Nanny v Au pair

[SESthebrave]

Going to need to look at new childcare arrangements in 2013 so I know we've got plenty of time.

Currently 3.0yo DS has been in nursery 4days a week since he was 10mo. We and he have been really happy there. I am now on ML and DC2 is due any day. We've reduced DS to 3 days in June and then 2 days in July & Aug before increasing again to 3 days from September when he gets his government funding through.

I hope to return to work March 2013. Until DS starts school in Sept 2013, we will be out of pocket if both DC go to nursery. We also need to sort out some form of before & after school care for DS when he starts school.

As a result, I'd been wondering about an au pair to start Feb 2013. I'm aware an au pair isn't as qualified as a nanny and will work about 25hrs a week and live in as part of the family for a fee of about £300 per month. Have I got that about right?
How easy is it to find a live out au pair and how much extra would that cost?

On top of this, DS's keyworker at nursery has just left to go travelling for 6 months and then come back and get a Jon somewhere as a nanny. She has been less than subtle in making it clear she would like to come and nanny for us. DS has had a great relationship with her and I would consider this as an option.
How would it work though in terms of fees, tax, NI? Would she be self employed and sort it out herself? How much holiday would she be entitled to and what would be the normal childcare solution to cover this?

Whether we go down nanny or au pair route, what we would ideally want is from when I go back to work, DC to do 2 days at nursery, Wednesday with me and 2 days with nanny or au pair.
Then from Sept, we'd need before and after school care for DS Mon, Tues, Thurs & Fri. (I'd do Wednesdays). Also DC2 to go to nursery 3 days with nanny / au pair one day.

What do you think would be our best option?

You need a nanny

I don't think an au pair can have sole care of a child for 2 days

If you employ a nanny you can use a payroll agency to sort tax and NI

Nannies can't be self employed

Thanks RubySlippers. I wasn't aware that an au pair couldn't have sole care of children for a significant period of time.

Thank you - that's completely changed my thought process and I'm glad I started thinking so early about it all!

Consider if you really want someone else living at your home (live-in nanny or au-pair).

Always assume the person is your employee - you will I expect want to be able to tell them what to do and when to do it.

Minimum holiday is 5.6 weeks. Bank/public holidays which fall on a working day can be included in the 5.6 weeks.
If the person Does Not live at your home, then national mininimum wage applies.
Best to assume that you will need to operate PAYE. It does depend on salary level and if the person has other income.

2 days with a nanny sounds best to me too. On the days when your youngest is at nursery there may well be an after school club that he can go to and a breakfast club too.
Otherwise you could put your youngest with a childminder that also picks up and drops off from your sons school.

There is nothing legally preventing an au pair having sole charge - but you have to consider whether it is a good idea to leave an 18 year old with little/no childcare experience and poor English alone with two small children for a long day. Childcare is quite hard work! Of course you could get lucky and find an au pair with great English, experience as a nanny or kindergarten teacher and a real interest in children, but equally you might get one who has babysat her cousins a few times and is here to party.

Actually (spanner in the works) an au pair, one who is Romanian or Bulgarian and here AS an Au Pair cannot do 2 long days. They're limited to 5 hours/day.

Anyone else isn't technically an au pair but a live in domestic worker/childcarer who receives board and lodging as part of their wage. When you're talking abort long periods of sole charge it's important to bear that distinction in mind.

Of course people advertise themselves as au pairs and go into it with the ethos of au pairing being part if the family, and they fit your classic au pair profile of someone who's prepared to do a bit of babysitting and big sibling-ing having very limited experience of children woth the aim of improving their English, but legally they have the same employment rights as anyone else.

Which brings you to rubirosa's point about suitability. Would I leave an au pair in sole charge for that long? Probably not unless the kids were fairly self-sufficient or said au pair had an excellent level of English and solid previous experience of children. 2 days is a significant amount of waking time and a lot of development opportunities could be lost with a disinterested/inexperienced/ignorant carer (and by ignorant I mean someone with no knowledge of child development and appropriate activities/way to enhance those activities at all, which unfortunately is true of most au pairs).