Please help a novice nanny employer.....

[Daisy222]

I am just in the process of trying to find my way through the bewildering process of hiring a nanny for my 9 month old daughter and am going to beg for help from all you lovely nannies on mumsnet.

Sorry it?s long and rambling.......

As I work shifts what we need the nanny to work will vary week on week. It will always be on the same three days but some weeks (in fact most weeks) we will need her to work 11.5 hour days. During other weeks for one day of the three we will only need her for a morning (if I have just worked a night shift) or for one we won?t need her at all (because I am working the weekend and so will have more days off during the week. So the weeks will vary quite markedly in terms of intensity from 34.5 hours to occasionally only doing 23 or even 17 hours. I will get my rota a month in advance so the nanny will know exactly what she is working then but I won?t be able to tell them before that.

What I am finding really difficult is how to agree a salary for this flexible working or even advertise for a nanny to do this. My understanding is that in the contract we have to agree a gross annual salary. Should I just pick what I think will be an average number of hours the nanny will work per week, over the course of a year (to be on the safe side we would probably say 33) and then work out the net rate, then gross rate based on a standard tax code and then multiply by 52? Or would the nanny want to be paid exactly the hours she has worked in which case how do we agree a gross annual salary?

Finally two quick question about agencies: is it worth going with more than one agency to find a nanny? The cost of the agencies vary markedly from about £1000 to an eye watering £3000 (we are in north london): is it worth paying the extra?

Thank you all very, very much!

IMO agencies aren't worth it. There is a lot of advice on here about finding, interviewing and deciding on a nanny. The legal/payroll support can come from a payroll company which will cost a fifth of the price.

In your situation I would forget that net exists. It's a 3 day job so chances are they'll have another one and you don't want to end up paying BR tax. So fix a gross amount.

I'd go for paying on the basis of a 2.5 day week multiplied by 52 and divided by 12. You may overpay slightly but it will save fiddling with hours each month. Some months they'll be down a bit but most they should be quids in, your childcare budget is fixed and

I wouldn't recommend using an agency either, they jusy advertise on nannyjob/gumtree so you'd be better doing it yourself.
I would advertise the job as 23-35 hours on xday x day and x day.
If one week does happen to be a 17 hour week, just ask to use the extra hours as a babysiting night and have a lovely evening at the cinema (obv mention this at interview).
You could set a gross hourly rate - if you google mr anchovy's tax caluclator, you can pay around with gross/net rates until you get one you can afford.
Your holiday is a bit easier as its a fixed 3 days - 17 days, but based on maybe a 30 hour week pay.
If you're in london you won't have a problem finding someone lovely

Thank you so much for your replies.
We'd been going to go with an agency because we felt that they could do a better and more thorough job of making sure that the candidates are vetted properly. However, reading back through the posts I see that may not be the case!
I'll have a go and advertise on nanny job and may be back with many more questions.....