Nanny Expectations

[SW5678]

Currently in the process of hiring a nanny and would like to offer a position. Just want to make sure we've thought of everything. Does anyone have any tips/advice for bonuses/pay rises/mileage/nanny purse etc

Our current thinking is to provide a prepaid debit card with £50 a week but not sure if that's too much or not enough? The idea is that if the nanny comes across anything we need for baby she can go ahead and have the autonomy to buy it. But should the prepaid card also be available for her to use to purchase lunch/coffee/reasonable expenses that she might incur during the day? We are so new to this so don't know what it should and shouldn't include! Or should we have a budget for each thing ie £20 a week for activities (around us baby classes are between £6 and £10 per class), £10 for at home activities, £20 a week for baby's food, £10 a week for nanny to use on food/drinks for her?

We book the classes for our nanny and reimburse her expenses weekly. You could always ask her what she would prefer?

My advice to first time nanny-employers, OP, is to take it slow, don't commit to over-generous packages and spends, and see how things pan out first.

You can easily add more funding, options, flexibility as you get to know her and how she is working out.

You CAN'T easily remove funding, flexibility, over-generous expenses if you find out she isn't ideal.

Another point from me, depending on your nanny needs* would be to only contract for statutory sick pay.

If you end up with a fantastic nanny, you can cover all the sick leave and expenses needed.

If you find you've employed a less than committed nanny, you aren't paying out for multiple sick days for someone who isn't working out.

*if you are hiring a top-notch full time, top pay grade, highly expert nanny, you will need to be competitive so this may not apply.

@Polpetto what do you count as expenses for your nanny? Do you include things like her getting lunch and coffee?

@EinsteinaGogo thanks for the advice, definitely agree and want to keep everything flexible! Also worried about being too flexible if that's bad too! Just so many things to think about and not sure where to start!

I can only speak from my own experience.

When we started with Nannies >20 years ago I was so idealistic and put so many things in the contract that came back to bite me. (Full sick pay, lunch on duty, expenses when out etc etc).

I learned that many things were better being discretionary and to see the arrangement as a factual employer / employee contract at the start.

Yes, you provide food for the nanny on duty. If you ask her to take the children out for lunch you pay for her too. You can ask her to take a picnic from home where possible though.
I would certainly cover things like a coffee for her at softplay.

We had a kitty purse for child related expenses - soft play or whatever. A pre-paid card would probably be better now the pandemic has meant many places don't take cash. Our nanny just told us when we needed topping up. We would put in about £50 at a time. She kept a list of what she spent it on but we never felt the need to audit this.

Separately she listed expenses and we paid those once a month. This was mainly petrol as she preferred to use her own car rather than ours. Our current nanny sometimes picks up craft stuff or books school holiday activities off her own bat and we reimburse her for those.

For lunches she could add things to our shopping list but generally preferred to bring her own.

Our contract stated statutory sick pay but we never enforced it and sick days were paid at the normal working rate. This could arguably have created a problem if she had wanted to say we had created an obligation on this basis but it was never an issue.

OP we usually ask our nanny to make up a picnic from home (to include her as well as the kids) but if she buys stuff for them when out we will pay for her too. I wouldn’t include something like this as standard though. We pay her travel expenses eg bus fares etc. We’re in London but most of the stuff she goes to with the kids is local so doesn’t involve transport.

Definitely SSP only in the contract, then it's your choice to pay more or not.

We reimbursed expenses like eurochick, I had a receipt box.

We covered lunches at home, but I stated that it would be a light lunch, sandwich/salad etc and we had a seperate drawer in the fridge for things that were for our dinners. I also asked for things she would like to be added to the shopping order, special milk etc.

I never covered their drinks/meals if they went to a venue at all.

We also got a annual membership to a couple of local places each year for her, so that it was easier to decide what to do - soft play, farm places.