Contract advice. For self employed Nanny.

[MaternityNanny31]

Ok, this is a long story so hopefully I will keep this brief.

I started my current job as a Maternity Nurse, 5 day week, self employed on a 3 month rolling position, which became 5 months and then 9 months (until this Sept) as 3 days a week. I had no contract at all on advice of the agency, which I didn't feel happy with. I was planning to leave in Sept as thought the job would cease to exist but got offered a permanent position of 3 days (24hr cover) as a nanny for them, on the condition that I wanted a contract as feel happier that way. They are keen for me to stay self employed, but the contract will lay out the basics.

I asked my agency if this was OK, I don't particularly mind either way SE or E. I plan to get work the other days on a very ad-hoc basis, MN and nanny work/babysitting etc and therefore that will be self-employed so the agency said its fine, although the other work isn't a definite.

In the contract we will inc the obvious stuff such as duties, giving a months notice, etc. I do not get sick pay as SE: agency suggested I ask for this for say after 3 days of sickness? I am thinking I forget this as I don't mind too much and only had 1 sick day this year and that was caught from the child.

Holidays are my issue?! I need to set this out as currently we went along with me not having any holiday until July when I got one week, and now no more discussion of holiday, and instead I ask for the time off/or say "I am having 2 weeks at this date" which I feel slightly awkward doing even though I am SE.
What do I ask for ... technically I get no holiday pay, which I do see as a downfall when I could/should be employed. However I charge double for bank holidays so don't mind working them. A friend suggested asking for 10 days paid holiday at Christmas or two weeks (6 days pay) and then three weeks unpaid throughout rest of the year.

So yes opinions please?
And I am very happy for anyone to point out why I cannot/can be self employed as I can put this forward to the family, as we are all new to this and very open, although I do know they would much rather NOT employ me.

Many thanks in advance!

ps: I love the family, job etc so want this to be fair and to work

I would see if the HMRC Customer Status Team could confirm that you would not be an employee when doing the 3-day permanent position.

The ad-hoc work I see as being fine as SE but 3-day permanent I feel is questionable.

You seem to be trying to get benefits that an employee gets, yet remaining self employed. I just don't see how that would work. What a self employed person would do I feel is increase the hourly/daily rate to reflect that they would be having time off unpaid. They might also stipulate in the terms of business that their service will be unavailable for some days during the year and that those days will be notified x days/weeks in advance where possible. You could then decide either that many days in advance to take time off, or give more notice than that such as deciding now what days you will not be working during Xmas.

Hi Maternity Nanny

I think you are a saying a temporary position as a maternity nurse, has now changed to a permanent position. Will you work set days/hours per week? Will you be able to say you are nor available some days? I think the family now need to employ you to be honest. Then you will be entitled to stat holiday pay. As NannyNick suggested I would telephone HMRC for advice.

Sorry not available