Can part-time Mother's Help be self-employed?

[eversomuch]

We're looking into hiring a Mother's Help for about 15hrs a week. I understand that FT nannies are employed by their families, but I'm not clear on whether a PT arrangement like ours would require us to be her employer or if she can be self-employed, since she'll likely be working for at least one other family as well, or doing some other kind of work.

Any advice on how to handle an arrangement like this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

15 hours a week is quite a commitment, its not ad-hoc very occasional, its every week. Therefore unlikely to be self employed.

When in doubt assume they are employed as it is you the employer who gets in trouble if you get their status wrong.

If they are an employee you can tell them what to do, when to do it. You have control over what time they arrive for work for example. If self employed they could decide not to turn up, so not ideal unless you can be very flexible.

Thanks for your reply, nannynick.

I actually can be pretty flexible as I'm a SAHM and basically just looking for a bit of help with my two kids and around the house in a shared-charge arrangement.

15hrs/wk is the max we're looking for, but we'll probably start with around 10hrs/wk to see how things go.

One potential candidate has already said she'd be looking to fill another 10-15hours a week in another role, which is why I was wondering if it would make more sense for her to invoice us for her time.

Very new to this, and I've clearly got a lot to learn. All seems a bit daunting, tbh. Then again, I'm very sleep-deprived.