Nanny advice please

[mellow2]

We're considering hiring a nanny and would like to find out from those of you who have nannies what you think an experienced live-out nanny would be paid, either full-time or 3 days a week?

I do contract work in the IT industry so any vacancies that I apply for are short-term and are immediate requirements.

How feasible do you think it is for me to hire a nanny directly through gumtree and other websites if I need a nanny asap?

A nanny friend recommended O&P nannies who specialise in temp nannies but their fee is £94 per week or 6 weeks of nanny's wage if we require the nanny for more than 10 weeks. I can't afford to pay these fees. Can anyone recommend a good agency who doesn't charge extortionate fees?

Any advice you can give would be much appreciated.

Advertise in the Lady magazine or a local paper, etc . No fees to pay but you would have to check references yourself. (Though IMO you should do that anyway, even when using an agency)

Thanks NAB.

I just wanted to add that I live in Brentford. Would I pay London salaries?

No, that's Essex isn't it?

Cost depends on where you live and age, qualifications & experience of the nanny.

In London £70 - £90 net is about average, more for v experienced Norland types and Central London.

I think you're thinking of Brentwood. Brentford is in West London. It's near Kew.

Always get those two mixed up!

Hi Mellow.

Depending on how long your gaps between projects aer it might be cheaper to hire one long term than it is to pay inflated agency, urgent hire, short term rates.

Gumtree is a good site.

Be clear in your mind what your willing to pay GROSS as nanny's think in NETT.

Nannytax has a good GROSS/NETT salary calculator.

Be clear in the nanny's responsibilites and your requirements ie: a careful/pointless driver over 25 is cheaper to insure.

Think what you and nanny could work out for times when your not working!

bump

Hello Mellow2

My name is Jenna and I live in Northfields Ealing (so just around the corner). Im a mum of 2 lovely boys who are 3 and 6yrs. I have 10years professional nanny experience with crb, first aid, refs, own car etc I am also a registered childminder. Im sure if any of the mumsnetters I babysit for are about on this forum they will recommend me :-)
Im not working full time at the moment as my dp is working in paris for some of the week and I wanted to be a little more flexible than a full time job would allow..but I may be able to nanny/ childmind for you as and when you needed it. I wouldn't need to be tied in to a contract of a particular number of hours etc I could just work as and when needed. Also I am self employed as a childminder so you wouldn't need to worry about the tax side of it!
I charge £5 and hour as a childminder at my house or £6.50 an hour as a nanny at your house (this is on a share basis with my sons). This is gross (so before tax).

If you are interested drop me an email and we could arrange to meet for a coffee and a chat.

Kind Regards
Jenna

[email protected]

I used to live near you - I tried Buttons nanny agency - they were very friendly and helpful but in the end I employed someone I knew from the children's nursery.
I would agree that for a trained nanny you would be looking at 350net per week minimum (although through my nanny I met plenty of her friends who were earning 200 per week, but tended to be in their first nannying job).

I have employed a nanny via gumtree (for a 6 week summer holiday contract) - however I started searching a good couple of months before I needed her and had lots of poor applicants, just the occasional good one. I wouldn't rely on it as a way to get a good nanny quickly.

I did met a childminder in W13 (near Jenna but not her!) who specialised in minding children whose parents worked unusual hours/shifts/contracts, and charged by the hour. May be it's worth you checking out the local childminders (try www.childcarelink.gov.uk).

Thanks for the information. Millarkie.

Alternatively you could try to find a local family who have a nanny and are looking to share him/her. That way you may be able to negotiate a 'retainer' when you don't need nanny to work for you, and then pay half/whatever when you do (depends on finding someone who is happy to foot the bill for sole charge when you are not paying full rate, but I used to share my nanny and I would have been interested in that sort of arrangement) Sites for nannyshares are www.thenannysharers.co.uk and www.sharingcare.co.uk

I'm a CM in Chiswick. I often keep one of my spaces free as I didn't want to have 3 full timers permanently but am happy to fill the space on a temp basis. I'm sure there are other CMs who do the same. I'm here until the end of the year so if I can be of any help please get in touch!

How many DCs do you have and what age?

One agency that I used wanted to charge my employer £900 for placing me in a 3 day a week job which was paying me £5 p/h.

JennaJ's offer is quite good. Most people are not so flexible.

It is my experience as well that inexperienced nannies get more like £200 net for live-in. But, this comes with a bit more work on your part to train them.

i've used Gumtree successfully twice for a nanny, try nannyjob.co.uk too. yes, you do get a lot of unqualified au-pairs with poor English who fancy a big pay rise applying, so you will need to do a lot of sifting.
Minimum of �£8 ph net where we are (Ldn).

Mogs,
Chiswick is a bit out of the way for childcare for us. I only have 1 dd who is 16 months old.

In any case, I've found a mother's help for 2 days a week and my boss is happy for me to work from home for the rest of the week.

Thank you everyone for your advice.

You are going to "work" from home with a 16 month old present? Does this involve long periods of drug induced sleep for DD?

{grin} LOL eleusis.

I certainly couldn't get anything done with a 16 month old (or even my 3 year old) around.

But how will you work and take care of the 16month old at the same time ?

Just to add a positive recommendation for Buttons-Patricia is very helpful. However a trained experienced nanny will expect a proper wage which is perfectly reasonable but is a shocker when you look at the Gross inclusive of NI etc I agree! Particularly as we are on one wage currently (mine! Freelancing Mr G ho hum )
Having said that I know I would be unhappy and unable to work with DS (24 months) in the care of anyone other than a fabulous experienced nanny or childminder.

Basically my job involves chasing up people for stuff which can be done over email and sitting in their offices pestering them on days I go to work.

The rest of the paperwork will get done at the end of the day and on weekends.

And on days when the paperwork mounts up, dh helps out by working from home. We managed to work around dd the last time round.