Has anyone used Childcare vouchers in a Nanny Share?

[Annner]

We're wanting to switch to paying our Nanny through childcare vouchers, and the other family in the share is happy to go along the same lines.

Has anyone ventured down this road before?

One thing that I am not sure about is that our Nanny apparently will have to be registered with the Childcare Approval Scheme (England). I have never heard of this body, and thought that nannies didn't have a single regulatory body. They want, wait for it, £99 just to register (as if it doesn't cost enough as it is...) When childminders have to pay a lot less, this seems rather OTT.

Do you think that there would there be a problem with her using her child minder registration to work as a nanny? She is registered with OFSTED, as she was going to switch to childminding a couple of years ago, but in the end stuck with the nannying because her DH works shifts, and a houseful of under 5s wouldn't have been a terribly good idea. So, would it matter if she was working as one but registered as the other. Since CM is more highly regulated, you would think not, but... Who knows with systems!

We really want to use the vouchers, as they will save us all so much money, but it is all going to be as complicated and as much hassle all round to set up as it seems to be?

Have to cook dinner now but will pop back later when you've had a chance to think!

Thanks, Annner

We are going to be using childcare vouchers to pay our shared nanny (the other family does'nt have the vouchers facility via their work so will be paying their share in the normal way).
I say going to rather than 'are' because we have been trying for a long time to go through the childcare approval scheme.
Our nanny needed to renew her first aid cert - so that took a few weeks to arrange, and then we filed paperwork with the CAS, then waited and waited, I finally rang them and they took the £99 from me, then we waited and waited, finally rang again, and argued them into doing the 'interview' with our nanny - that was today - now have to wait approx 8 weeks for the CRB check to be carried out!
As for using the childminder registration number - doesn't this need to be reqularly reviewed by OFSTED? You cannot be a childminder if you are working in someone else's property anymore (there used to be a type of childminder called a homecarer who could work in the client' s house but this is no longer an option). So unless you move your children to her OFSTEDed house every time she's due an inspection I can't see how you could get away with that.
I have also found the difference in the cost of childminder registration and nanny registration ridiculous - but I'm guessing that 'they' think that if you can afford a nanny then you can afford the fee - and compared to the amount you save by using vouchers it is really worth it. (plus the costs of the childcare course and first aid course if necessary, and the cost of covering the nanny's absence whilst he/she takes the courses and goes to the interview).
Good luck working something out.

Bluebear, thanks a lot for this detailed answer! It does seem to be as complex as we feared (we had hoped that it couldn't possibly be as complicated as all that... Hmmmmm)

Would I be right in assuming that as she has her NNEB she won't need to do a childcare course as well as her first aid?

What do you have to do while you are waiting for the Approval Scheme people to do their thang? ie how to do pay her? We have a limited window in which to start being paid in vouchers, so can you just pile them up in the mean time? God knows how long this will take.

I see what you mean about OFSTED. I keep forgetting that the property is key to that form of registration.

One final question... would you think that it would be sensible to do all of this in conjunction with using Nannypaye/Nannytax to sort out the revenue side of things? We are thinking that perhaps we should, given how complicated everything is.

Many thanks, Annner

Bluebear, thanks a lot for this detailed answer! It does seem to be as complex as we feared (we had hoped that it couldn't possibly be as complicated as all that... Hmmmmm)

Would I be right in assuming that as she has her NNEB she won't need to do a childcare course as well as her first aid?

What do you have to do while you are waiting for the Approval Scheme people to do their thang? ie how to do pay her? We have a limited window in which to start being paid in vouchers, so can you just pile them up in the mean time? God knows how long this will take.

I see what you mean about OFSTED. I keep forgetting that the property is key to that form of registration.

One final question... would you think that it would be sensible to do all of this in conjunction with using Nannypaye/Nannytax to sort out the revenue side of things? We are thinking that perhaps we should, given how complicated everything is.

Many thanks, Annner

Yes, as my nanny is qualified (she has NVQ3 rather than NNEB) she had no need of the childcare course (thank goodness).
The first aid cert needs to be within 3 years, and our nanny's had just reached 3 years so we needed to renew that.
While we wait for her to become approved we are paying her from our bank account but both our company schemes (I'm with ACCOR and dh with Busy bees) have been ok about issuing vouchers each month with the expectation that she will be registered soon - she can't cash them in until she has a regisitration number so we have been stockpiling them (we now have 2 months worth of her salary languishing in a filing cabinet in voucher form - we are very lucky that, at the moment, we can afford to do this)
We already use Nannypaye to produce our nanny's wage slips and deal with our commitments re: nanny's income tax, NI and employers NI - the amount of nanny's tax, and both types of NI will not change if you pay him/her in vouchers so if you are 'doing it yourself' re: payslips and tax, there will be no difference.
The tax saving is dealt with by your employer, so it will seem as if you get a payrise (amount of salary + vouchers = more than your original salary).
You haven't mentioned that you have discussed it with your nanny and that he/she is happy with being paid in vouchers - they will need to register with the voucher provider (once they have been through the approval scheme), and, depending on whether your employer offers electronic or paper vouchers, will have a bit of paperwork to do each month in order to redeem the vouchers.