What is our best option

[sunflower60]

Currently have one child and living in the South East and pay over £1k for a full time childminder as we don't have any family nearby to help. I'm pregnant with DC2 though and panicking slightly about childcare costs and wondering if our best option will still be the childminder and paying over £2k until DC1 gets her government discount or whether it might be cheaper to get a nanny/au pair (although I would rather not do live in if we can help it). I don't have a clue about costs though and if it would be any cheaper. Does anyone have any advice or experience please? Many thanks

Do you use tax free childcare? That would reduce it by 20% straight away.

@Shapesorted yes sorry that's after the tax free childcare sadly 🙂

2k-ish per month is actually pretty good for 2 children. I doubt you’ll beat it, and you’ve got the added bonus that you know the childminder is good and DC1 is already settled there. There’s no way you’ll get a nanny for less than that especially with the costs associated with employing someone. You also couldn’t use an au pair to provide full time childcare to baby and a toddler. I’d suggest researching it further but there’s a max amount of hours they’re supposed to work, which is less than full time, and everyone I know with them is either a SAHP wanting an extra pair of hands or uses them for wrap around care only.

Thanks @LakeShoreD. Yes I was thinking perhaps it was our best option still. I'm

A nanny is usually more than the cost of having two children with a childminder or in nursery.

The NannyTax salary survey gives an indication of costs: www.nannytax.co.uk/nanny-salary-index

£13 gross per hour for a live-out nanny in the South East would not be unusual in my view. Live-in is lower but I'm not sure how many live-in nannies there are now. Depending on where you are you may have people wanting a live-in job.

How many hours per week would a nanny be working? 50 hours is not unusual. So if £13 gross per hour, 50 hours per week, that is £33,800 gross salary. Employers NI would be close to £3500 Employer pension is likely to be around £850. You then have activity costs (that could be £2400 a year, roughly £10 per working day) , travel costs, payroll admin. So £41,000+ is an estimate, so closer to £3500 per month.
Maybe the hours you need are lower, so the cost would be lower.

I would look at childminders and nurseries.

Thank you everyone. That has all been really helpful. It definitely sounds like we should stick with our lovely childminder for financial and practical reasons.