the law

[Chamonix1]

Hi, just wondering if anyone could help me.
Im looking for a babysitter/childminder/nanny (not sure what bracket the below falls under) and wondering what I need to look for.
We need help a couple of hours a week before dd of 3 goes to playschool. Someone to come to our home, get dd dressed and fed and drop her to playschool. Just wondering if the person has qualifications, experience and references if they need to be registered?
What's the law on this? Childminders in your own home? I've looked online and got a bit confused!
Any help much appreciated!

Someone to come to our home...

So that rules out a Childminder, as they work from their home caring for children from various families.

Just wondering if the person has qualifications, experience and references if they need to be registered?

Entirely up to you as long as you are not using any Government money to pay for the care - so not using things like tax credits or childcare vouchers. To use things like childcare vouchers the person needs to be registered.

I will assume you are in the UK and thus the Childcare Act 2006 applies. www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/21/contents

You then have Tax Law and Employer Law which are different. A nanny is an employee, a babysitter provides a service but it can be tricky to work out the difference between them in some cases. A nanny provides care at fairly fixed times, typically the same days each week though there may be some variance. A babysitter provides care only when it is required - they are booked specifically for a particular occasion. You can use the Employment Status Indicator to get a view as to if someone doing the work is employed or not.

I would not worry too much about what you call someone doing the work. I would look more at what you want from the situation - reliability I expect. You want someone who turns up when they say and who you can trust. You want to have a good relationship with them so you may give them the benefits that an employee would get even if you were to call them a babysitter.

Have you found someone willing to do just a couple of hours?

Thank you for your response that helps a lot.
Yes I've found someone with experience and qualifications but she's not registered. She's a mum herself who lives locally and is willing to come to mine to look after dd and drop off to playschool, she's also available for after playschool again at mine to do dinner etc.
So, it's all about being an employer then and doing everything by the book which is fine as DH is self employed and used to the tax etc I'm sure we can sort that.
I just wanted to be sure I wouldn't get in trouble for paying someone to look after my dd. I've heard all sorts about not even family allowed to be paid but I gather this is just if it's outside your own home.

If she would be classified as an employee (you need to establish her status), then you would need to run a payroll, offer holidays and pensions, etc

You can get someone else to do the payroll. It is not as easy as being self employed, as someone who is self employed I don't produce payslips for myself or report earnings each time I am paid, I just do an annual return.
Payroll can be done yourself if you want to learn how and use a bit of software. Otherwise a nanny payroll company can do it for you at around £200 per year. That may seem quite costly when you have someone workking for you for just a few hours a week.
If their pay is under £112 a week and they have no other income (if on benefits they need to check if any are considered to be income) then you would not need to register as an employer.

Is there a reason she has to come to you as that will limit applicants.