advice needed please

[wreckedbudgie]

Hi there. I'm new on here so not really sure if I'm posting this correct
I have a dilemma. I have 2 children a 34mth and 16mth. I need to find childcare who would be prepared to come to my home to childmind (my 2 kids are desperately clingy to me so think having them in their own home might be better but I'm open to opinions on this) 3 days a week from 3pm to 7pm initially and at a later stage this year I will working 5 days a week 9-5pm.
Has anyone any suggestions about what childcare is best. I have a baby sitter at moment but sadly the babysitter is not very reliable and has let me down on loads of occasions..
Thanks in advance
I live in Birmingham

A nanny

Nanny comes to your house
Childminder works in their own home

Thanks Vodka and HS .. Have you any idea where I could get good Nannys from?

Look for a nanny via a nanny agency, via sites like NannyJob.co.uk and Childcare.co.uk

Know about what you need to do as an employer of a nanny - Parents Guide to Employing a Professional Nanny (pdf)
Do not be scared by employer responsibilities, a nanny payroll provider will assist you with many of the duties, especially calculating pay, providing payslips, declaring earnings to HMRC and reminding you when to pay taxes to HMRC.

Finding someone who can do 3pm to 7pm for 3 days per week and then do longer later on may be tricky. They may have other work which they fit you around so increasing hours with you may be hard.

When you work 5 days a week 9-5pm consider what hours your nanny would be working. If you have a 30 min commute each way, you may want your nanny to be working 8.15am-5.45pm.

Thanks Kim's and Nanny.. Is a bit frightening Nanny with pay etc.. I will have a look. This is all new to me so I have no idea but what Nannys can and can't do regards hours and making changes but I will look at all you suggested. Your very kind thanks

A nanny can work whatever hours you like. The difficulty is finding someone you trust who can do the hours you want. 9-5, 8-6 full days you can find someone. 3pm-7pm you can find someone. Someone working late afternoon may not be able to work mornings, it depends what else they are doing.
Advertise and see what you get.
Do research costs. Decide on a salary to offer - make sure you can afford it.

We found someone to do 3 - 6pm once our older children were at school until 3pm. It worked very well. It doesn't really matter whether you call them a nanny or anything else. We just advertised locally and found an older lady who liked to fit it around some other work. She could also do full time in school holidays which was useful. In fact she started out just doing Saturday mornings for us. She was never late or unreliable - we were very lucky.

I think children are better in their own home so think you are going for the best option. Also if you pay one person to look after two that is cheaper than say 2 places at a nursery. You need to make sure you pick someone who will be reliable - so speak to a previous employer to try to find out if they are always off sick or late. Also don't offer any sick pay and dock pay if they are late as that tends to make people turn up as does paying a good hourly rate. Obviously if it all works out well after a few months you can be more generous later in terms of sick pay. If they are an employee then you will have to pay SSP but you get that back from the government and you don't have to pay anything for the first 3 days off sick. that still doesn't help in one sense though so having a back up is a good plan too. Also always involve the father in my view. If he finds the person and has to take time off work just as much as you then womne's careers are given the priority they should be. Childcare is not just a female issue. it's a father's issue too.

SSP no longer reimbursed by Government. It is not at all unusual for a nanny contract to not provide sick pay, just statutory (SSP). Try not to be scared by all the employer stuff... the payroll services will help you with it, mostly do it all for you. Just keep in mind the costs involved as whatever childcare you go for, it needs to be affordable.

Many nannies are very rarely sick... they come in whatever as they don't want to let parents down. Finding the right person is key - so interview and reference check.

You need a nanny if you want your children looked after in own home

Childminders work from their own home

How in the future will you need 9-5 as may be worth having someone now if you can afford it rather then a 3:7 nanny if you want the same person if only going to be a month or two

If towards end of year then would advise either a student /reliable babysitter - possibly from sitters then a nanny when need longer hours

Thank you all so much for your replies. It's reassuring to know the in's and out's of things. The reason the change in hours later in the year is that I will be changing my job. I can afford 9-5 now but as I'd be at home myself until 3pm I'm not sure what the nanny would do. I'm going to do a lot of research today on this. I'm sad to leave my current babysitter go but sadly she's so unreliable. Has now on several occasions contacted me either day the night before or on the actual day to say she can't come and as I have no family/friends close by it really puts me in a difficult situation.
Thank you all once again

(NN, thanks. I hadn't realised. Luckily our nanny was hardly ever off sick but it used to be comforting that for day4 onwards any statutory sick pay was recoverable by the state and I see it isn't. Not surprising so many local authorities and smaller businesses have moved to contracting out and the only people who work for me are not employees but contractors around the world).

You could keep your unreliable babysitter on good terms by having her as a back up to the new arrangements perhaps if you can part on good terms.

As to whether to have a nanny at home if you work there it depends on your children and your work. I was out of the house with our first 3 children but with the twins I had a nanny full time in our house from when they were very small babies as I need to work in silence in a room on my own and concentrate and she would just get me when they needed a breastfeed. That is obviously expensive paying full time but that was the only way the two of us could work full time.

If you will initially have someone 3 - 7 on 3 days a week that is 12 hours a week so about £6240 which is under the amount by which you have to pay national insurance contributions ( employer or employee), whether there is tax to pay will depend on what other work she does so you need to ask rather than assuming she earns nothing more except what she does from you. there is a chance if it is just 3 times a week for such short hours she might be self employed like a cleaner who has lots of different people she cleans for (my cleaner works like that and rightly so under tax rules as do I as I am self employed and bill lots of people every month). In that case it would spare you an awful lot of paperwork but it is something to check carefully.

Although I think some new state aid for chidlcare costs will only apply to registered nannies? I've not really been following it as I have big teenagers now but it's worth checking.

That's really great everyone and thank you so much. Can I just ask 1 more question hope I'm not being stupid but I assume hiring a nanny I would not get the 15 hours free childcare for my soon to be 3 year old?
Would I only get that with a registered childminder/Nursery ?

That's right

Nannies can't give the 15hrs free

Cm don't always like doing it as costs them money as often the hr rate is less then theirs

Better to use for nursery

Thank you very much for your reply. I have had a few childminders contact me who do provide the 15 hours but sadly it's not a childminder I'm after.. X

The state will pay I think under the new scheme up to 20% of what you pay out to a nanny if you register her.It's up to £2k per child per year so in your case it would be £4k a year IF you were paying £20k (i.e. 20%) which you would be if they were in full time care.

Also I think the 15 hours in creasing to 30 hours is for slightly older children than yours whereas the new scheme I mention above can apply even to those under 2.

www.gov.uk/government/news/millions-of-parents-to-get-help-with-childcare-costs

I think some new state aid for chidlcare costs will only apply to registered nannies?

Yes the new Tax Free Childcare scheme will involve nannies being on a register. For those in England that is very likely to be the current voluntary register run by Ofsted. For those in other countries it is less clear... Wales I suspect will keep it's current register. Scotland currently registers the agencies so no idea what will happen there.

Tax Free Childcare - 10 Things Parents Should Know (gov.uk)

I eventually got a live out Nanny and it's going wonderful!!!