New to nannies

[Gingermakesmesick]

I am considering getting a nanny for when I go back to work, which isn't for a few months.

I am complete new to all this! So forgive my ignorant questions.

Do your nannies live in?
How much do you pay and how does tax etc work?
What sort of things do they do with your DC?
Do any of you have nanny cameras?

I think that's it for now :)

Thank you.

Deep breath.

Lets start with the cost. depends on where you live. Nannies have a very annoying habit of talking in net pay but you must always put gross in the contract.

Assuming live out, you are looking at £10 per hour net (in London), which, by the time you pay tax etc, if you are looking at 50 hours per week will cost you around £40k per year, paid out of your taxed income so you need to earn 60-70k to pay that. It's not a cheap option. I'm a fairly well paid professional (not quite 6 figures but not far off) and have found that having a nanny is just too expensive, as by the time I pay my own tax/pension then pay for the nanny I am left with only around £6-7 per hour.

Live-in nannies are cheaper but you generally provide their food.

Get a payroll company to do the tax, payefornannies are great and much cheaper than nannytax.

You decide what they do with your children and whether it's stay at home or lots of activities. you provide a kitty and pay mileage if they drive the kids in your car.

never had a nanny camera!

there are lots of similar type threads in this forum, it would be a reasonable use of a couple of hours of your time to go back over the last few pages as all the info is there.

good luck!

Thanks. We aren't in London, which does seem to make a difference - most nannies seem to be based there or the SE.

We have two preschool children so nursery costs are very high. Plus, I would prefer them to be at home ideally.

That is the advantage - I left for work this morning and they were both in their pyjamas. Just make sure you cost it carefully.

As a nanny I have never been live-in. I commute to work daily. This means that families I have worked for have lived within a 30 minute drive. My working day is typically 7.30-7.30 so I don't want too long a commute on top of that.

Salary will vary. You need to work out what you can afford and then start by offering below that, so there is room for a rise over the years.
As an employer you pay Employers NI on top of the Gross salary you agree with you nanny. Many nannies talk in Net pay terms (the amount they take home). There are Net to Gross Calculators and Tax Tables which can help with getting a feel for the calculations but you won't know for sure as the nannies taxcode can vary. Thus it is useful to have the Gross salary in the contract if you possibly can.

Nannies salaries vary, with city locations usually being higher than rural. Looking at nanny jobs in your area can sometimes help give an idea as it shows what other jobs are offering, though not all will provide salary detail.

What sort of things do you want your nanny to do?
Some nannies will do quite a lot of household chores and others will refuse to do any, so you need to decide what it is you require.

A list of some things I do/would do:
taking them to/from school/pre-school
taking them to after-school activities (such as Rainbows, Beavers, Swimming Lessons, Ballet Lessons),
taking them on outings such as to museums, woodland, general swimming, playgrounds, gymnastics/playgym, historic houses, on a bus, on a train, on a boat, on a plane/helicopter (that one may not move!)
taking them to groups such as toddler group, music group
care of pets
children's clothes laundry (wash, dry, fold)
children's bedding laundry (wash, dry, fold)
I have been known to iron a school shirt - school/individual photo day!
general vac around the house
general tidy around the house
sorting Lego in to boxes

Have never worked in a home with concealed cameras. It is not a good way of showing your nanny that your trust them. Get them to send you photos, keep a mileage log (if using their own car this is a requirement as you will be reimbursing mileage based on the log), you may want a diary kept. Have a good method of communication between you that works for you both - I have found that email and digital calendars can work very well, though are not fool proof. Text messages can be useful at times but connectivity can be a problem (I work in Surrey near the M25, yet still fail to get a mobile signal a lot of the time when at work).

Most nannies are in the South East of England but there are others around the country and in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The nearer you are to a city the more chance you have of finding applicants but don't assume that if you are rural that you won't find someone as your ideal nanny may be living in the same village or one close to you. Advertise and see what comes along - be clear in the advert as to the working hours, days and salary on offer (give a range if you don't want to give a precise amount).
Advertise locally and online - there are various websites which specialise in nanny job listings (they will cost but no way near as much as a nanny agency). Consider using an agency if there is one in your local area, local nannies will often register with an agency if that agency is good and the agency will aim to find a good match for you - so don't use an agency that just wants to send you lots of CVs, you only want the best of the best so you want the agency to select the top few candidates.