another childcare question

[agileflower]

My SO and I are also discussing living together...and I wanted to know what the going rate might be for someone to live in (own room and bathroom on lower floor of house or own room and shared bathroom (share w/ child) in top of house -have not decided) near Lancaster Gate. Son would be school aged and there would be no duties daytime - so morning, get ready for school, run to school, daytime free, pick up from school and entertain till I get home from work. We'd also hope to find someone who was willing to do babysitting hours over the weekend (as we dont and wont go out weekdays!) and if wanted extra hours for cash.
Right now he has a live in carer for his elderly dad and what he pays seems pretty high - I am not sure if a nanny would be more or less. I also usually see ads for nannies as being for 2 or 3 kids - this is one very easy kid who is gone most of the day to school. I don't know how to factor that in. I wanted to ask as we are having these kinds of conversations - how to handle the childcare issue - and I was hoping to provide something more informative that 'we can work it out' !
Thank you!

The number of children I feel does not really affect things, but it is certainly cheaper for families with many children to have a nanny, than use other forms of childcare (which do charge per-child). I'm surprised by the number of ads I see for nannies, where the family only has one child... but I guess they must have their reasons.

From what you describe, if the person would be working 5 hours a day or less, then you could consider an au-pair.
A nanny would be paid regardless of if your child is present or not... so to make it more viable, you would really want the nanny to do some housekeeping duties. You also need to consider what happens during school holidays, inset days, child's mild illness... as on those days you would probably be needing childcare all day.

Where is Lancaster Gate?

I'm confused about how the live-in carer comes in to things. A live-in nanny is a live-in carer... so I would guess that cost wise it may be similar, though of course the duties may be a lot different and thus that could affect the cost - especially if the carer is on duty overnight.

Lancaster Gate is Central Line...Marble Arch, then Bond Street....so Central London W2. We had been thinking the nanny route as SO is used to having someone living in and it would be very convenient. I suppose part of the problem here is that I'm not from the UK and the childcare terminology is different - I suppose an Au Pair is a good option. I just tend to like someone more experienced but I suppose they are out there. We would like to have occasional sole charge weekends, which led me to thinking of a nanny over an au pair (who are usually not able to do that bc of lack of experience yes?)

The carer is not 'on' overnight but occasionally helps out if something odd happens - his room is underneath the elderly man's room and my SO is up on the third floor. He gets 400/week live in for six days/week.

Thank you!