Another question about nanny's what does yours do ?

[Hideehi]

I have a qualified nanny who helps me out whilst i'm at college and i'm looking to go back to work but am worried whilst she is fine for now when I'm at work I might need more from her than I can expect.
I'm in the North West and pay her £10 per hour gross, she's registered as a childminder so she looks after her own tax and NI but she only has my children, sometimes her niece if that makes sense.
Now she loves the kids, they love her, they've known her now for 2 years.
BUT she always takes them out, the park, the farm lots of day trips to the library etc which is brilliant but I think I need a bit more help around the house too, ie washing their clothes, cooking them dinner, maybe even shopping for their food or putting away the online shop I order.
I'd love a bit of cleaning too, even just putting their toys away or making the kids do it would be a bonus.
I am expecting too much do you think ?

no, they are supposed to take care of everything to do with the children - but I think you will be hard pushed to get her to do that now, as she hasn't been doing it.

ok... generally with a nanny you explain what you want them to do at interview etc and then its done...

doesnt mean you cant change it now though, just would have eben easier from the beginning.

You can ask a nanny to do ANYTHING to do with the children...
basically cooking their meals and clearing up afterwards, Occasionaly nanies are expected to shop for the children as well

The childrens washing / ironing / putting clothes away

Playing with the children and keeping a neatish playroom.

Also basic cleaning of childrens rooms, ie the odd hoover of their bedrooms and playroom, or a quick dust and tidy around of these rooms. (should your children have a toy corner in the lounge etc cause they dont have a playroom then that area too)

You should not expect a nanny to do cleaning (beyond wiping up mess she makes) or YOUR (adult) washing / ironing / food shopping etc, or washing up the pans etc from your meals.

Many nannies (like me) will empty the dishwasher even though its not strictly all 'our' stuff, but there are a few who are pedantic about that kind of stuff.... as i say im not (equally i will move a load of washing that has my bosses clothes in it into the dryer etc, or from dryer into ironing pile)

You could expect your 'nanny' to ensure any toys hat have been played with while she is their to be put away.

Also do you have your nanny full time? (ie 5 days) If not then you cant expect her to do all the washing / tidying etc associated with the children.

Cooking them a meal while she is looking after them is not too much to ask though and nor is putting the toys away that she has used.

Also are you sure your nanny / childminder can legally be self employed? Just because generally nannies working in someone elses house do not fit the criteria for being self employed.... effectively it mean you are getting out of paying your employers NI contributions and therefore the inland rev wont hesitate in fining YOU £3000 for avoiding them.
Although not unherd of it is VERY VERY unusual for a nanny to fit the criteria for being self employed and its the employER not the employee who gets into trouble for it.... just something to think about...

Equally if she IS actuyally a childminder working from your adress, then IMO you cant expect her to do nanny duties... a childmind does NOT do all her mindees washing and ironing, nor will she clean the houses that her mindees live in, or put away their parenst shopping...

either you have a childmnder OR a nanny IMO

I give her the money that she would have to pay in tax and NI if I was paying it on her behalf, she's been told to save it in an ISA for when her tax bill comes through and i hope to goodness she has.

Here's the scheme, might help somebody else too

www.childcareapprovalscheme.co.uk/

Thanks Nanny L I must say I thought it's going to be hard to change now but she's either going to have to change or be replaced, which I would hate to do as I cannot come home after a 14 hour day and start cleaning the playroom.

Good luck...

and do be careful... with a nanny it is normally YOU the employers who is responsable for collecting her Txa and NI and passing it on to inland rev AS WELL as YOUR employers NI contributions on top!...

and then also providing pay slips, administering sick pay, maternity leave etc etc

Its your responsibilty and inland rev wont see it any other way!

Hideehi - nannyl is correct - if your nanny is working for you in your home, then in amost all cases you will be considered to be her employer abd you should be paying her tax and NI including employer's ni on her behalf. You are at risk of quite serious penalties if you do not do so.

The scheme you linked to is so the nanny is registered as an approved carer which means you can pay her with childcare vouchers if your own employer runs such a scheme.

