Advice from nursery supply staff please

[NurseryRecruit]

I’m about to set up a new business, recruiting nursery nurses. Most of these will be ‘bank/supply staff’, i.e. they’ll work temporarily across a number of different nurseries. I’m getting really conflicting advice from a number of sources (including my solicitor) about how they should be paid.

Option 1 - they are responsible for their own tax and I pay them when they invoice me.
Option 2 - they are on my payroll (PAYE) and I’m responsible for their tax, sick pay and pension, etc.

Obviously option 1 appeals to me the most (option 2 will increase my costs by about 50%) but I’d be really grateful if people who know more about this than me can share their experiences. If you’ve worked as nursery supply staff, how have you been paid?

I know this post might make me sound very inexperienced - I’m really not It’s just that I’m keen to be as fair as employer as possible. My original goal was to pay at least 10-20% more than the going rate per hour because I truly want childcare workers to be paid fairly for the work and experience they have but I can’t do this with option 2 - the overheads are just too much.

Thanks.

Option 2, IME
That is what the Nurseries pay the 'extra' rate to agencies for - for someone else to sort out all the paperwork / admin.

Has to be option 2 really. You'll be the employer, they can't send a substitute or set their own rates or hours of work.

Option 2.
Whenever I have done temp work the nursery temp agency was my employer and provided a payslip showing tax deductions.
I had a zero hour contract, so I could accept or turn down work as and when I liked and as and when work was available.

You may not want to hear this .. but as a parent using nursery I wouldn't choose one where staff move around. Staff turnover is hard enough to deal with but your customers will want consistency, and the same faces
So do the children.

A decade or so ago I got paid £8 and the nursery paid the agency around £12, of that helps you with costs. I expect those costs are more now, especially with the pension situation.

Thanks all. Appreciate the replies.

I'm also a parent who uses a nursery. Sometimes they have no choice but to use temp workers due to holidays, sickness and leave if their own permanent staff. This business helps when this situation or similar arises. Just like when a teacher is ill, supply staff come and fill the gap.

fabulous01 - If staff go off sick / bereavement / accident / leave though, which you can't plan for, like you can with Annual Leave, Nurseries can't be under ratio - they need to bring in cover staff at times. What would you prefer, them to ask parents not to bring the dc in that day as they can't meet ratios ?

My DDs nursery (I have a friend who works for them) has a "bank" of 5 or so staff that cover holidays/sickness etc. Sometimes they have weeks where the work fulltime and then weeks where they get nothing. They're on the Nurseries books as an employee but only get paid for the hours they do.

Have you done much market research into this? DH works for a nursery chain and they are moving away from using agency staff and employing their own bank of cover staff who know all companies policies and procedures. His previous employer, another chain, was the same.

I would imagine most nurseries would have their own set of 'bank' staff which they would use if people were off sick/on leave or on courses. I know most of the nurseries around where I am have this system in place. The larger chain have a pool of bank staff which are shared among their local nurseries. Smaller settings seem to have clubbed together to have several people on their books who they share and use as and when needed.

To answer your question though it is option 2. I would however really consider before setting up if business is viable.

That is the case for a lot of places to cover 'expected absence' (courses, AL, etc), but sods law dictates that you will have 2 staff call in sick at the same time as the 'bank staff' are already in, covering for an 'expected' absence.

Thanks again. Lots to think about....