Overnight pay

[ZydecoLaydee]

Both DH and I travel for work, but for the first time our trips overlap by 3 nights. We have an amazing nanny who will stay over and care for the children overnight, but we are unsure what to pay her, we have an agreed overtime rate, but would it be normal to pay that when she is sleeping?

Also, are there any other practicalities to consider, do we need to do anything in terms of documenting we would like her to make decisions in the event of an emergency etc?

Thanks!

Yes it would be normal to pay when she is sleeping as she is responsible for your children and home (and any pets).
Some contracts written by nanny payroll companies already include provision for overnight pay. If your contract does not, then maybe the following will help you decide on a reasonable amount to pay.

Daytime hours I would say starts from when your children normally wake up, or 7am whichever is the earlier. Evening hours, say from your nanny's usual finish time until say 11pm would be at the rate you normally pay for babysitting. This may need to be the overtime rate you have already mentioned as working a longer day would be doing overtime.
From 11pm to 7am (or children's typical waking time, whichever is the earlier) I would say is the period of time when your nanny can reasonably expect to sleep. How much overnight disturbance they will get depends on your children... if you have a young baby then your nanny is likely to be disturbed more than if you have a 6 year old. This period must be paid at least a minimum wage (there are still court cases going on about that so stick to what is safe and pay at least minimum wage), so this could be £8.21 gross. So an overnight fee of say £66 for 11pm-7am.
Whatever pay rates you decide on, I would document these as an appendix to the contract of employment so you can refer to it in future.

In the event of a hospital admission you would need to be contactable. The doctors may do something to preserve life without speaking to you first but you cannot rely on a piece of paper to grant that consent. Certainly you could write something to say that Name Of Nanny has your authorisation to consent to life preserving medical procedures in the event that neither of you can be contacted.

Thank you so much for your response!

I checked the contract and it doesn’t mention overnights, but we’ve never had this situation before (even pre children) so I didn’t consider it. We will absolutely pay her overtime rate for the evening as we do when she babysits, and suggest slightly more than minimum wage overnight. Fortunately my children are solid sleepers so it’s unlikely she’ll be disturbed!

I’m sure nothing will happen, and we’ll both be contactable by phone!

When i was a nanny I got paid my hourly fee till midnight then a sleepover fee of £50 till 7

Tho was almost 10yrs ago

But now laws have changed as nick said so needs to be nmw