As for the tasks you can reasonably ask her to do, then as nannyl says - anything to do with the care of the children and their belongings is fine.

That's right it is so I can claim tax credits but i was told it also means she is self employed, I have no problem paying her tax and NI it's just I was told to pay her the gross amount, I'll throttle her if she's spent it lol

No - that is not correct - who told you to do that?

The lady I spoke to back in 2005 when we first set this up, I've just been reading the site and you are correct I need to be paying her tax, that'll be an interesting conversation when I ask for the money back i'm just going to have to pray she's banked it and not spent it.

having tax credits is nothing to with being self employed
Nor is the child care approval scheme

(Im registered under the child care approval scheme... it means my bosses employers (NHS) take some money out of their wages and it goes through busy bees (the scheme NHS uses) and then partly pays my wages.)

Nannies can be registered (as many of us are) but as an employer it makes now difference as to her employment status.. you HAVE to employ her?

(most childminders an nursarys accept the vouchers as well, and now so can approved nannies too )

Cross posts!

Good luck talking to your nanny...

presumabale she will have apid her tax 2005 - April 2006 wont she?... so you can just worry about april 2006 til now?

Do be careful, as you maywell find inland rev want YOUR NI contributions back dated (personally i havent got a clue how they would work, im just guessing ) hopefully they will see its a genuine mistake.

Good luck.

Obviously your NI contributions are in addition to your nannies salary.

Have you been giving any form of pay slip? (prob not if she was acting self employed?)

God not necessarily, there's a family accountant who deals with all this on her behalf, I have wage slips and bank statements and have literally just signed up with nanny tax so they can sort out this year, I just have a feeling she's spent it all, she was saying how broke she was then popped off to spain for a couple of weeks. I have a feeling this is going to turn very sour.

Nanny tax are great (well so i've herd!)

Im sure they will help you the best they can

good luck!

Thank you

your welcome.... i hope it all works out

let us know!

Leaving the money situation alone, as you are now working on sorting that out, a nannies duties can be quite varied.

Yesterday, my plans went a bit pear-shaped as my friend was not able to come with us on an outing. So ended up doing:

Stacked remainder of dishwasher with breakfast things and set that going.

Tidy and vacuum children's bedrooms - quite a big task, given the state they were in. Had some limited assistance from 2 yr old and 4 yr old. They ended up doing dot-to-dot books, which we found in the process of tidying.

Prepared a picnic lunch, then took the children to local woodland, where they is a playground they like, plus picnic spots. We spent a good few hours there, some of it watching people do GoApe.

Unloaded dishwasher, took dry clothes off line, emptied the kitchen bin and attempted to get the children to eat something for tea.

I would say that I am an Out And About nanny, so like your own, I take the children out, daily - be it to woods, parks, beach, NT property, local farmland walk, went to the zoo this week, toddler group. Being out and about there is not so much time for doing household tasks, but time can be made, and when planed outings don't take place for some reason, we can stay home and do household things and playing at home.

With regard to your list:
YES - washing their clothes
YES - cooking them dinner
YES - maybe even shopping for their food
(though I find it best to only be getting a few things with children in tow... for example, fresh bread, milk, that sort of thing)
YES - putting away the online shop I order.
YES - a bit of cleaning too
(but not heavy duty stuff. Running around the home with a vacuum once a week is fine, as is putting their toys away)

I am expecting too much do you think ?
NO, you are not expecting too much, as you are employing a nanny.

going back to your OP, I think you should consider long and hard about changing the duties. To have a nanny focused on keeping your children properly stimulated and interested is worth its' weight in gold. Your children will never get that kind of 1 to 1 attention at any other time in their lives...... maybe you could get a cleaner in for a few hours a week to do the other stuff? That way you can get YOUR ironing done as well

Outside help such as having a cleaner come in once a week, having a company pick up ironing, all helps greatly.

Thanks again guys, with regards to the household stuff, yes you're right I've just never found a cleaner that did what I wanted to the required standard either and I found I spent so much time tidying so she could clean in the end I thought feck it lol

In that case, I would suggest that you ask your nanny to do the general tidying of the children's things, so that you can then blitz the place yourself without having to tidy the children's things first.