Help me figure out how best to organise childcare

[sallyanne33]

Sorry, this is long and boring, just looking for fresh eyes to help me work out which childcare arrangement makes most sense as I am going round in circles and not sure what to do for the best.

I am freelance and wfh, I cram a full time job into strange hours so I can work around the kids. Currently I look after them 1.5 days a week and the rest of the time they are in childcare.

DC1 age 4 and DC2 age 2 attend nursery five mornings a week. DC1 gets 30 funded hours. We use tax-free childcare We spend £500 a month on nursery.

A freelance nanny looks after them in the afternoons. She costs £15ph, cost is the same whether she looks after one child or two, we spend between £800 and £1000 a month on her usually.

DC1 starts primary school in Sept. I had planned to put him in breakfast club (cost £140 a month) so I can work 8am-3pm around school hours.

DC2 can move to the nursery attached to the school but not until the Sept after she turns 3. She has just turned 2.

So, until then, do I move DC2 to term-time days only at current nursery? Or full days, term time only? This would mean I have two kids to look after during the school holidays, and only one is old enough to go to holiday clubs etc so I won't be able to work much at all. My partner can take some hol but is in a full time salaried job so much less flexible than me. This worries me as I have a lot of regular clients who I don't want to risk losing if I suddenly have no time for them.

Do I keep my nanny (who is fantastic) on for just DC2? I don't really want to lose her but she is £££. Or do I ask her to do the school pickup as well as the nursery pickup and have DC1 after school for an hour as it won't cost me any extra, I have her til 430pm anyway. I would feel guilty about not meeting my son at the school gates though, especially in the first few weeks of starting school. Without my nanny I would have to do nursery pickup at 1230pm so I could only work 4 hours a day, not really enough.

I want to save a bit of money if possible and organise things as efficiently as I can - under current regime we will be paying for nanny, breakfast club, holiday club and nursery and combined it's more than our mortgage. We are both decent earners and can just about afford this, although things are a bit tight at the moment and I am expecting our mortgage payments to increase in the next six months when we remortgage. I want to spend some time with the kids while they are little, but I also need to find the right balance so I can keep working and earning. While I can work flexibly, I do need enough time to actually work close to full time hours - I catch up in the evenings usually. My hourly rate is more than the nanny costs so it makes sense for me to work.

What do other people do when they have one school age and one nursery child? Is there a better way for me to organise things? Do we just need to suck up the cost until both are in school?

When mine were that age, we had full time nanny (as a nanny share to save money) so the nanny did the school pickups, and that worked well. We didn't ever do breakfast club but would sometimes have the nanny stay to 7pm with both kids.

Given all the options you have, I guess you need to draw up a spreadsheet! Probably some combination of 3 days full childcare (whatever combo is cheapest of nursery / nanny etc) and then 2 days of juggling.

I would definitely keep the nanny with enough time to cover holidays too, even if that is just 2 days per week so that you have some work time.

Nanny who does school pick up and either her or another temp one for holidays

No point paying out for holiday club and still having toddler at home but unable to work

Sadly you will have to bite the bullet to pay for costly childcare for next year till
Can move youngest over

Many use a childminder....they take the funding and tax free . Childminder does school drop offs and pick ups and school holidays plus training days rates vary according to where you live but are in general £5 to £8 a child
Bare in mind that schools do staggered starts in the first few weeks so you may need childcare in school hours for the first month or so

I wonder this- but a local childminder says people book her just for the holidays for preschoolers who are otherwise in term time nursery - worth finding one?

Thanks all, will look into local childminders, appreciate your advice.

A lot depends on how much flexibility the nursery and nanny can give you. Generally I think the fewer settings the better, both for the children's sake and your own.

Would school hours at nursery for your youngest be an option? Then nanny could pick up both. There are no school nurseries round here but we found local private ones offered hours that aligned with school pick ups.

The easiest option would be to find a full-time nanny share.

They can take the eldest to school, look after the toddler during the day, pick the eldest up and have them after school. Drying the holidays they have both of them all day.

You nanny share with another family, you pay around £10 an hour. The nanny earns more, you pay less, your children have one consistent caregiver, everyone's a winner.

@NuffSaidSam With a nanny share, would you usually find the nanny first and request a share with a random family she already works with or would you partner up with a family you know and then try to find a nanny together?

You could look for a family who already have a nanny and are looking for a share (likely someone like you who has a child starting school in September and having their own nanny no longer makes financial sense). You can look on childcare.co.uk, local Facebook childcare pages, any other local sites and ask around (word of mouth is often the best way).

Or you can keep your current nanny as you say she's great and advertise for a family to join you. Use the same methods as above.

Or find a family looking for a share and recruit a nanny together (this is the most difficult option so I'd do this as a third choice).

As you have a bit of flexibility with your hours, you're likely to be an appealing prospect to another family.