Au Pair to Nanny - salary question...

[JinxyCat]

Hi all,

I am currently on maternity leave and I have a lovely english 'au pair plus' who was looking to build up nanny experience for a year before looking for a nanny job. We are currently paying her £80 pw plus annual travelcard and passes (merlin, london zoo).

I am looking to go back to work in September/October, and would very much like to transition her to be our nanny (and she's indicated she's interested in this role too) and pay her accordingly.

The hours we'd need would be Mon-Fri, 8am-6.30pm, and a maximum of two nights babysitting (reality being we wouldn't often use them). Four week paid holiday (50/50 specified by her/us)

She would have sole charge of two boys - who will be 3 1/2 and 1 in Sep/Oct, DS1 will be in nursery from 9-12, so the role will be drop-off in morning, then pick up and have both in afternoon.

We have a cleaner, so light housework only (e.g. tidy up after kids and hang out/bring in washing). Cooking dinner for the kids, and maybe doing one night cooking for me and DH (with us re-heating what was made for the kids is probably the most likely scenario, rather than her cooking twice obvs - and we'd do dishes after dinner).

She is 19, has done her level 2&3 cache qualifications, holds a pediatric first aid and CRB check - and we're about to offer to pay for her to become ofsted registered (good for everyone, right?)

I'm happy with her work so far, but know that we need to start transitioning so that she has more sole charge of DS2 (I'm breastfeeding so only just now starting to feel able to leave him, no concerns about her skills), and also both boys together as she hasn't done much of that yet (mainly b/c I'm not totally confident/comfortable looking after them both on my own, and am therefore reluctant to ask someone else to do it until I find it less of a tough job!). I only have minor concerns that she's still taking a lot of direction from me, and not doing a lot of suggesting - but I'm sure that we could work on that in the next few months so that we were both comfortable.

I know that the average pay when our last nanny left (in 2011 when I started maternity leave) was approx £350 pw net (£450 gross) - but given that's an average and we'll be her first family that she is nannying for, I wondered what a reasonable figure to offer her would be, given her experience?

As always, any advice gratefully received!

I'd pay around 2/3 of the nanny rate for an inexperienced nanny.

Is she live-in or live-out?

I think £300 gross is more reasonable for a 19 year old nanny in training.

I wouldn't pay for ousted registration. I can easily make use of those vouchers elsewhere (kip McGrath, holiday clubs, etc.). So not actually an advantage for nanny to be registered.

Even I'd you don't go down the OFSTED route you should make sure she had insurance (which she should have already anyway).

I think £300gross would be fine for a first nanny job and 2/3 years in one place is better than chopping and changing for more cash. Put it to her and see what she says.

You might also consider sweetening it a bit by letting her attend workshops/courses/further training such as those run by BAPN. If she's early in her career and serious ablyt nannying she should appreciate that.

Thanks guys, I was thinking around the £300 mark too. And she's live-in, can't believe I forgot to mention that in my incredible long OP ;)
Another quick question, currently we're paying for an annual travel card, thats not too usual, is it?
I was thinking of offering to pay for half of it, once she's full time. Does that sound reasonable?

@Franktal, thanks for the idea of offering additional training - are there any courses you would especially recommend?

Well personally I think pretty much anything run by MNT is worth doing if she wants to work with newborns in the future.

BAPN have discounts with a lot of training providers including MNT and the NSPCC and are just starting to run their own workshops. It depends whether there's anything she thinks (or you feel) would be particularly interesting or valuable.

The OU do some university level EY courses if that interests her.

Many nannies say they'd like to do training but it's a matter of a) time and b) cash. A supportive boss makes a big difference.

i am jealous of your ap-soon-to-be-nanny, OP. ( a few years back) when I tried to get a full time job for a year after two years of aupairing, babysitting and three months of nannying, i wasnt very succesful. the highest wage i was offered was £160-180 and that was cash in hand, no tax in sight.