Live-in nanny in London: what pay & what accommodation?

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How much on average would you expect to pay a live-in nanny in London? Hours would be 8-6.30pm Mon-Thurs, Fridays off. One weekend babysitting a week but we'd be flexible. So with babysitting an average of 46 hours a week. Children would be 7,5 and 9 months.

Also what kind of accommodation dies a live-in nanny expect? We would offer a double attic room with nice views and own toilet but no shower, so family bathroom for that.

Finally, where is a good place to look for live-in nannies?

One weekend babysitting -means what? One Saturday night, or are you meaning Fri night through to Sun night?

Own bathroom is useful, though own toilet is a good start. Is the wash basin in a position whereby they can stand fully upright at it, thus can use for teeth brushing, face washing? Mirror above wash basin? Full length mirror somewhere in the room? Could work, the issue would be shower/bath, finding time for when they can have that when not working and other people at home not using the bathroom.

Sorry, one weekend sitting means one eve (Fri or Sat) 8-11ish. Toilet has mirror above full size washbasin.

Places to look - www.nannyjob.co.uk, your local board here, netmums local childcare board, Gumtree or agencies. You need to do about the same legwork in terms of interviewing and checking, an agency will just filter the CVs for you.

Friday or Saturday night babysitting every week may be really off putting with the Friday off, although you may find someone who wants to study on Friday and is happy to to it.

Thanks. Any guide on pay rates. We have a live out at the mo and she is £545 per week gross (for 8-6.30pm Mon-Thurs, no babysitting) We really need to save some money!

Apologies, DH informs me we pay £590 per week at the mo.

www.childcare.co.uk is a great place to look

ive just found a great job on there

Live in £350-550 gross depending on location, qualifications and experience. Obviously someone with less experience is going to be less expensive but you need to work out what kind of profile you're looking for.

Having a live in also costs in terms of utilities and food, so that's something to bear in mind.

A weekend babysit with Fridays off would really put someone off. Having Fridays off would appeal to people wanting to travel fri-sun ( many city breaks perfect on those times)

If you want to save money then I would advertise mon-thurs. with a weekday babysit (mon-thurs) .

Prie dependant as frakion says. But Based on say zone 3, 2-3 years nanny experience I would say approx £450-500 gross

We cld scrap the weekend sitting requirement unless the nanny happened to be around.

You don't have much with live-in do you? I thought you'd save more. Nightmare. As a public servant on a 4 year pay freeze I may have to reassess what kind of child care I can give the kids.

Sorry, SAVE not " have"

You save a bit, live-out could be 550-650 a week for 4 days. However it is not that much a saving, especially once you factor in food 7 days a week, accommodation.

Do you need live-in?

Would a nursery and au-pair, or childminder and au-pair combo work. That might be lower cost but will depend on cost of nurseries and childminders in your area, plus availability and cost of school holiday clubs.

You currently pay around 14 gross an hour. Outside the M25 that could drop to 11 an hour. Not sure it's worth moving for that difference in cost, as you would add commute time and cost, plus lots of hassle with moving house, schools etc.

We don't need live-in, we love out live-out arrangement but we do need to save some money. I may have to consider the baby going to nursery and then getting an au pair for picking-up and dropping-off the older kids.

Sorry, x-post. We really can't move. We are in Zone 2 at the moment and DH works long hours so we can't add to that with a commute. Plus we are near family and we are very happy and settled here.

I will investigate the nursery/au pair combo, it won't offer the quality of care for the children. The nanny means they are looked after in their own home, can have play dates etc, have a great bond with their carer and no stressed parents. The thought of changing that makes me sad but it may be our only choice.

Is there any way you can save money elsewhere and keep current nanny a bit longer? It will be a lot easier to say put little one in nursery once they are a bit older as there schedule will be a bit more settled and easier for someone outside the home to manage.

With having 3 children I don't really think there are many savings to be had with other forms of childcare ( as will need full time cover in school hols as well as morning and afternoon cover for eldest 2) an au pair would cove r before and after school but not the school holidays as 25 hrs a week max.

Is there also any way you could change your work hours/ days around between you? You need 4 days ATM, is that because one of you works from hOme one day? Or do you have 5 days into 4 long days? If you both could do something like that you could theoretically only need 3 days childcare in term time

Once youngest is 3 you can get 15hrs free childcare at childminder/ nursery so maybe swap over then if possible ( as then an au pair would work if they dropped at nursery say 9-3/4 pm)

School holidays not a problem, I get them as holiday, so I think an au pair and nursery could work.

Look at childminder costs - for all 3 children, as well as just youngest.
Look at nursery cost for youngest, au-pair cost.
Consider if you really want someone living at your home.

Cost of childminder/nursery vs nanny may be similar but you don't know until you look, so find out local costs and then go from there.

ah ok that changes things then

based on zone 2, i would say approx £60 a day full time nursery fee, plus £95 a week for an au pair who would live in

so £240 nursery + £95 = £335. allow an extra £60 per week for a bus/tube pass for au pair, plus them extra food with them eating in house and extra use of utilities.
if you offer to pay for au pairs english school fees or half, that will attract more people (not sure amount but say £300 a term so £30 extra a week if 10 week term, £15 if you pay half)

£335 +60+ 30 = £425 gross per week approx so def a saving.

forgot to say. an au pair will do 25 hrs a week. as you only need mon-thurs approx 5/6 hours a day, that might include a weekday babysit too

Thanks for all your advice. Does anyone know whether you pay tax and NI for an au pair as you do for a nanny?

I'm feeling more upbeat about au pairs tonight. Today I spoke to a friend who has had au pairs for four years and had great experiences with capable girls who bonded well with her kids and settled well in her home. She always goes for Canadians and Aussies so there are no language issues, au pairs from those countries apparently love to travel at weekends so she has plenty of family time with no one else in the house. Basically it all sounded positive so I'm going to keep considering it as an adoption.

Oops! 'Option' not 'adoption'. Although I suppose adoption might solve the childcare issues...

Yes, tax and NI deductions and employers NI. However it depends on their salary. They are usually paid under the threshold, so often no deductions to make. Use PAYE Calculator to get a feel for that based on salary. Under 107 a week and you do not even need to be registered as an employer - so long as it is the au-pairs only job.

Be careful about the immigration rules, take a look at Youth Mobility Scheme if considering people from outside of the EU.

if you stay under the £107 a week then no tax or NI. the best way around it if wanting to pay more is to add extra not directly into wage that they would probably end up using wage for

so:
oyster pass - topped up each week as part of package/ and to use with your children any way

phone top up - maybe pay for a phone contract for her/him of say £10 a month. will get approx 200 mins/texts etc, and will mean they can always get in touch with you or vis versa.

if you shop online, let them log on and add some food items they like each week up to x amount (£5/10)

etc etc

Au pairs are for exactly your situation (morning and late afternoon care of school age children)

also it would mean that if a child is off school sick or a staff development day, you could ask her to increase her hours that day (maybe say you will pay x amount for full days childcare if these situations arise).

plus you can include one babysit in wage, but know that there is someone children know etc who you can ask for extra babysits if they are free