childminding assisstant

[littledaisys]

hi, i want to employ a childminding assisstant but i have no idea how to do it. has any of you an assisstant who is not related to you? please give me some advice,
thanks

You need to get an Employers Liability Insurance Certificate. I got mine from NCMA. I think I was charged £5.00. You also need to get your assistant registered with Ofsted.

An enhanced CRB check will be required. My assistant got hers free(last Summer). I waited for Ofsted to tell me when my Assistant was fully registered and CRB check done. I expected to receive a revised certificate when it was done. But I received nothing to say the registration was complete. I called them and was told that she had been registered for months. So keep calling them as they won't call you. I had to ask for a new certificate as well, as they didn't do that either.

If your assistant is going to be earning more than the Income Tax/NI thresholds you need to register with HMRC as an employer. You will then get an Employers pack for doing all the admin for PAYE and NI. You will also have to pay the minimum wage.

I believe that if your Assistant is to be left in sole charge of any children they must have a valid First Aid Certificate. There was also an odd rule about Assistants not being left in sole charge of over fives but could be left with under fives (so could not do the school run). There were moves to scrap that rule but as I no longer employ my assistant I gave up following progress on that.These are starting points but there are lots more rules & regulations. the NCMA and Ofsted websites are a reasonable source for more information. However as is always the case the lists are not exhaustive and I always find with something like this that there are issues which are not spelt out clearly.

You will need Ofsted to register the assistant, enhanced CRB (which has to be done through you now) paediatric 1st aid cert, safeguarding training. I was told in Nov that it can take upto 26wks to register assistants now and they cannot start assisting until Ofsted have approved / paperwork through etc.

Tax and NI details and employers ins, cost £5 from NCMA for me.

The ruling onaday mentioned is still in place, can be left inside with under 5's but not outside as sole charge, frankly it's a pita, as they can't do school runs, however you will still need consent from parents for sole charge.

I tried to employ my DH as my assistant until he got re-registered and he has completed his course, had his inspection and re-registered before he was processed to become my assistant! (5 months later)

It is most certainly not true that you have to wait for the EY2/CRB clearance from Ofsted before an assistant can start working for you.
As long as you can show that you have followed careful recruitment procedures including obtaining references and giving an induction, then as long as your assistant is always working under your direct supervision they can start work immediately.

IF for any reason the CRB shows that they are not suitable to work with children then Ofstd will inform you that they must stop working immediately and you would be in breach of your registration if you didn't comply at that point.

thanks for your replies. do you know if it is possible to employ an assisstant as a self-employed? it would save me a lot of paperwork. i am totally lost in all this adm.
thanks

No, it's not possible to have a self employed assistant. I looked into this myself (my assistant was my dd1). She was going to go through the registration process herself and we were to then work together as two CM. However after a few months she decided it wasn't the easy job she had envisaged and has got herself another job.

my assisstant is self employed i phone inland revenue to check she also only wrks 16 hrs on min wage so earns under there tax/NI thershold so i didnt need to register as an employer

avcm - my DH was previously a registered childminder and I was not allowed to take him on as an assistant until he had a new CRB check.

It does depend on who you speak to as to what answer Ofsted may give you, but I have had lots of assistants and have always been given permission for them to start working for me AS LONG AS they are never left unsupervised.
Somebody did call me to try to tell me my last assistant couldn't work until her CRB was through, but when I questioned this a supervisor called me back to confirm that I was right and to apologise.
One of my current assistants is also an ex childminder.

ok, thanks,
more questions tough. what happens when i have an assisstant who falls ill and phones me in the morning to say she will not come and i have 6 children in the house? this worries me a lot. besides, how do i pay (if i do) when she is ill? do i pay for her holidays? and most of all, this should be my first question where do i look for her/him? are there any websites where i can have a look?

It is very unlikely that you could have a self employed assistant.

Cheryl if HMRC said you didn't have to register it was because her earnings are less than the £95 per week NI Earnings Threshold, not because she is self employed.

Employees are entitled (among other things) to Statutory Sick Pay when they are ill for more than 3 work days in a row, and at least 5.6 weeks of holiday per year.

What you do in practice when he or she phones in sick and you have 6 kids arriving is another matter.

so if she didnt register self employed and as i didnt have to register as an employer how do they keep track of that she is wrking and earing as a poss to sitting signing on and getting her national insurance contributions paid for her towards things like sick pay, maternity, pension. as i wouldnt be paying them and neither would she and there would be no proof that she wrking

You should print off a form P46 and ask your assistant to fill it in. If they declare they are not working elsewhere or receiving job seekers allowance then you have to take that as truth unless you have reason to believe otherwise.
If they do have other income then I think you must tax them at basic rate even if they earn below the threshold.
If they call in unable to work then you would have to tell some of the children's parents that you couldn't have them.
It's worth having two part time assistants so that you have the chance to ask the other one to cover, or to register a nearby relative or friend as your assistant just in case of emergencies. Other than that you could use an agency to obtain emergency cover, but that could be a very expensive option.
I choose to have live-in assistants/au pairs who are less likely to be unavailable for work.

thanks a lot, i am more scared than i was before!!!! so, i assume that i should contact HMRC to get all the info about becoming an employer. i am afraid that the cost of having an employee will be too big for me, but i will try.