new to nannying nanny!?

[pobel]

Hi

My two boys are currently in nursery but due to various reasons i am having to look at the prospect of hiring a nanny for at least one day a week if not three! basically the nursery cannot offer me the days i need but may insist that i take the two days i do need along with one day that i don't i.e friday which i'm not prepared to do as it wont suit my work.

So i am looking into nannying and have come across a former nursery employee who i feel is ideal (she knows the boys etc), she has just set up on her own as a nanny. Whilst i feel she is ideal i worry that she'll decide after a few months that nannying isn't financial feasible for her and she'd rather go back to a guaranteed wage at a nursery! If she were to do this then i'd be rather snoookered because nursery places are so difficult to come by where i am especially when it's for two boys so i'd therefore be tied to permanently going the nannying route. The only reason i'm thinking about a nanny at the moment is because i know this girl and so do the boys but if she quit i know of noone else!!

Now, because she is new into nannying she is looking for 6.50 per hour but from my investigations this would be her net wage therefore i need to consider what i would offer as her gross. I am thinking of offering £8 gross which regardless of whether i hire her for one day or 3 she will make at least the 6.50 she is looking for ?

Basically i need to speak with the nursery to see whether they will take the boys just the two days ( the contract specifies 3 sessions over three days!!

Orriginally i thought, yes.. nanny is ideal but with the prospect of being an employer i'm a little overwhelmed at the responsibility of it all!

Isn't childcare complicated ?!?

Nannies can be paid a lot more than nursery staff, so the nanny may prefer it from that perspective. However it can be very lonely, working on your own is different to working with a group of others. It can be quite a change from working in a nursery to being a nanny but many of us have had that experience and have coped fine. Look at the bigger picture, other than nursery work what else have they done? They may have cared for younger siblings, they may have babysat a lot, so they may have some experience of working alone.

As a nursery nurse she may have been on NMW, so 6.50 Gross may be an improvement. Ignore any value she has given you, it is a job and you are the boss, so you need to decide how much you want to pay, the level of experience you expect applicants to have, thus then decide if she fits the role and she needs to decide it is a salary she will accept for the role. You deciding to pay 8 gross an hour is therefore quite reasonable to offer and I expect this applicant would accept it.

Her tax situation os her issue, you can not be sure she will take home 6.50 as you do not know at this stage what her taxcode will be.

Calculate your costs over a year, look at other message threads on here about what costs to take into account. 5.6 weeks holiday is statutory minimum, so decide if you will permit holiday to be taken whenever she likes, or if you will dictate when some of it is taken - such as always over xmas period.