Pro rata nanny holiday

[kisamama]

Hi. My brain is frazzled so apologies up front if my post is confusing. I am employing a new nanny from September. She is someone we know already and I feel have a good relationship with and i definitely want to keep that.
She is going to work before and after school for me, full time in kids half term and 3 short days over the Christmas, Easter and summer holidays (12 weeks for us). All the hours are set out in a contract. I am paying her an annualised salary based on the total hours she is working over a year. Her average weekly hours are 35 per week, so each week she is paid £385 regardless of hours actually worked. We have agreed up front that she will take all her holiday (28 days including bank holidays) during the Christmas, Easter and summer holidays.

So she has given lovely early notice and asked for the days off during the Christmas and new year weeks (starting 24/12 and coming back to work 6/1) - we both consider this 2 weeks holiday even though because of our odd hours arrangement if she was working it would only be for 9 hours on each m, w and th. She will be paid 2x £385 for this time.
I have had my payroll agency draft me a contract. Even though I explained the full picture and set out all our hours they have drafted the contract to say she is entitled to 203 hours holiday, based on 5.8 weeks of 35 hour weeks. The thing is that because she takes all her holidays during the weeks her actual working hours are 27/week this seems to mean (1) her Christmas break is only 54 hours or 1.5 weeks and (2) she could take 7.4 weeks off but each week be paid £385.
Has the payroll agency stuffed up? I think so but want to be sure I'm not being unfair to our nanny. Can the contract just say that the nanny is entitled to 5.8 weeks of holiday based on a 35 hour week, or is this too wishy washy? We know what we have in mind so it would be workable on a practical level but maybe not great if there is a disagreement down the track?
Many thanks if you've made it to the end of my post and also thanks to previous posters - I've had lots of great advice through other people's posts on this topic. X

I make it minimum of 196 hours holiday, 5.6x35.
You can give more holiday but not less.

I think there is a way of working out the average hours for each time holiday is taken, by using the previous 12 weeks. Try looking on Acas.org.uk for an advice booklet about holidays.

How many hours are they working on a week that is all before and after school? I presume that would be over 5 days.

Due to limiting holiday to being taken only during school holidays I think there will be problems, as those weeks will be the short days, so a week off then may use less time than a week off during term time.

Some bank holidays fall during term time - look at the dates, see how many do in 2013/14 year (year starting on nannies first day of work).
How will those be dealt with? Would nanny work them or have them off and if so how many hours would that day be?

How will you cover holiday? If you gave 7 weeks holiday during school holiday time, would you be able to cover that by caring for your children yourself, partner, grandparents?

Thanks for the replies nannynick. I will look on the acas website. Term time is about 37 weeks of the year and hours then are 33 over 5 days. The half terms (4 weeks) bump up the average as its 55 a week. Our nanny will get bank holidays off - most fall during designated holiday time but I will look at each one with my calendar to get a better feel. If I should rightly give 7 weeks off we will juggle the 3 kids during school holidays like everyone else has to...

What would happen if you paid overtime for the half terms? So for holiday purposes they would be 33 hours like term time.

If you are trying to get the amount of time off reduced but have no issue with paying a bit more, then I would loo at if those 4 weeks could be usual hours plus overtime.

The payroll agency have gone about this the right way - those are the hours of holiday she accrues and you need to use hours to express holiday entitlement because they vary.

I'd follow nick's suggestion of going down the fixed hours plus overtime route - you're paying a payroll agency anyway so try will be able to sort it out. It will mean her usual weekly salary is lower, though, and she may not be able to live on that.

Thanks so much to you both - the overtime for full time weeks is a good idea and actually may also help her feel properly valued when she is working a long long week (rather than it seeming as if I am "underpaying" as she'll receive less than actual hours worked those weeks (made up over the year)). It also lessens accruals either way in case (fingers crossed not) things don't work for any reason. I had a look at the acas guidelines and they are very useful generally, although the position in my situation and any term time only jobs is stated to be unclear. I feel I have a better grasp on it now though, so thanks again. X