Nanny becoming a childminder...

[fizzly]

Has anyone any experience of this. We have a fabulous nanny, but when youngest child starts part time childcare next year we will not be able to justify keeping her on as a nanny. However, we will still need wrap around care. Our nanny lives locally to us and I think might be interested in continuing to work for us but as a childminder, obviously giving her the option to take on other children as well.

Does anyone have experience of going from being a nanny to being a childminder, what is the process and do you start from scratch with all the qualifications etc or are there any shortcuts due to experience/previous registration? Does it make a difference what age the children are and that she'd only be providing wrap around care (i.e. 5yo will be in school and 3yo will be taking up the 15 hours within state nursery provision, spread over three days and nanny will not work the other 2 days). She is currently Ofsted registered as a nanny, has DBS, first aid etc. She also previously worked in a nursery, knows her way round the EYFS and does good records for us. Will there be costs she will have to incur to go from being on one register to being on another? We might be able pick some of these up.

Of course if it is not something she's interested in then we'll just have to go it alone and find another solution but there's a chronic shortage of childminders in our area so I'm worried about how we'll manage this.

Start from scratch, even if level3 qualified may need to do an introductory course. Process can take 6 months sometimes longer, possibly less if lucky. She will need to contact local authority and find out the local procedure.

Why would she want to be a childminder? Why would she want to provide childcare from her home, be self employed? Wouldn't she be better getting a new nanny job - or does she have children of her own and thus childminding may fit?

Yep Cindy that's precisely it re own DCs. There are definitely aspects which would be better for her if it was in her home. But that's a decision she would need to make. We need to start reducing our childcare costs and having a CM would be one way of doing this, but I'm frankly a bit scared of losing her as she's so fab and last time I looked there were literally no CM places locally/willing to do school pick up at my DCs school. But she'd need to be able to make up the money she loses by taking on other kids and I'm not sure how she'd feel about that either. I don't want to mention CMing to her without having some idea of the amount of hassle she may have to put herself through (sounds like a lot).

Re the 6 month lead time, is she literally not allowed to CM during that period? So if she wanted to start as a CM in Jan, she'd have to do the course and start registering this summer? Presumably she can continue to nanny in the meantime. Can she remain registered as both a nanny and a CM, in case she needs to return the other way at some point?

How long is a piece if string? Thats the problem, childminder registration can be quick or slow. Yes can be a nanny until registered and can switch back to nanny registration later - though insurance may be different. depending on the age of her own children and space at her home she may not be able to care for many children.

How about looking at what hours of care you need and what you can pay, then see if she would nanny for you for that amount? Nannies can sometimes be very flexible about what hours they work, if it fits with other things they do.

Keep in mind that a childminder is likely to still charge you whilst youngest is at pre-school, as it will be hard to sell the child's space to someone else during that time, they may be on call to collect child from pre-school, may have to care for child during pre-school holidays.

Have a look at local childminder (the few there are) costs, see how much of saving you would really have. Look at the hassle factor of having to take/collect your children. Consider the extras that nanny does, laundry for example.

Most nannies I know certainly wouldn't change to be a cm and work from own home and be self employed and lose basic benifits such as holidays and ssp and smp

By all means suggest to her but will prob be a no as of the registration and paperwork etc

Any cm will still need to charge for the hours your youngest is at preschool as will be taking an under 5 place

You say you can't justify paying - but do you mean you actually don want to pay a nanny 'to do nothing' while youngest at preschool?

Tho often it's not nothing. By the time dropped off and got home and leave to pick up its 2.5hrs ish. Nanny can do laundry and tidy toys and change beds and cook and also sit down with a cuppa for 10mins

Also a cm won't take ill children so do you have back up? And rem you need to leave earlier to get children up and dressed and take to cm before then going onto your work - where a big plus of a nanny is that you just get yourself up and organised and nanny will do children

If you are happy with your nanny I would think about keeping her till both at school then reconsider options

Have you priced up how much a childminder would cost? You'll almost certainly be charged for a full day for the pre-schooler. That's common policy and particularly in an area where childminders are in high demand. Plus full-time for both of them in school holidays, bearing in mind that childminders charge per child.

Then you've got the hassle of dropping them off/picking them up, finding cover when they're sick, not having any of the 'extras' a nanny offers.

If you want to cut costs you'd probably be better looking at a nanny share.

Thanks. All good advice. Just to clarify, by "can't justify the cost", what I mean is that we have been crippling ourselves with childcare costs ever since I went back to work after our second child, it is a massive stretch to us having a nanny and was only doable as we were able to see it as a relatively short-term option (and it was a bit cheaper than nursery for two, which we had been doing prior to that). The nanny's gross salary is more than my net salary - that kind of thing. So as soon as we have the option to reduce the costs we have to really consider it very very seriously. I've costed it out and we could save the better part of £4K by moving to a childminder - if we can find one that is - even taking into account holiday care. But of course we will lose all the convenience we have become used to - and probably our fab nanny as well. Until a year ago we used a nursery, so we are familiar with the hassle of getting two children out of the door by 7.30am and it is indeed a pita in comparison with handing over the children to the nanny.

Anyway, the consensus seems to be that our nanny is unlikely to be up for becoming a CM, but we'll have a chat with her about it as it may suit her I guess. Or we cripple ourselves and say bye to holidays etc for another year.

As it is our nanny doesn't really do anything apart from tidy up after the kids etc. No laundry or other duties - it was always set out very much just as childcare. So perhaps I could ask her if she could take on more of a home help role while the kids are in childcare. Food for thought. Thank you.

then def chat with nanny tho also be warned that if she feels her job may be at risk, she may start looking and find a new job asap and you then have no nanny and no option for a cm

maybe look at cm options in your area, see if there are some with space that you like, then chat with nanny

if you have a cleaner then maybe ask nanny if she would consider do a few hours cleaning when has no kids and save a bit there

£4k a year is a lot to save, but maybe rather then look at the nanny takes all of your salary , take off both you/your partners joint salary

Is your nanny currently living out? Would her premises be suitable for providing childcare ? Perhaps she prefers looking after less children than a childminder would as well. It would hardly be to her financial advantage unless she had access to affordable premises . Could you not get an aupair for the wrap around care? If you are in an area with a pronounced shortage of CM's, you might be in for a bit of a rude shock with regards to the prices that those who do provide the service charge.