Childcare for 2 siblings Advice

[Mum8]

Hello,

We are thinking of having a second child and I wanted to see how someone can afford it by looking into childcare.

First child will be at least about 2.5 years and second one 10 months when I need to return to work and we will need to have arranged childcare for.

How do other families arrange it and can it be done with a budget of about £1,000? If not, what is a realistic budget?

We are thinking childminders will be cheaper than nurseries and I remember someone at work hired a babysitter that was not registered with OFFsted for 40 hours per week, but I do not know how much she was paid.

What are our options?

Thank you for any piece of advice you may have.

Look at Childminders.
Babysitter 40 hours a week would be a nanny... cost could 20,000+ a year.

From 3yrs your elder child will be entitled to 15 hours free nursery so it may only be more expensive for the first 6 months. I would suggest you find a childminder full time for your baby who will be able to pick up your elder one from pre-school/nursery in due course. Childminders set their own terms and conditions - some will charge for the time your older child is at pre-school as it is blocking a space for another child - some don't. If you can find a nursery/preschool where you can do say 2 full days and use up lots of free hours in one go (not sure how many is allowed) then have both children with the childminder on the other days, I would guess that would be your cheapest option. Have a look at a few local childminders to guage prices. Here they are roughly £5 per hour per child, but that does vary according to location.
£1000 per month will not get you a full time nanny. An au pair would not be suitable as the children are too young for sole care and it is way too many hours. If you have space, you may get a live-in nanny for that price as well as board and lodging, but I'm not sure.

It really depends what the going rate for a childminder is in your area. I personally would do it for about £1300 a month inclusive of nappies, food and outings. I would advise looking for an accredited childminder as once your eldest is 3 she would be able to offer you the 15 hours a week of free entitlement instead of placing a child in nursery and still having to pay the childminder while your eldest one is there.
If you use Ofsted registered childcare you may be entitled to some help with the cost via childcare element of tax credits or childcare vouchers offered by your and/or your partner's employer. It's worth looking into.

Thank you for all input, good to know it is possible with £1300 a month

Looks like a childminder is the best choice

Christ on a bike - it would be £2000 a month for our two full time. If I were you, I'd look at a nanny share personally. By the time you have two, it's cheaper and so much more convenient.

Hello MummytoMog,

£2000 for the two,was that a childminder?

An acquaintance who used to be an agency nanny mentioned that they earn £500 a week in the Surrey area which is very expensive. So even for two
little ones,that will be £2000 for four weeks. Is this what you meant with a nanny share?

If you did a nanny share, can you share a nanny between three children?
Only asking as having three families share the cost of £500 a week will make it
affordable. Will a nanny charge
more though if she was taking care of three little ones instead of two?

I'm a CM and I would cost about £1900 per month before your older child turned 3, dropping to approx £1700 once I could offer a 3 yr old funded space.