Need to make nanny redundant - if you have done this did you go through all the procedural steps as required by the letter of the law?

[bossykate]

hello everyone

i have stopped working and will therefore need to let my nanny go. he has been with me less than a year, so is not entitled to redundancy pay etc etc.

however, i have just been informed by my payroll company that there are a number of steps i should follow:

• request a meeting in writing to which he should be entitled to bring another person
• at meeting discuss possibility that job may be made redundant
• convene another meeting after an unspecified period of time to confirm that job is being made redundant and confirm leaving date.

now i am all for workers' rights and i'm sure this makes sense in corporations where there may be the chance of another job in the company...

but that simply doesn't apply here. i'm tempted just to give him contractual notice, a fantastic reference and do all in my power to help him find something else (he is very good).

has anyone else made a nanny redundant and if so did you follow all the procedural steps?

TIA

oh and btw i have assumed he will work his notice - is that a really bad idea?

FLoerybeanbag, have you tried putting an ad in The Lady?

I just hired a nanny and had a tougher than usual time. I settled for someone who can only stay until SEptember because I got fed up with the search and decided to take a gamble that it will be easier to hire a nanny in September than it is in Jan./Feb.

When do you need the nanny to start?

Oh yes, the lady is a good idea.

ffb - if you are who I think you are... then could you not fix the hours and days, rather than having them flexible? Then with luck you may find an applicant who is happy with those hours, but who also may be open to working more hours as and when needed. Just a suggestion.

I'm hoping for someone to start mid-late March-ish.
The Lady might be an idea, I'll look into that, thanks.

nannynick I do need a bit of flexibility, I'm working from home but need to go out and meet clients sometimes, and obviously I would ideally like to be able to at least offer them some flexibility when it comes to my availability. My plan was to have most of the hours fixed, with a few flexible if that makes sense.

No, its just a feeling.
His dad works from home (when he's not abroad) and I just think they'll say that he'll be ok to walk home. He has 2 elder brothers.

They might not.
I cook his meals and his best friend lives 4 doors up from me.

TBh it will be a bit harder for me then as he will finish school later so will need a separate pick up after we have been home for only half an hour. And the best friends mum will not be able to help with lifts as her ds will be going to a different secondary school. But we'll see.

FWIW I found the Lady expensive and got no decent applicants. Maybe inner city London was not the location for Lady candidates.... If you are short of time maybe you should do that simultaneously with the agencies?

fridayschild I've literally just been on their website to have a look, and just a weeny short ad was £100, once I'd condensed it to absolute minimum was £48.

So I think I'm going to umm and ahh a bit longer before doing that and have a chat with the agencies in the meantime - at least with an agency you only pay if they find you someone!