Extra days off for nannies?

[WashwithCare]

Another daft lassie question.... would really appreciate views and wondering what other families do about this.

Ok, so our Nanny looks after one 3 yr old, 30 hours over 3 days, and her contract states she gets 5 bank holidays and 4 weeks hols (2 we pick and 2 she picks). The contract is just the standard one from Nanny tax - but assume this is what most nannies get?

Anyway, we tend to end up spending a lot more than 4 weeks away from home. I don't want to take a nanny with us on hols - so always end up giving more like 6 weeks plus BHs.. (on full pay obviously!)...

When DD was younger, if I was at home (i.e. not working) I would tend to get nanny to come to work, as this would give me some time to get on with other stuff while she played with the baby/fed her etc. However, now that DD is nearly 4, she is so self-sufficient, that it doesn't really seem necessary, and having our nanny there in fact feels more of an invasion on family time than anything.

On occasion, I do use the odd day to have an adult day with my H or a friend, but if I'm off, I don't really want to spend all the time away from DD. So I just ended up telling nanny not to bother coming in - so she got an xtra week off this xmas - so we are now heading towards 7 weeks leave for the year and mounting.

A nanny is quite an expense, so this doesn't feel like great value (esp as she then went on to take snow days immediately after xmas, which I also paid) - but it did seem a bit petty to say, come in and do half an hour of ironing, and make some spag bol sauce to freeze...

One thing I would find useful would be some evening babysitting - would it be fair to swap xtra days off for babysitting?

What do other people do? So far I've just racked it up as one of those things of having a nanny....

Maybr write a list of jobs to be done each week.

Changing, washing and (if applicable) ironing bedding.

Twice weekly clothes wash and iron (she can choose the days)

Hoovering and dusting playroom (or room where your daughter plays in the day) and her bedroom once a week. Although I alwys dust twice a week!

On friday (or day before you do the weekly shop) ask her write a list of ingredients she will need for one batch cook the following week. Buy Annabel Karmels cook book, loads of quick and easy recipes in there.

I have just re-read your original post and realised that she only does 3 days a week so this list might be a bit long!! Choose a couple that you would like done or do it over a fortnight (except the bed changing, which takes 5 mins!)

By law, anyone who is employed in the UK is currently entitled to 28 days paid holiday a year (5.6 weeks) and pro rata if they work part time (in other words, 5.6 days holiday a year for every 1 day worked). So if a nanny works 3 days a week, she is entitled to 16.8 days holiday a year (the equivalent to just over 5 & a half weeks a year). Also, for your information, those 28 days can include bank holidays (so if a nanny works Mon, Tues Wed, you can include the Monday bank holidays in her holiday entitlement.

I run Simply Childcare and it does seem that a lot of parents and nannies are not aware of the legal holiday entitlement. If you go on the www.direct.gov.uk website and go through to the Employment and holiday entitlement pages, it is all laid out there.

As some other people have already mentioned, if a parent finds they do not need the nanny sometimes (whether it is because the parents have taken extra holiday or are just having a day off) then the nanny still needs to be paid if that is what she was contracted to do. It is tough but parents cannot arbitarily change the nannies income when it suits them.

However, if a parent has gone on holiday and the nanny hasn't and is being paid for that time, then asking the nanny to do child related work is absolutely fine - after all in working hours, the nanny is on duty. So while you are away she can do things like sorting out toy boxes and clothes, perhaps rearranging the child's bedroom, batch cooking children's meals for the freezer etc etc. Just because the family is not there does not mean the nanny should expect not to be used. So a parent is fully entitled to expect her to work and the nanny should not expect to get free extra holiday.
As for asking a nanny whether she would do some free babysitting to make up for any time she has been paid but not worked - just ask, she might say no but she might say yes - in a good working relationship, a nanny and parent will hopefully meet each other half way.