Nanny 'v' Nursery Dilemma

[larlylou]

I currently send my ds (3 yrs) to Nursery (has been going since he was 5 months) and my dd is due to start next month (she is 6 months). I am quite happy with the Nursery but the expense is so vast that it seems unjustified for me to work (I only work part time). I was wondering if there was any feasibility in employing a part time Nanny term time only. I don't know if this would work or not and am only looking into it at the moment but thought that the price I pay for Nursery we could put towards a salary instead. I would love for some feedback as to anything I should consider, the pros and cons and whether it would be of interest to Nannies? I think my dd would benefit from that one to one a lot more and my ds would attend the local pre-school. I thought a Mum who already had children at school would find this appealing. I am aware of references and police checks that would need to be done. Does anyone have any experience regarding Nursery to Nanny?

Thanks Squeakycat, it helps alot. At the moment my ds does do two mornings a week at our local pre-school as I want him to get to know and make friends whom he will go to school with so that will continue but will go on Wed and Thursday morning if (or should I say when!) we employ a nanny. What is nannytax and approved childcarer fee - is that fee something we have to pay or a bonus to the nanny?

As an employer you are obliged to deduct tax and NI from your nanny's pay and, along with employers Ni, give the money to the government. You are also obliged to provide nanny with payslips detailing pay and deductions. By far the easiest way to do this is to use a payroll company, nannytax and nannypaye being the two main ones. We use the cheaper one (think it's nannypaye). Their websites are nannytax.co.uk and nannypaye.co.uk.

Approved childcarer scheme:
There is a daft scheme where your employer can give you vouchers to help towards childcare costs tax- and NI-free as salary sacrifice. Max vouchers are £50pw. If your employers offer this, you and DH can both get it. They save between £800 and £1200 per yr on tax savings depending on which tax bracket you're in. Nurseries can accept these, but now so can nannies if they are on the approved childcarer register. We're in the process of this at the mo, so not sure how it will work. Nanny must have some (could be very basic) qualification and first aid and fill in a daft form and go to a very daft interview. The application also provides a CRB check - though you'd want to check one before you take nanny on, really. Ours had another CRB just before joining us anyway. Until we've done it, we're not sure whether the hoops are too daft for words, but the savings are a significant level for us.

Any more Qs?

SC's net pay comment is important. Always do the contract to pay your nanny gross wages not nte. Our first nanny came to us with tax owing from her prevoius employment. Because we had agreed to pay her net we ended up picking up the back tax bill as well!!

Thanks Squeakycat, you're a star! We were going to employ her through my dh's business and get his accountant to sort out all the tax and NI. I must ensure that they are employed 'gross' and not 'net' though! I briefly remember my boss whittling on about some tax saving scheme just before I was about to go on maternity leave so I'll have to look into that when I return (in 3 weeks boo hoo).

CAn't add much to to the very comprehensive posts from SCat other than to say we did exactly this, partly in order to allow DD to attend excellent local state pre-school - for us the quality of the education was important (DD has SEN) and tbh it was just in a different league to the 3-5 provision at the daycare we had used (which we were v happy with for baby care it should be said) and DS is now there and blossoming. It's a costly option but for us just for a few years and benefits so outweigh costs. BTW £7 ph net sounds good for the country.

clearly that's my children who are feeding the ducks, not her referees.

im a nanny, and also worked in a nursery for nearly 3 years, i would say it is better for a child to have a nanny, as i found that you couldnt give a child enough attention at nursery, with a nanny you get what you pay for!
i prefer being a nanny as there is more freedom, the children get mor eout of it, and if you have more than one child it works out cheaper than sending both to nursery.

em xxx