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Paid childcare

Discuss everything related to paid childcare here, including childminders, nannies, nurseries and au pairs.

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Original poster

advice needed

8 replies

newdad47 · 02/05/2014 09:29

Hi my ex and I can't agree on what's best for our 5 month old daughter. Sending her to a registered child minder or paying family to look after her. Causing rather a lot of arguments at mo!!

OP posts:

Yangsun · 02/05/2014 09:43

I don't think you're actually allowed to pay someone to provide childcare unless they are registered as a childminder (I may be wrong but you may need to check!) you can of course use family without paying if they're willing. I think it really depends on how likely your family are to do what you want with your child and how bad it would be if they don't.

Notagainmun · 02/05/2014 11:28

Why not do a mix of both?

Youdontneedacriminallawyer · 02/05/2014 11:32

A mix of both is a good idea. And if the law really does state that you can't financially recompense a grandparent/aunt etc for helping to look after a DC, then things have come to a pretty pass.

You could always pay them "expenses" instead though, or pay for their shopping from time to time, instead of handing over hard cash.

Having family looking after DCs is great, until it comes to having to ask them not to do something you don't like, or to do things a certain way etc. It could cause family problems, unless you're fairly easy going about how you want DCs brought up, or you all have the same "standards" (for want of a better word).

MaryPoppinsBag · 02/05/2014 11:42

Why a second thread on this? Did you not like the first set of answers?

It is not illegal to pay a family member.

Why don't you want her family to look after your child? What concerns to you have?

MaryPoppinsBag · 02/05/2014 11:43

Should be - do you have

eeyore12 · 02/05/2014 13:14

I think you can pay a family member but you can't use tax credits or child care vouchers to help pay them unless they are a registered childcare provider and that would mean them looking after your child at your home and being your nanny so you employ them (pay their tax, ni etc) or they have them at their home as a reg childminder but need to look after other children as well as yours for that to be allowed, and a lot of paper work for them.

So as long as you just want to pay them normally with no government help then that's fine.

Depending on number of days and hours would depend on my answer as to which is best for you, but if you want baby to be with children of various ages then a childminder works well or if you want more one to one than family member. If looking for full time care than a mix of both would be good so the family member doesn't feel they can't do anything else during the week as they will have your little one.

Lucylouby · 02/05/2014 14:07

I don't think you can be a registered childminder just to look after a relative. I'm sure I've read somewhere that ofsted will cancel your registration if you are only looking after relatives. Presumably to stop grandparents etc registering so they can be paid using tax credits. When ofsted inspected me they did ask me if I was related to any of the children in my care, if I was related to them all, they weren't going to inspect me at that time.

nannynick · 02/05/2014 14:43

Do a bit of both.
Consider what a family member may want in return, they may not want payment but may want you to help them with something, now or in the future.
Having your child used to being cared by various people means that if one is ill, the other may be sble to help out.

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