Would this work?

[lougle]

I'm thinking of retraining but would need childcare. I'd get childcare support but only up to £300 per week. I have three girls (8, 7, 5). The eldest has SN.

Ideally what I'd need is a nanny who could arrive at 6.30 am, get the children dressed/breakfast. Then get DD1 onto her SN bus (it comes to our door), take DD3 to school 1.5 miles away (in car due to timings) and bring DD2 back to the house, looking after her until 9.45-10.00 when DH gets home.

Then, I'd need him/her to arrive at 2.30 PM, take DD2 to collect DD3 from school, come back home and take DD1 off her SN bus. Then look after all 3 girls until 6.15-6.30.

I make that 7.5 hours per day, 5 days per week. So 37.5 hours per week. It would only work out at £8 per hour gross. Is that far too low?

I just used the nanny tax calculator and it works out at £6.96 per hour net.

No experience but I suspect the issue might be the split shift as the nanny might struggle to find other work to fit in between if required.
Having said that, there are LOADS of nannies in my area advertising on childcare.co.uk so you might get lucky.

Does your 7 yr old not go to school?

That's really a 12 hr day for £60 gross. You might struggle sorry.

Was just about to say the same as NickNacks. Is DD2 home-schooled? I have taken a job at this pay rate before, but when I was young/inexperienced and only for 1 day a week as a 'something to do' on my day off from other part time job. Also, there are a lot of hidden charges with a nanny, eg extra heating bills, extra food bills feeding nanny, petty cash for outings, that kind of thing. If you are paying the number right up to your absolute limit without the hidden extras taken into account, you might find yourself short by the end of the month.
However, you may find someone who wants SN experience and is willing to work at a lower rate, but it will take a bit more searching to find, and you may not find a long term nanny as they may want to move on after a year or so once they have a bit of experience under their belt.

Why is it a 12 hour day? It's a split shift. My DH does a split shift working pattern for a lot less and wouldn't regard it as a 12 hour day.

My 7 year old is HE but DH would be home in the day it's just the morning and early evening that we need cover for.

Well because you need that person to be up and out for 6am ish and bit back home until 7pm. Fine for a decent monetary reward and though there's a 4 hour window in the day, it's not enough to combine another job. Plus it seems a lot of toing and froing which will cost the nanny either on public transport or fuel in her car.

I'd cover the fuel, I think most people pay 45p per mile?

Perhaps I should tell my DH to tell his work that £200 per week for the same hours is tight considering it's a 12 hour day? I'm sure that would go down well.

Perhaps slightly irrelevant but a nanny would be getting £100 more per week then my DH earns for the same hours. I honestly don't buy the idea that you can call it £300 for a 12 hour day.

Agree with others it's a 12 hour day. It's fairly standard practice for nannies to have "down time" while kids are at school but you still need to pay: what if DCs were sick, or what happens in school hols?

Yes 45p per mile for the 'working' miles but you won't be liable to cover her twice each way a day commutes.

Tbh it's not overly relevant what you DH does for the wage he earns. You've come to the childcare section to ask 'Would this work?' and I'm giving you my opinion based on experience. Sorry you don't like it.

"DCs were sick, or what happens in school hols?"

My DH would look after them because he's home during the day. I'm not looking for a full-day nanny. I'm looking for a nanny who is willing to do mornings and evenings only.

That's the problem - not many nannies will be up for this. Better to do a full day than have an annoying unpaid gap in the middle (partly taken up by the commute)

Could you consider 2 nannies? One for morning one for evenings? Might be more likely that they could get other work around the shifts you want and removes the 12 hours a day issue.

I could quite happily have two nannies. I just assumed that no-one would want to work for just 3 or 4 hours per day.

Depends what else they have on. Might be easier than the split shifts. Alternatively could you consider an au pair?

You're right they probably won't. There are thousands of parents that only need a nanny a few hours a day (me included) but nannies generally want a FT job so to secure a good nanny you have to pay them a FT wage.
Some nannies may take on more of a housekeeping role when DCs are at school (mine has) which means it's not total dead time but you will find it hard to persuade someone to do split shifts because IME the good nannies have their pick of the jobs which includes those that offer a FT salary with several hours free time a day.

I would look for a 'mother's help' rather than a qualified nanny. Look on Gumtree.

We couldn't have an au pair because we'd be using the childcare grant from student finance and it can only be Ofsted registered care. Same goes for a mother's help.

It all seems impossible. I could have tried to sort a childminder but with DD1's transport it's a no go.

how about finding a CM who could take dd1 to your house in time for bus, much as they would a school run.
Then all 3 go to CM early on, CM takes children to school / bus and then brings other child home at tennish?
Is 5 yo not at school?

adsy I did look into CM but I think there's a combination of issues:

We're rural, living in village A. So for a CM to bring DD1 to her bus, she'd want to live in village A. However, DD3 goes to school in village B, which is 1.5 miles away, but the timing of DD1's bus means that there isn't time to walk the 1.5 miles because her bus arrives just 15 minutes before registration time.

I haven't found too many CM in my village. Of course, added to that, it would need to be a CM with 3 spaces. Also, if a CM charges £4.00 per hour per child, that would take it up to £12 per hour and I can only get funding for up to £8 per hour.

I think there is no harm in advertising for this post. It is a free market for nannies and you might get someone who wants to do it. However, I think that you need to take heed of the comments on here about it not being very appealing on the whole.

Not many people like a 6.30 am start. In most cases people take on an early start because it means that they can have finished a day's work by mid afternoon. But in your case you want them to disappear somewhere for several hours and then come back to keep working until 6.30pm. What your DH earns or is prepared to do for a living is nothing to do with it.

I think that splitting the job into morning/evening is likely to be your best bet. Or, biting the bullet and paying for the whole day.

It's not very likely IMO.

A) 6.30am is an early start for most nannies. Generally 8am-6pm as standard, so need to pay a premium.

B) £8 gross is very low for a nanny esp looking after child with sn and early start and split shifts. In London it's more like £13-14 gross for standard nanny job, so if out I would say £10-11 gross.

C) part time nannies usually earn more per hour. So a full time nanny might get £13 gross but part time £14.50 gross.

D) no one likes spilt shifts when they can work for another family and be paid full time. Generally someone on your day would work 6.30-10 am with children. 10-2pm batch cooking/sorting children laundry/ etc, plus lunch break. 2-6pm with children again. Paid for all hours

Your best option is someone 6.30-10am. Then different person 2-6pm. You might find someone with own child who would work for low wage if they can bring own child with them

honestly i think you will find this very hard, and esp if you need ofsted reg, ie cuts out a 'granny/older lady' to take care of them at your home

the early start isnt nice, so any nanny is likely to be up at 5.30am to get there unless literally 2 mins down the road (unlikely) and then needs to find another job 10-2 to make salary up

if you were paying a good wage, ie at least £12gross for those hours and round up to 8hr day then possibly have better luck

but the average qualifed/ofsted nanny will need to earn more then £60per day/300gross a week as will find it so hard to fit in any other jobs - this will work out less then £50 take home a day

a newly qualified nanny may be interested in this but i wouldnt employ a new out of college 18yr ish to look after 3 children including one with sn

Is there no way you can do the morning bit and drop dd2 at a childminder when you drop dd3, your dh could then collect from there?
Then just advertise for a p/t nanny for the afternoon 2-6:30ish?