Nanny Advice

[Jenf2306]

I am asking on behalf of a friend -

she has three children aged 2, 5 and 8 and is a single parent. she works 38 hours over 5 days but is on a 7 day rota and usually will work one day at a weekend (sometimes 2) every week. Some days she can work till 9pm too so childcare would be very varied and she needs someone who is flexible.

how would she go about looking for a nanny? and how would she go about crb's etc as she wants someone who will be fully checked.

we are in the midlands and it would have to be live out. does anyone have any idea of cost?

any advice would be appreciated, many thanks

The best way to get a fully checked nanny is to go through an agency. If you go to nannyjob.co.uk you can search for agencies near a specified postcode. Agencies will have fees that are a percentage of an annual or monthly gross salary and local agencies should have local live-out candidates.

She could recruit by herself on gumtree, nannyjob and netmums.

Live out and on that kind of schedule/flexibility will cost a fair amount more than a standard job. Her best option may be to have a standard hourly rate of around £9net, which is high for your area during the week but compensates for weekends somewhat.

She will need to factor in National Insurance, tax and employers National Insurance on top of the nanny's salary, as most jobs are still quoted net.

Forgot to add that individuals can't apply for CRB checks, it needs to be done by an organisation such as a nanny agency, but candidates advertising themselves may have a CRB from another source such as Guides or Scouts.

Thanks frakkin,

how does the net or gross work? if its £9 per hour after tax how much would she be paying out?

sorry for more questions but she is really struggling

There are a couple of handy calculators which can give you rough estimates of what £9 net might turn into. For this I'm using listentotaxman.

If she's working a 38 hour week then, factoring in commuting and handover time, her nanny is likely to be working a 48 hour week so for simplicity let's call it 50. Of course if her commute is considerably less and she never does overtime she might get away with less. So at £9 per hour that works out to around £600 gross a week for £450 net for a 50 hour week, and 45 hour week (rounded down) at £400 net gives a gross pay for the nanny of £525. Employer's national insurance is 12.8% more.

She could get someone to do the weekdays for less - in the Midlands you could reasonably get a full-time (5 day) nanny for £300 net, which is just over £380 gross, and a student or similar for the weekends. Alternatively a childminder who caters for shift patterns, FT care for the little one and before/after-school for the older two, plus a weekend solution may be more cost effective.

If she could offer live in it would be a lot cheaper and the less experienced/qualified the nanny is the cheaper they'll be. Also if the nanny is OFSTED registered she may be eligible for working tax credit or childcare vouchers from her employer.

Additional expenses of employing a nanny are: payroll service (or she can do it but that's a bit of a hassle); possibly car insurance or mileage if she needs the nanny to drive; paying for nanny's OFSTED registration (around £103 a year).

Basically the best thing to do is play around with figures, work out what she can afford and find out whether that's reasonable.

I feel your friend will struggle to find someone flexible enough to cover the hours required. She may get lucky and find the ideal person who is quite happy with the 7 day rota but I suspect many people will be put off from even applying for such a position.
Sounds as if weekend working is required, at least one day, if not both... again I feel that will put many applicants off.
To compensate for that I feel that she will need to be offering a salary above that of which is offered in other positions locally. It's the hassle factor!

A nanny registered under the Ofsted scheme will have a CRB check done by Ofsted plus will meet the Ofsted requirements - so things like First Aid training, some level of childcare training, will have liability insurance. As frakkin says, at present employers of nannies cannot get a CRB check done on their employee. An agency can... Ofsted can and sometime next year ISA will be able to do it.

I feel your friend will struggle to find one person to do this... so combining together different childcare options may be worth looking at - for example someone to cover weekdays, someone else to cover weekends. Maybe someone to cover daytime hours, someone to cover lates. However the more employees she has, the harder it will be to manage them all, plus more payroll duties.

Sorry to sound so negative but I feel it would be wrong of me to say that your friend will find the ideal person to cover the entire rota.

just a suggestion - if she could have a live-in help, a foreign nanny might be more willing to do the rota than a local nanny.

thanks for your replies everyone,

unfortunately at the moment the care is shared by 3 childminders and is not stable enough for the children.

we will have a look around but i think she is going to have to look for a new job with more permanent hours

thanks x

I would suggest she employs a nanny for the weekdays then has a nanny who does the ad-hoc weekends which she will prob pay more for than a weekday nanny.

I do ad-hoc weekend nanny work for people who work shifts or need a nanny for whatever reason really.

I guess she would need an ofsted registered nanny for a full time nanny and most nannies who are registered with an agency for work will advertise privately as well - so its still worth her using gumtree, nannyjob, netmums etc.

I would recommend www.kidsmatter.uk.com

where in the midlands is she?

forgot to say rate of pay will be anywhere from £6-10 an hr net depending on nannies qualifications and experience and also whether nanny with own child.

my friend is in derbyshire, whereabouts are you eastmidlandsnightnanny??

it is the weekends and late shifts 5.30pm till 9pm she is struggling most with

xx

I am in leicestershire I cover upto 45mins from j21 of m1 so maybe a little too far for me although have done some work in derbyshire.

my rates are £12 an hr with min of 4hrs and am available those hrs but do understand my rates may be a little more than she expects to pay.

kidsmatter is actually based in derbyshire!

When I was working as a nanny I applied for my own CRB check.

How did you do that FBG? Did you go through a vetting company?

Would be VERY interested to know because relying on other people's is pants.

I can't remember tbh as it was about 10 years ago.