HELP... am deeply confused over nanny rates in London

[noyummymummy]

I am sure I'm missing something vital here but I live in West London and am looking for a nanny three days a week (Tues - Thursday). I have two children, one is three and the other is one.

We have decided to put the one year old in a nursery two days a week so the nanny will only have to look after both of the children one day a week - the other days she will only have my son.

-- Now for my confusion: I have been quoted 1500 per month by one agency, around 1200 by another and 650 by a friend of a friend who is moving and wants to find her nanny a job. I suspect that the 650 rate was under the table and did not include tax which I don't really want to do.

Can anyone give me some guidance on what I should pay and what that includes? thanks!

Hi,
The going rate for a full time live out nanny is around £350 per week in SW14/SW15 area. (Some agencies quote £500 per week full time for highly qualified British trained nannies)

Hi three days work at £80-£90 per day excluding tax is about the normal for London for an experienced and qualified Nanny.

It makes no difference to a nanny the number of children against the salary-so save yourself on nursery fees!

x

In my experience we were quoted about 80 pounds gross by experienced UK nanny not that long ago also in W. London
That included her only ie not her lunch, travel, playgroups, coffee, nappies national insurance etc

Obviously I don't expect a nanny to provide these things but these are all provided by some nurseries so need to be taken into account.

Also independent of number of children I just think it's harder to find a nanny if multiple children

Overseas nannies can be cheaper!

HTH

I would be thinking along the lines of around £100+ gross per day

I live quite a way from london and that is about normal round here so possibly a bit more in / near london

My gut view, without researching, is that if your budget for £100 per day, then you won't be far off.

Best thing to do though is to do some research in to what salaries are currently being offered. You can get a feel for this by trawling through the Nanny Agency adverts at places such as NannyJob and GreatCare.

Examples (Note: Salary figures are likely to be NET, so very roughly add 25% to get a figure closer to what it will cost you as employer):
4 Day Nanny, SW18, £320+
4 Day Nanny, SW11, £80-£90 per day
2 Day Nanny, Twickenham, £80 per day
3 Day Nanny, Chiswick, £8-£10 per hour

As others have said, the number of children you have, makes no difference (at least in my view) to the nannies salary.

Incidently £1500 per month, is more than I get now, and I work a 50 hour week. Could I face a commute to SW London? Done that before, M4 isn't nice.
Good luck with your nanny hunt. Hope the above is of some help. Please do not hesitate to ask further questions.

Should add, rates listed on websites are usually Weekly or Daily.

The rate is for the nannies time only, it does not include anything else. Rates are often quoted as being 'take home' rather than gross.
ListenToTaxman can do pay calculations, but not currently NET to GROSS, so play with figures until you get something looking good.

For 2007/08 tax year, £300 net, is looking to be around £390 gross - £20,315 per year gross.
Employers NI is around £37 per week - calculation thanks to E-Gismos.com

With part-time nannies, ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS agree GROSS wage, NEVER EVER a Net wage. You can not assume that the personal allowance will be used for your job.

Some additional costs to factor in:

Heating and Lighting (as your home will be in use throughout the day)
Nannies meals while on duty
Children's Activities costs (entrance fees etc.)
Nannies travel costs while with children.

I do not think 2 children is excessive for a nannny to look after and to be honest I would have prefered 2. Remember what would you do if child ill etc, presumably nanny would have to look after anyway and may then ask for extra money if job was agreed on 1 child for 2 days (and you still pay nursery.)
Can't help much on cost as have been out of nannying since I had my own DS.

You are getting some excellent advise from some experienced people!

Just to reassure you regards to the number of children to care for, 2 is not a problem.
The nannies who work around my sons school is taking care of 2-3 children, obviously one is in school, but it involves getting all kids ready, bring toddler/babies to school on the school run, and bring them with her to pick up again after school.

I agree that paying nursery on top to make it easy for nanny might not be such a good idea. What if you just find a playgroup/toddler group nanny can take them both to?

I agree I'd skip the nursery fees and sign them up for some activities that will expose the one year old to some social interaction or other appropriate development. Gymboree? Tumbletots? Monkey music? Church play groups? Swimming? etc. Will be much cheaper than nursery and will give the one year old the benefit of primarily one to one care. And you will have cover for when the one year old gets minor illnesses (sticky eye, common cold, chickem pox, etc.) whereas a nursery won't touch her within 24 hours of throwing up or having a fever.

If you need to keep the costs down, then you could always look into the option of sharing a nanny? In nannyshare arrangements where the nanny looks after the children from 2 different families at the same time, it is reasonable for the nanny to be paid a higher daily rate (two bosses, more demanding logistically etc and the nanny understandably needs an incentive to do it in the first place!) However you'd be dividing the cost (often in half) with the other family. Something like this could work well if you were keen to keep your eldest at Nursery and yet have some company for your youngest.

Have you had a look at www.thenannysharers.co.uk website? (Quick plug because it's mine!) Might help you meet someone locally with whom you can team-up and share a nanny and the related costs. Registration is currently free between now and the end of the November for all Mumsnetters (normally £25!!) So a bit of a bargain.

thanks to everyone, this is a HUGE help!

mind if I ask where in West London you are?

Terry2, what's the promo code for your website?

Hi naturopath, promo code is mumsnet30. Do hand it out to as many people as you like, the more the merrier. We're running it to the end of November..... hope it helps!

Your problem will be finding someone to do those days (that's the problem I'm finding).

Generally, you're looking at around £100ish a day (gross) so that the nanny ends up with about £8 an hour in her pocket (for live-out) - it works out at about £1200/£1300 per month all in.

Watch out for the tax dodgers. It is rife in our part of London

thanks!