Did you write your nanny's contract yourself or was it an agency?

[Gingerbreadgirl1]

Hello,

I found a nanny that I would like to employ to mind my little girl full time as part of a nanny share. I saw quite a few contracts online and I'm tempted to use one of these templates to draw my future nanny's own contract as it seems quite straightforward. Would that cause a problem?

Also I'm planning to do all the taxes and payslips myself using either the HRMC or Brightpay software. Am I being too ambitious?

thanks!

It's fine but do cross check with acas.org.uk (search: written statement) to check the contract contains all that is needed to meet current legal requirements.
Check holiday entitlement is right as some may say 4 weeks which is wrong. Minimum is 5.6 weeks, from which bank holidays can be deducted if you do not want nanny to work them.

Nanny shares are more complex, so add things about how the share works, how things need to be agreed with both families. Think about what happens if one families child is ill, if a family does not need care one day but other family does.

You will also need an agreement between you and the other family so you know who pays for what, how to end the agreement, who supplies equipment and food.

Payroll is fine as long as you agreea gross salary.

I've always done both myself.

I had a look at all the nanny templates available and then just cut and pasted them as required. You'll need to think of holidays especially as part of a nanny share, as its usual for the nanny to choose half the holidays and the family to chose the other half. Obviously this would mean that if both families chose a different two weeks, the nanny would never be able to choose her own holiday.

I also added some things under the gross misconduct section which would constitute immediate dismissal such as acting unsafely around the children/putting them in danger and in the case of our last nanny - any driving convictions.

I would also make sure there is something in the deductions from wages section - if you don't have anything in the contract you are not allowed to make deductions for anything. Ours included not returning keys (so charges for the locks to be changed) and any extra costs related to the nanny not working out their full notice period.

I use the payroll site for all the payroll stuff including payslips as its just easier and quicker than using the HMRC software. Its around £5/month.