How to hire a nanny? Clueless!

[Penthesileia]

We would like to hire a nanny from early to mid-August this year for our 11mo DD (she'll be 14mo by then, of course).

In my head, when we first talked about it, it seemed so straightforward, but now that we need to get down to the nitty-gritty of finding and interviewing and choosing a nanny, working out the hours and the salary, etc., we find ourselves totally lost!

We need a nanny for 3 days a week (Monday to Wednesday), from 8am to 6pm. My DH is insistent that s/he have about 5 years experience.

I would really appreciate any advice about:

1. where to post a job advert
2. how to compose said job advert (are there any templates, or samples, etc.?)
3. how much to offer as a salary (we are in Cambridgeshire, btw).

etc.

Thanks in advance for any advice or pointers.

Take a look at job adverts in your area, that will give you some idea of salaries.

NannyJob.co.uk Search: Cambridgeshire

5 Years experience may be a tall order, though it depends on what he would consider countable experience. For example Babysitting, nursery/pre-school work, helping at Beavers/Cubs, Rainbows/Brownies could all be considered experience... but are not the same as nannying 8-6.

How to write an advert depends on the limitations of the advertising place. You may want to consider creating a mini-website which then forms part of the advert. But that may be a bit overkill - though I seen it once and thought it was a nice idea.

As it is a part-time job, the advert needs to be very clear about the Days and Hours. Even by putting those details you may still get people applying who say 'I can't do Wednesdays, can do Thursday'. Or 'I need to be at college at 5pm on a Wednesday'. At least those candidates are easy to rule out, as they don't meet the minimum requirement.

Agree a GROSS wage, as someone working part-time could easily have another job. I would guess that a typical gross wage would be around £100 per day, but local rates can vary as can applicants expectations. Thus looking at job adverts will help you get an idea for what other jobs in your area are offering.

You will see that nanny jobs can often be advertised at a NET wage. This is a pain to be honest and I wish the industry would get rid of the practice. Very roughly, add on 25% to a NET wage (take home) to get the GROSS wage (before Tax/NI deductions).
www.listentotaxman.com is handy for getting a more accurate figure, but it needs to start with a gross wage, to produce the Net wage and Employers NI figures. Note: It is a guide only, when you do the PAYE paperwork you need to follow HMRC's guidance, not figures from ListenToTaxman.
You can use a payroll company to do a lot of the tax paperwork, though you can do it yourself, especially now with the Employers CD-ROM and HMRC Online systems.

i always use an agency rather than advertising direct myself... i register with 3 or 4 and give them all the details, and they do the hard work for me. i then interview the ones i like the look of.

you will pay an introduction fee though, which can be quite steep (last time £900) so worth checking what the fees are first...

i used nannytax for wages.

Nanny Interview Questions

A basic contract - will need adapting.

A message thread about Contracts

Holiday Entitlement and Holiday Entitlement Calculator

Are you or your DH offered Childcare Vouchers from your work (salary sacrifice scheme)? If so, then you will need a nanny who is Ofsted Registered if you are to part-pay them with the vouchers.

That would be something to include in an advert, as it would be your minimum requirement.

Also it can be worth listing some of the duties in an advert, especially if you are wanting some housework type tasks done in addition to caring for your child.
As a male nanny, my ironing skills are a bit lacking (I know some men are good at ironing, but I'm not one of them). So I don't apply for jobs which say that ironing is required. However putting a load of washing on, stacking/unstacking dishwasher, sweep the kitchen floor, hover around a bit, try to keep the children's bedroom tidyish, are things I do.

If you need a driver, state that in the advert - plus if you need them to have their own car, state that as well.

Fantastic, nannynick. Thank you very much for such detailed and considered responses! All those links are very useful indeed.

madwomanintheattic: sorry for what might seem a naive question, but do you pay each agency about £900 each at the start?; or do you pay only the agency who finds "your" nanny?

Need to get cracking now...

X-posted with your last message, nannynick.

Yes, we're both offered Childcare vouchers at our work, so ideally the nanny would be Ofsted registered. I'll certainly include that. And driver too (though we're not sure about whether we could offer the nanny the use of a car - that brings its own complications, I think...).

We'd only expect tidying up after themselves and our DD, and other related tasks (preparing food, putting dirty dishes in dishwasher, clothes in machine if they get mucky, etc).

Penthesileia - some agencies charge parents a £30 reg fee and then if they find you a nanny that will be taken off the total amount - others dont

most agencies charge 4times nett salary as their fee

Easier to have the nanny use their own car, then pay them mileage (40p per mile). The nanny needs suitable car insurance, steer applicants towards Morton Michel for suitable car insurance for childcare providers.

Ofsted registration - this guide from Ofsted may be useful. It details what the nanny has to meet requirements wise to be Ofsted Registered. Guide to Registration on the Ofsted Childcare Register
Ideally you will want a nanny who is already registered, but if they aren't but are prepared to register, then they must meet the minimum requirements. Training for example can be a little tricky, as there isn't a definitive list of what Ofsted will/won't accept.

Agencies should only be charging you a fee on successful placement. Though it is possible that some will charge an initial fee which is non-refundable, then a fee on successful placement. Check the terms of the agency carefully, so you know what fees you are paying and when.

