Nanny hours when school starts

[sundayfarm2021]

Hello

looking for some guidance please? Our wonderful nanny is back from Mat leave at the end of the year, my youngest starts school in September and whilst we would still need support after school and holidays there wouldn't be the need there was before (4 day week) has anyone amended their nanny hours or does anyone employ a nanny just after school and then full time during hols?

thanks

Having worked as a nanny i think you will really struggle to get any one who needs a full time paying job to agree to those hours. So employing your current nanny just after school and then full time in the school holidays seems unlikely to work.

A common option is to retain the nanny full time but ask if she is happy to move to a more housekeeper/ nanny type role.

Otherwise:
Try to find a nanny share/ childminder.

The hours might suit a student/ two students sharing more. Especially if you live near a university

Does she know about the drastic reduction in her hours yet? If not, you should let her know. Sounds like she has her own young child now and may need to continue a full time role.

Not sure asking a nanny to become a cleaner instead would be received well.

You might need to employ someone who can work part time in term time and full time in term holidays from an agency such as Koru Kids, as it’s hard to come across someone wanting that set up understandably.

Will she want to bring her own child to work with her? It might be that you could offer this in exchange for reduced hours. I’ve had a nanny with their own child for a number of years and it worked really well.

You need to talk to her. You could offer the part time hours at a slightly higher per hour rate but as incentive she can bring her child? Or she might be happy with part time anyway? Or combined it with cleaning?

But if I needed full time hours I wouldn’t work 3 hours a day.

Don't forget your child is likely to have days off school poorly and it's very useful to still have the nanny around to cover. And school holidays, inset days etc. sometimes it's worth swallowing the cost of keeping the nanny on for the flexibility.

We were extremely fortunate and found someone who agreed to do 16hrs per week which she did as 2.30 - 6.30 during term time and then two full days during the holidays. She was only able to do this as she had another term time role and this fitted around that. So, yes, they do exist but are very rare.
i would speak to your payroll company sooner rather than later and get some HR advice as you’ll need to manage both the nanny currently on maternity leave and the person doing maternity cover and factor in both their usual employment rights and the possible redundancy situation that you’ll be looking at. When you know what the options are legally, you’ll then be able to start having some conversations with them to see if there is a solution which works for all of you.

If you change the hours and she needs more then she has the right to redundancy if says no /leaves

I was always paid full time and could do what I liked 9/3 as long as phone was with me

often kids are sick or baker days so still having a full time nanny is a advantage

she may not want to clean. I didn’t