Planning for future childcare..?

[Dysgu]

I will try to keep this simple. I am just looking for advice and have plenty of time to work this out in RL.

DC3 is due in April 2013. I am planning to take ML until January 2014.

When I return to work, DC3 will be 8-10 months (DD1 and DD2 arrived very early...)
DD1 will be 7 and in full-time school.
DD2 will be 5 and in full-time school.

I am a teacher and (currently) plan to return to full-time work. I do not work in the school where my DDs go.

DP works full-time. With his commute he is out of the out from 6.30 am until 6 pm.

We currently use a CM for DD1 and DD2. We pay £4 per child per hour. I drop the girls off at approx 7.30 am and collect between 4 pm and 5.30 pm depending on the day of the week. We both claim the full £243 in childcare vouchers. We pay for 39 weeks full-time; 8 weeks at 50% retainer when the CM is open but we do not use her during school holidays; 5 weeks at 0 when CM is closed during school holidays. We have been using this CM for 3+ years and are very happy with her.

What childcare would be 'best' once we have 3DC?

Should we stay with the CM - she is very happy to keep a baby space for DC3. She works with an assistant every day, sometimes with two assistants. It would cost us £72 for the daily charge if she had all 3DCs (baby all day and DD1 and DD2 before and after school).

As already said, we are very happy with our CM. My only 'concern' is that it can get very busy - which we prefer for DD1 and DD2 as it means they have lots of fun and there is plenty to do and play with. However, with a baby I wonder if they would benefit from the possibility of more 1-1 time. Current Cm was much quieter when we started using her when DD2 was 9 months old so this was not a concern last time.

We are open to having an A; we do have a spare double room but only one family bathroom and a downstairs WC. This is not DP's first choice as he is unsure of having someone else in our home. We are unsure of leaving DC3 with an AP so would probably still need to use CM for DC3.

Would a nanny be financially a better choice? We would need up to 50 hrs of care for DC3 during school time but would not really need any childcare during the 13 weeks of school holidays. We would also need before and after school care for DD1 and DD2 but this would be within the above 50 hours. We would hope they would also have the option of going to/having 'playdates and attending after-school clubs (at school - no transport needed, just the possibility of separate pick-ups. School is a 10 minute walk from our home.)

We would ideally not have a live-in nanny.
We would be happy for a nanny to bring own child - either school age at same school or baby.
We would be happy to nanny-share if this would work.

Any ideas or advice welcome. I know we have plenty of time to wort this but we do not know anyone here who has either APs or nannies. We are on the Isle of Wight.

I think not an aupair - as you say it won't work with the baby- and you would have the downside of sharing your house etc.
I think you have to find the costs of a nanny in your area - one with her own child might bring the costs down - or a nanny share with someone who had a under 5 might also work - - although in both cases 4 children is quite a lot.
I would have thought in terms of ease with 3 DCs a nanny it would be ideal and mean they can have after school activities more easily -also I imagine a bit of help with homework etc. I guess you would be able to leave slightly later if you didn't have to drop the DCs off so a bit of savings there .
you would need an ofstead registered nanny to claim the childcare vouchers -
you might get someone who was happy to take all their holidays in the school holidays and possibly average say a 40 hour week over the year - so 50 hours in term time and non in holidays
I think it may cost you more than CM but might be work it for stress reduction ..

If the CM will charge £72 per day for all 3 children and does not charge during 5 weeks of the school holidays and charges 50% for the other weeks during school holidays that you would not use (but presumably could use by paying 100%), I suspect that is the cheapest option, plus your DD's are already settled there.

AP could care for DD1 and DD2 but may not be suited to caring for DD3 full-time, so the issue with the childminder being busy is still going to exist, plus you lose the privacy you have due to having someone live at your home.

I feel a nanny would cost more than £72 per day, especially after adding in Employers NI, cost of outings, cost of travel, that sort of thing.

Is the school a primary school, or an infants only? Do you need to worry about having multiple schools to collect from?

Thank you both for your thoughts.

DD1 and 2 will be attending the same school when DD2 starts there in September 2013. It is a primary school so they will have 5 more years when they are both there.

Having spent some time playing around with figures, I think the easiest thing will be to stick with the CM. One of the other discussions DP and I had was regarding sickness. If we paid more and employed a nanny, the DC would have more access to after school activities possibly but we were 'scared' by the thought of relying on one person who might get ill.

The current CM set up means that she never closes even if she or one of the assistants is ill as the other person can cover. Her own DP is also registered as an assistant so in an emergency, he can take a day off work to cover the CMing. (The children love it when that happens )

I think, at least for the time being, we will plan to stick with the CM.

Thanks again.