaysressential · 05/11/2011 09:34

We r both hosp doctors ( laugh at the idea of joint income of 150,000 people don't have a clue).
We have used the following combos

  1. Hosp nursery at work - baby commutes on backpack on London transport to hosp where one of us working on site. Excellent set up - felt close by if needed and cheaper as only paying for hours at work plus salary sacrifice.
  2. Now Two kids - unpractical to commute kids on backpack!! Used flexi nursery plus xnanny social work student to help with wrap around care. Good option and may suit you. Easy to find people on gumtree and if u find a flexi nursery then the days don't have to be so long.
  3. Now use school and preschool plus aupair - much cheaper and much more flexible - 25 hours a week goes a long way.

Nanny - totally unaffordable unless u r quite high up the pay scales as flexi pay not great.
Childminder - used one for 4 months - least flexible in my opinion

Cheeseandbiscuits · 05/11/2011 09:55

Thanks holidayressential.

Have found a 4th yr med student doing her BsC who can help out evenings/weekends and short notice.

I have got a couple of inexperienced nannies coming for interview this week. I told them what we could afford to pay and they are still coming.

Backpack is a fab idea. Dh is A=E spR, hopefully about to become a consultant . If he does, that will help majorly. Will investigate our hospital nurseries. THe problem with that is that if the other person is doing the pick up - we work a long distance from each other.

We are planning on au pair once we have a bigger house and DD is older.

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Holidaysressential · 05/11/2011 10:09

We used the hosp nursery closer to our house so if on call the other parent/ student doesn't have far from home to pick up Ie would be coming back that way anyway but depends on the two locations of work and home. We found the nhs nurseries open longer than the private ones which was a bonus and some offer this flexi system where u book shifts at the nursery so if you have a day off eg post a weekend then you don't have to pay for childcare. Using a med student is a good option and they might be able to pick up and do bath time some days so that you don't end up with excessively grumpy baby. I found under 1s found three long days at nursery quite a lot. they don't sleep as well at nursery and there is so much going on. We have baby 3 on the way so just looking into options again. Definitely look into aupair option if and when you move- we have had two now and they if you do lots of research can be fab and so flexible and you even get the occasional night out together! We bought out house with this specifically in mind.

Cheeseandbiscuits · 05/11/2011 10:28

Thanks you have been so helpful. A hospital between us has a couple of nurseries that do 7.30 - 6 that I will check out. I would normally be able to get there for 6, or ask the med student to do it. Though, do you think it would be too much to ask her to stick DD in a backpack, cart her from central london on the tube then bus then bath and dinner? They are the same trust as my husband so can hopefully do salary sacrifice.

Congrats on Baby 3. I agree about au pairs, although DH is very against having some one living in the house. Hmm. Once I have got this sorted, the next step is sticking the house on the market / finding a new one and back to work. Its endless!

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Holidaysressential · 05/11/2011 11:45

As a med student I used to regularly put 4 kids to bath and bed and homework and tea! I think particularly in London there will be many med students willing to do this but you may find during exam time they are not so willing so find out in advance when their high pressure times are. Which London hospitals are you at - we used the st Thomas' nursery which was excellent.

chocolatecrispies · 05/11/2011 20:21

Nannies are very pricey but they come with many advantages. You can only use Childcare vouchers for someone who is ofsted registered so not a medical student probably, although I guess you could register them? We have a nanny with some experience and we pay about £10.50 gross. You can register for Childcare vouchers before you go back to work as could your dh, so you can accumulate some in advance. We find they make a big difference, I work for an nhs trust and they do them so I would get in touch with your childcare coordinator to find out how to join the scheme. I looked into our workplace nursery but the idea of commuting at rush hour with my ds was just awful, plus if I was ever ill or working elsewhere it would be a 45 min trip to nursery. Childcare is just crazily expensive whatever you do, with nannies it has to be enough for them to live off, after all.

Cheeseandbiscuits · 05/11/2011 22:20

Thanks chocolate, we don't want to rip anyone off at all! That was why I posted on here. We will look into childcare vouchers, thanks.

holiday thats true, I nannyed as a student and I managed fine. We will prob look at UCLH where DH is now and there has been chat about a consultant post there

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ohnoshedittant · 06/11/2011 00:24

I'm in west london and experienced/qualified nannies won't take much less than £10ph net. Having said that it is an employers market at the moment so you may be lucky and get someone for a bit less. Also there are a lot of nannies who are experienced in their home country, but not here and will therefore take less. The disadvantage being their English isn't always great, can be tricky to check refs and they're not usually familiar with the local area, but all things that can be overcome long term.

Whereabouts in west london are you? May be able to point you in the direction of a nannyshare if you like?

Cheeseandbiscuits · 06/11/2011 09:34

Thanks ohnoshedittant, we are in W12. If you know of any nanny shares, that would be awesome. I have posted on nannyshare.co.uk and not had much luck yet.

We are interviewing 3 nannies, who still want to come to interview despite the uncompetitive salary we are offering. 2 are not very experienced and one has quite a bit of experience in the UK - was a bit surprised she still wanted to come!
Thanks

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