Help - Nanny costs in Fulham - total Nanny novice!

[misstiggiwinkle]

Hi, I need a bit of help. I think I'm going to have to go back to work full time (this wasn't the original plan so I hadn't signed him up for nursery. Also in my job part time is not an option) in March however have no childcare for my 11month old DS.

We've come to the conclusion that a nanny might be the way to go however as I'm one of the first of my friends to have a baby I don't know anyone that has a nanny to ask about the finer details so I'm feeling a bit lost!

Can anyone help me with things like how much does a nanny that also helps with general house keeping (cleaning, ironing, occasional cooking etc) in Fulham/sw London charge, both live in and live out as I'm not sure I really want someone living with us. I also keep reading about things like giving them paid holiday, national insurance, maternity leave, do u have to provide a car etc - how does all this work?!! Do u basically end up paying twice for childcare if your nanny is on holiday and u have to work?

We are also thinking about ttc again so no.2 will hopefully be along within the next year. Do u have to pay extra for an additional child?

Finally how do you go about finding a good one if you aren't in a position to get recommendations? Are there websites etc?

As you can see I'm a total nanny novice and don't have a huge amount of time to get this sorted - due back in the office in the first week of March.

Thanks for your help

Rates:

I would expect salaries on offer from parents to be around

£10.50-£12 gross per hour for live out.
£5-£8 gross per hour for live in.

Some nannies will talk in terms of Net wages (what they take home after taxes) so to do calculations for that I will need to know how many hours per week someone would be working.

Can anyone help me with things like how much does a nanny that also helps with general house keeping (cleaning, ironing, occasional cooking etc)

Jengaaddict gave a good list of duties on this message thread.

I also keep reading about things like giving them paid holiday

Yes, all employees are entitled to at least 5.6 weeks paid time off work.

national insurance

There are two types. Employers pay a tax called Employers National Insurance. Employees pay a tax called Employees National Insurance and it is the responsibility of their employer to deduct this from their gross salary.

Do not worry about this too much. There are payroll companies who will help you with all matters financial and even provide general advice about having a good parent:nanny relationship.

Useful Factsheet for New Employers - from NannyPaye
More factsheets

maternity leave

Yes, maternity/paternity leave may be a possibility but Government currently funds that at 103%, though does not fund their holiday entitlement during that time. I would not worry about this until it actually happens.

do u have to provide a car

No, not if there is good public transport and activities in walking distance.
All work travel will be paid by you, so work out the cost effective way for nanny to take your son to baby/toddler groups, parks, museums, swimming etc. Such as Oyster card.

Do u basically end up paying twice for childcare if your nanny is on holiday and u have to work?

You would need to find alternative childcare in that situation. What you would do is you would co-ordinate when you took holiday, so you would take holiday at the same time as your nanny. You would each choose roughly half of the holiday allowance. If you went on holiday for more than your 1/2 of your nannies holiday allowance you would still pay your nanny as it is not their fault that you have gone away. If the nanny takes more than 1/2 of their allowance at their choice, then you can agree that the additional days are Unpaid Leave.

We are also thinking about ttc again so no.2 will hopefully be along within the next year. Do u have to pay extra for an additional child?

Generally no, the cost of a nanny is for care of all children in the family. However a small pay rise is often appreciated, as is an annual pay review. So when looking at figures, do keep in mind that salary generally goes up each year.

Finally how do you go about finding a good one if you aren't in a position to get recommendations? Are there websites etc?

Nanny agencies (though they will charge a fee) and websites like NannyJob.co.uk and Childcare.co.uk (they charge a small fee for listing ads/allowing messaging).

Please do feel free to ask more questions, it is very useful for me to know what sort of questions a parent thinking of employing a nanny has, as it enables me to write information to help parents (and nannies) on Mumsnet as well as more generally such as on my blog: www.nannynick.com

Rates:

I would expect salaries on offer from parents to be around

£10.50-£12 gross per hour for live out.
£5-£8 gross per hour for live in.

Some nannies will talk in terms of Net wages (what they take home after taxes) so to do calculations for that I will need to know how many hours per week someone would be working.

Can anyone help me with things like how much does a nanny that also helps with general house keeping (cleaning, ironing, occasional cooking etc)

Jengaaddict gave a good list of duties on this message thread.

I also keep reading about things like giving them paid holiday

Yes, all employees are entitled to at least 5.6 weeks paid time off work.

national insurance

There are two types. Employers pay a tax called Employers National Insurance. Employees pay a tax called Employees National Insurance and it is the responsibility of their employer to deduct this from their gross salary.

Do not worry about this too much. There are payroll companies who will help you with all matters financial and even provide general advice about having a good parent:nanny relationship.

