I posted before but can't find thread! tell me about nannies

[verybusyspider]

I have 3 boys 18months apart, I'd like to go back to work when my maternity leave finishes in June 2010 but there are no CM's in our village and nursery for all 3 would be too expensive - I think a nanny is our only option. It may sound early to look but I was let down by my CM 2 weeks before I was due to go back to work last time and vowed never to be in that position again. Ideally I'd like them to go to nursery as most reliable!

How much aprox is a nanny for west mids area?
Is it easy to get part time (3 days week) live out nanny?
Where do you look/advertise?
How far in advance do you look/appoint?

I'm sure I'll have more questions soon!

From a quick look at the jobs on nannyjob, west mids looks to be around £8-£10 gross an hour.

You can either go through an agency, or advertise yourself on gumtree, nannyjob.co.uk, netmums.

Lots of nannies have notice periods of 6-8 weeks, so I'd look at least 2 months before your start date.

thanks, if I go through agency do they sort out tax side? if not how do I do I find out how to do it? we've never needed to do tax returns before so bit of novice

You can use a nanny payroll company - nannytax, payefornannies, nannypaye. There are several different ones.

We put an ad on gumtree and had around 20 replies within a week! Interviewed around 8 of them and chose our nanny from there.

Also looked on NetMums (don't tell anyone!) at local childcare ads as several nannies posted on there.

I think there's a Nannytax website costing around £100 a year and they'll sort it out for you. Or you can look at the HM Revenue & Customs site and register as an employer. DH did this and assures me it's not as complicated as it sounds. They have a simplified scheme for 'domestic employees' which sounds very old fashioned!

From my perspective -

use gumtree - advertise for exactly what you want. we found p/t live out in this way.
use nannytax - reviews from others weren't that ecstatic but i found them pretty good. they gave a standard contract etc.
write down the sums based on £10 p/h so you know the most you are in for - you are going to gasp!
tax bills arrive every three months - you need to have money tucked away for this. there will be one last painful tax bill 3 months after you finish employing a nanny.
consider a nanny getting pregnant/sick - i wonder if employers' maternity leave/sick pay insurance is a good buy? I don't know anything about this - maybe nannytax/people here could advise.
don't be TOO generous on holiday, except perhaps as a quid pro quo over less generous pay? we ended up paying over the odds and giving generous holiday too. having said that, the lady we employed was a happy employee on the whole

With 3 DC, I reckon a nanny is your best option financially Also it's good because when you get home from work, they can be all bathed and ready for bed, and no nursery pick ups to do.

Try Simply Childcare, Netmums or Nannyjob to find a nanny. I really like Simply Childcare myself - have found last 2 nannies on there. Should be fine to find someone who'll do 3 days a week.

No a nanny recruitment agency won't sort the tax for you, you'll have to use a nanny tax company. I use payefornannies which was recommended to me by someone on here. It's about £139 a year including legal help and writing up your contract for you.

Good luck.

Agree, base calculations on £10 gross per hour. Consider the additional costs in top, such as nannies mileage payments if nanny is using their car, providing a car if you are to provide it, additional carseats if you don't want to switch seats in/out cars, weekly activities kitty, nannies lunch/tea - nanny should eat with the children, so would be eating same as the children usually.
Expect still cheaper than 3x nursery, certainly probably easier as you don't have to get 3 children up, dressed, fed in the morning.
Try to consider having a nanny as a longterm thing, such as say over the next 3 years. Consider what will happen once children go to school.