Childcare for different ages - help!

[KJ20181]

Hi,

I am looking for some help/advice about childcare and interested to hear what others in a similar situation do/think...

To give a quick overview, we have a 4 year old, 19 month old and a 6 month old. My husband and I run our own business and I am looking to go back to work full time. We both earn under £100k.

Our 4 year old uses funded hours to attend pre-school from 9-12, 5 days a week. She is an incredibly sociable and intelligent little girl and this suits her perfectly. Our 19 month old boy currently attends a church play group which I take him to once a week and our 6 month old is always with me. We have a nanny 2 days per week while I work and she follows this routine.

So, in short, we have a nanny 2 days per week and our little girl attends pre-school 5 mornings a week. The cost of our nanny is around £14k per year for the 2 days.

I am desperate to go back to work full time and wanted to know what others had done/would do in this situation as all of the children are at such different ages for childcare needs. We really cannot afford to pay the nanny any more money!

Would really appreciate any replies! (positive only please, I'm not interested in what anyone thinks about me wanting to return to work full time with three small children!

Full time private nursery.

If you cannot afford to pay the nanny, how can you pay for any other childcare. A nanny is usually the most cost effective for 2/3 children.

Full time nursery for two pre-schoolers plus a 4 year old will be costly. The 4yr old will get 15 hours term time funding and you may qualify for the additional 15 hours funding.
However the total cost may not be much different to a nanny at your home 5 days per week. Even if nursery is less, what happens when 4 year old starts school?

Childminder - do any have spaces to take all three children?

Nanny full time is the other option. You can use Tax-Free Childcare to help towards the cost of a nanny including towards the cost of employers NI (BAPN worked hard to get Government to agree to that). So look into Tax-Free Childcare if you do not already use that, as it can be used to pay towards nursery, childminder or nanny.

Thanks for your comments. We are looking into the tax free childcare option so hopefully this will allow us to up her hours without having a huge impact on us financially. We really don't want to lose our nanny, she is brilliant and the children adore her. I think a combination of tax-free childcare and funded hours is probably our best option! Appreciate your time and replies!