Why can't I find a Nanny? Help me please

[childcarehell]

I am paying £2200 for Nursery and hoped that could be better spent on a Nanny.

-I'm in London, zone 5 but pleasant enough and 30min to centre

• standard 3 bed house with garden, being decorated but very clean

-3yr old and 8 month old -we're teachers and as we pay nursery anyway we happy to either pay in holidays or free them up to get high paid holiday work -need 4 days per week -(I think) we're nice and normal, kids very easy -can offer live in or out (single bedroom)

What am I doing wrong it not being able to get anyone? I've tried chilcare.co.uk, gumtree and asked around but nada. I don't need experience, happy for a national of another country, just someone who really likes kids.

How do you find them?

I'm open to inexperienced/ imperfect english (we're not english anyway, even happy with native speaker of russian/ polish)

Over £12 ph for 10 hours a day (inc commute) lus my travel is more than I earn

I agree. Putting pay is pretty vital.

oh I forgot 2 other offers locally
-only from her house (not registered though)
-one has been out of work for ages and has health issues, I like her but reckon on waaay too many days off

With the childcare.co.uk site - have you tried looking for and contacting nannies? It costs money to be able to send a message and a lot of nannies will post their own profile, look at ads and wait for employers to contact them. If you look through nanny profiles while you are logged in it will send an email to those nannies saying that member xxx has looked at their profile and they will then look at yours - if they are members they will message you if interested, if not they will add you as a favourite and you will get a notification that they have done so.

£12ph is plenty for an inexperienced and qualified nanny. £10ph will get you someone younger/less experienced/not qualified/not completely fluent English.

£12ph gross for 40 hours a week, including employers NI etc should come in at £2288 per month, so just slightly more than you pay now. Although do bear in mind additional costs of having a nanny.

I looked at LOADS of childminders too, but they seem to do babies OR nursery/ school. Not one wanted a half day nursery plus baby so I'd have to separate them.

Childcare makes me want to cry

Shame you're not in Herts as it sounds like just the job I would go for. £11 gross is a good wage around here.

Sorry, £12ph is plenty for an experienced nanny!

It's a good job, with a good wage you should have nannies biting your hand off!

I've contacted about 20, 2 replied, both trailed off for the high pay/ no qualifications reasons

Outraged, that was my calculation. I take home £2700, £200 travel so £2500, over £12 I just couldn't justify working!

I've just got loads wanting £11ph + net and no experience, even if not for price I least want some work/ college recent history to prove they can get out of bed of a morning!

oh and I paid. AND I added to my ad I was happy to message them if added as a favourite

£12ph is plenty, don't worry about offering more. It's the lower end that may be too low. Nannying is one of those jobs where the gap between the lowest paid and the highest is generally quite small. So £12ph for someone very qualified is fine, but £9ph for someone not qualified may be too low. 95% of nannies fit into the £10-12 bracket. Only the very inexperienced or the very, very qualified/experienced fall outside that bracket.

I'm wondering if London makes it harder as they imagine they get a floor of a house to themselves or something for a rich central family, we're just very very normal. Not rolling, not poor, Mr and Mrs Suburbs...

Outraged, I'll leave it 24 hours then change it to 10-12 as a try

oh I'm an idiot, I take home 2200...not 2700 as I dropped a day. arse.

this just isn't going to work, I just hate the nursery, 2 young girls with 6 babies (crying)

There are ways to save with a nanny. A NWOC will cost less. You could look into a nanny-share. A live-in nanny will cost you less. Concentrate on the cheaper end of the market.

£2288 is only £88 a month more than the nursery and that's towards the top end of nanny pay. Maybe be more specific about the sort of nanny you want and just offer £11gross and see what response you get. At £11ph gross it's cheaper than the nursery.

nwoc? sorry what's this

I really appreciate your help, thank you

sorry...got it nanny with own child

what would you pay nwoc?

If you offer a lower wage, maybe include extra holidays to sweeten the deal a bit.

So standard would be £12ph gross, 5.6 weeks holiday.

You could offer; £9.50-11ph gross depending on experience, 8 weeks per year holiday (to be taken in school holidays). Something like that would appeal to nannies with their own children or nannies who have family abroad or nannies who like to travel.

A NWOC would start at a about a third less than average so £8-£10ph gross.

I just wanted to express my thanks, to outraged in particular. I have three interviews for tommorrow. All three work in local nurseries at the moment and one even drives. Two more back up as well. It seemed you were right about pay! X

What did you change on the ad - was it just adding a salary range that got you these new applicants?

[fingers crossed emoticon]