wassername, listen to the advice here re SSP. In all the (very large) companies I have ever worked for my contracts have specified SSP entitlement only, with a proviso that an employee may continue to be paid their salary during a period of sickness, at the discretion of the company. You are not being mean in doing the same, just normal. Putting in a week or something is pointless and doesn't provide any real reassurance at all, in fact it could do the opposite: An honest person cares if they think there is a risk they might for example go into hospital for 3 weeks: if you state that you will pay for one week of sick then the natural assumption is that you would not pay for the following two weeks: result: stress.
Ref Bank holidays I am fairly sure you need to pay a pro-rata level of Bank hols, even if your nanny only works Tues/Wed. so you will need to pay for 3.2 days of holiday regardless of when the bank holidays fall. The easiest thing to do by far is to say that the holiday entitlement includes bank holidays and then add on the effective no of days to this entitlement. EG if you were going to pay 5 weeks plus bank hols then you should state you are paying 33 days to include bank hols, and that this will be pro-rated down by 2/5 ie 13.2 days pa.
Ref her taking unpaid time off if her child is ill, I would be VERY careful how you word it, because she has a legal entitlement to take as much time off as necessary. The amount of time she could take unpaid isn't defined in law so you could be open to legal action if you put an amount of time in the contract. The wording you should use is something like "With regard to dependants, the employee has a right to to take a reasonable amount of time off work to deal with certain unexpected or sudden emergencies and to make any necessary
longer term arrangements. Any such leave taken will be unpaid". If you try to put in something with the intention of being more generous, you could end up doing more harm than good.
Whilst I can see that you are trying to be extra nice, you really really should be careful about setting out things contractually because you may inadvertantly achieve the opposite. Far far better to set out the contract with standard normal wording and then please your nanny every now and then with bonuses (or full pay when they are ill etc), than to try to do what you are attempting to do, however well-intentioned. Also, starting out on the belief that your goodwill will be reciprocated is VERY unwise - you will feel taken advantage of if it isn't (what you are doing is building in 'implied' contractual behaviour. Far better on both sides to be pleasantly surprised by good behaviours than to simply anticipate them and mark someone down if they don't reciprocate)
FWIW I would also advocate being VERY professional, and to limit the pally bit as much as you can. Otherwise you will find yourself going through torture if for example you needed to tell your nanny to do something differently. We ALL have to do that at some point over something, and the more pally you are the more awkward it is (again because of too many expectations on one side or the other).
I am not advocating that you treat your nanny like a replaceble commodity or anything like that, but you can be properly professional AND make your nanny feel very much appreciated, and that is the balance to aim for, otherwise it will end in tears. The muddier the boundaries the more likely it is they will get inadvertantly crossed.
To make your nanny feel loved I would advocate a standard contract with standard terms and then the following:-
- Pay on time by direct debit
- Never arrive home late, and always try to get back early on days you know their own schedule is tight
- Never ask them to do non-nanny chores. If they choose to wipe down the kitchen and fill the dishwasher make a point of thanking them regularly
- Always find time to ask after her family and follow what is happening in her life
- Give her a bonus every now and then and an annual payrise (don't wait until she asks for one)
- Don't chop & change hours at the last minute and don't assume that she will always be available for extra babysitting etc. Always have a back-up babysitter so that your nanny knows she can refuse to do extra without feelign guilty about it (never give a good nanny an unjust cause to feel guilty or bad)
Not an exhausitve list - am sure nannynick could add to it. But these are the thigns that make a difference to how a nanny feels valued, and not the stuff that is in the contract...