Useful Factsheet for New Employers - from NannyPaye
More factsheets

maternity leave

Yes, maternity/paternity leave may be a possibility but Government currently funds that at 103%, though does not fund their holiday entitlement during that time. I would not worry about this until it actually happens.

do u have to provide a car

No, not if there is good public transport and activities in walking distance.
All work travel will be paid by you, so work out the cost effective way for nanny to take your son to baby/toddler groups, parks, museums, swimming etc. Such as Oyster card.

Do u basically end up paying twice for childcare if your nanny is on holiday and u have to work?

You would need to find alternative childcare in that situation. What you would do is you would co-ordinate when you took holiday, so you would take holiday at the same time as your nanny. You would each choose roughly half of the holiday allowance. If you went on holiday for more than your 1/2 of your nannies holiday allowance you would still pay your nanny as it is not their fault that you have gone away. If the nanny takes more than 1/2 of their allowance at their choice, then you can agree that the additional days are Unpaid Leave.

We are also thinking about ttc again so no.2 will hopefully be along within the next year. Do u have to pay extra for an additional child?

Generally no, the cost of a nanny is for care of all children in the family. However a small pay rise is often appreciated, as is an annual pay review. So when looking at figures, do keep in mind that salary generally goes up each year.

Finally how do you go about finding a good one if you aren't in a position to get recommendations? Are there websites etc?

Nanny agencies (though they will charge a fee) and websites like NannyJob.co.uk and Childcare.co.uk (they charge a small fee for listing ads/allowing messaging).

Please do feel free to ask more questions, it is very useful for me to know what sort of questions a parent thinking of employing a nanny has, as it enables me to write information to help parents (and nannies) on Mumsnet as well as more generally such as on my blog: www.nannynick.com

Just be aware of added extras you will probably incur.

Heating - having someone in your house for most of the day who is a chilly mortal and will need the heating on will bump up you fuel bill. I don't really feel the cold so rarely put it on (once my chilly mortal boss leaves the house!)

Food - if you go for live in, you will have to provide all meals (including weekends) for her(also loo roll and cleaning products) If live out, depending on the hours you will need to provide at least one or two meals, you can just do sandwiches/soup/beans on toast for lunch but be upfront with the nanny, it also depends which meal your child eats his main meal, if at lunch time it would be good for your child to eat the same as the nanny and together.

Classes - my charge and I go to 4 classes a week (sw19) totalling £27.50. Obviously there are cheaper classes but they tend to be toddler groups which is great for social skills but we do football, gym and swimming as well as a music class as he needs to burn off energy, he was a little exuberant at toddler group! We do go to two free library classes if we can get in.

Travel - if you need your nanny to take your charge somewhere a bit further afield, the science/history museum, zoo etc, you will have to cover her costs. I use my employers car but we had a mileage allowance for the first few months, been here 2 years now and I can go wherever I want, within reason!

Breakages - you'll need home insurance that covers breakages by a third party and also public liability (nanny should also have nanny insurance that will cover big breakages) but it's the little things that add up! A glass here, a bowl there, a pan, etc., I have broken a vase that was a wedding present, various crockery items, flooded the same kitchen twice, a christening present, a tureen, thrown away a very expensive kitchen knife (at least that's the only theory we can come up with) crashed three cars (only one was my fault!) wrecked various bits of my charges clothing, I'm sure there are more too, I've been a nanny for almost 30 years, not one of my employers took up my offer to replace the items. Even refused the excess on the cars. All said that these things happen.

To help with costs and to provide one form of cover (nanny holidays and nanny illnesses) what is apparently known as 'childcare stacking'. As in hav a nanny but also use some nursery or childminder sessions (maybe 1.5 days nursery, 3.5 days nanny). Has worked for us as we have no nearby relatives.

Our nanny only does childcare and some basic form of lunch for charges.

She uses her own car but our carseats and charges mileage.

yes you will pay for childcare x2 for nanny holidays and nanny illnesses. When our nanny was once ill on an inset day we payed her plus £5 for each child at an alternative childcare venue coming to a grand total of £28.30 an hour for 8 hours.

However when our nanny has all three it is the cheapest form of childcare available.

We pay £10 an hour net which is approx. £13 an hour gross.

Hey. In Putney and pay £10 NET. I doubt you'll get a good one in Fulham fur much less. Standard hols and sick pay. I used PAYE for Nannies to do the contract and give me all the advice at the beginning. They do all ongoing monthly payroll too. There are other agencies too but they're good and cheap. Nanny is amazing. Does all shopping and cooking from scratch for DS and takes him on activities every day. Just fab. Also does mist of our household shopping and most washing. That's it though. We have a cleaner for everything else. As pp said you must provide lunch. This is all live out btw. No car provided at the mo. DS2 due soon. No plans to increase the hourly rate but we will be giving good bonuses. It's great. So much better than nursery was! Best of luck X