If you decide to try to recruit without an agency (you can always give it a month or so and then go to an agency) good places to put an advert are gumtree.com (there is a Cambridge section) and you can put your own ad on nannyjob.co.uk.
I've been looking at nanny salaries in the Cambridge area over the last few months (not many jobs advertised with the salary stated) and there seems to be a big range from 6.50net per hour up to 12net (although that was a quote from an agency which seems to be higher than others).
When we had nannies I used to interview first then ask them what their expected salary was to give a guide (and have an upper limit in my mind as to how much we could afford), but I know some nannies won't respond to jobs which don't have the salary stated up front.

agree you need to have salary stated in ad,as tbh if the salary isnt highest enough to cover my bills/mortgage etc then no point in me going for an interview and wasting their and my time

if you dont want to use an agency then advertise on netmums and NJ as well as gumtree, then if no luck try agencys

Thank you all for your posts. Really very helpful.

Vis-a-vis holiday entitlement: employees are entitled to minimum of 5.6 weeks paid holiday (if working a 5 day week). However, given that a nanny works long hours (e.g. in our case, 30 hours over 3 days), even though she would be "part-time", it seems unfair in some way to offer a reduced annual leave package, IYSWIM, since she would be practically working the same number of hours as a "full" normal working week (35-40). Would an employer of a part-time nanny normally take this into account and offer the full 5.6 weeks paid leave? This would seem fairer to me.

Holiday entitlement is usually calculated on a per day basis. However you can certainly offer more holiday than the minimum entitlement. You may want to stipulate that holiday needs to be asked for x months/weeks in advance. You may want to stipulate that you get to choose x weeks holiday, and employee gets to choose the rest.

As your nanny would be working 3 days per week, they would get 16.8 days minimum entitlement. That could be rounded up to 18 days (so 6 weeks) if you wanted to offer them that.

You can deduct Bank Holidays (typically falling on Monday, but Christmas Day and Boxing Day do vary).

If you tend to go away a lot as a family, then you can certainly offer you nanny paid time off.

The 5.6 weeks is the minimum you have to provide (it can include Bank Holidays). Nannies will expect to get the minimum and will be delighted if you offer above that.

Most nannies end up with more than the 28 days leave ( or 3/5 of 28 days for someone who works 3 days a week) because most parents end up taking time off work (for holidays and such like ) and they don't need the nanny for that time. Personally I would keep the pro rata 28 days including bank hols in the contract but would then be able to 'give' the nanny more holiday if it's possible (on the grounds that you may be unlucky and use up your own annual leave looking after a poorly child or because of nanny illness but if you have plenty of annual leave spare you can offer extra days off for nanny).

Keeping things in contract as statutory entitlement is best. As then you can easily offer more time off, if it is possible to do so. Same goes for sick pay, keep it as SSP rather than saying you will pay for x days off sick per year (as if you say that, the person will be sick x days per year!). If you keep it as SSP only, then you can give full-pay for sick days at your discretion.

Penth, I can't remember if I have mentioned this, but I am also in Cambridgeshire and currently recruiting for something similar. If you are near me and interested in a nanny share, I'd be happy to discuss this. I have an ad on Gumtree at the moment you might want to look at.

I got all my nanny jobs from The Lady magazine except for one.

Great post NannyNick, totally agree with all your points esp about agreeing a GROSS wage. I have something to add to the op. We put a little ad up in our local independent chemists as its a complete magnet for Mums and Carers and have gotten great responses from that. Also have you tried www.simplychildcare.com I'm told its pretty much the industry standard online magazine.

I would not agree that SimplyChildcare is the industry standard online magazine. I feel www.nannyjob.co.uk has a larger audience, especially for jobs outside of London (Simply Childcare used to be only jobs in London, they do now cover more UK wide jobs).

Just did a test... I looked on SimplyChildcare.com and Nannyjob.co.uk for Nanny jobs in Surrey, Full Time, Permanent.

Simply Childcare: 2
Nannyjob: 108

Think the figures speak for themselves!

Thank you all so much for taking the time and effort to help me out. Very much appreciated.

BoffinMum - hello! Hope you are very well - presume your latest has arrived! If so, congratulations!!!! I will look now for your advert. I am indeed interested in a nanny share... It would be too convenient and lucky, I suppose, if we could work something out!

Hi again BoffinMum. Seen your ad, I think, and unfortunately, it looks like we probably won't be a suitable match for each other: your family have a very busy morning, and I think it would be too much for the nanny to try to add my DD to that mix, particularly as we are in a village north of the city. Shame. Best of luck finding your nanny though!!

He has indeed, Penth. Felix arrived on 6 April weighing 7lbs 9oz, and is a joy . I'd quite like him to have a little chum during the daytime, hence the interest in a share.

If you email me at boffinmum at hotmail dot co dot uk we can chat about it if you like. Geography will be the biggest factor, I imagine.

x posts somehow. Bugger, that would have been too good to be true.

Yes, it would. Yikes. This finding-a-nanny business is quite stressful, isn't it?...

Welcome, Felix! (What a great name, btw!). Take care of yourselves.