Making Nanny Redundant?

[Holly29]

Need help! Have posted today in 'Nannies' threads about my nanny and the consensus has been that one option would be to make her redundant while I am on maternity leave.

I need to know:

(1) where to go for advice and whether I need a lawyer

(2) can I make her redundant genuinely if in fact I know that in a few months I will recruit a new nanny?

(3) what sort of redundancy package do i need to put in place (she's been with us dead on 2 years)?

(4) anything else I need to do?

thank you in advance. Happy to be pointed to another thread if this has all been done before.

What do you have in your contract with her ? There must be some provision for terminating her contract, as it's not going to be exactly uncommon to cease to need a nanny as you end work/children go to school etc

You shouldn't need a lawyer, people on here and the Business Link website can help you.

It doesn't matter if you might need a nanny in the future, although if you definitely will there might be an argument that you should offer this too her (not strictly under the legislation, but I can see an argument for fairness). You are therefore better off deciding for the moment that you : "will definitely need childcare in six months, but haven't decided yet what format it will take. It may well be a nanny, but could be a childminder and could be part time hours." Keeping your options open in your own mind will help you do the redundancy fairly!

Redundancy package for two years will depend on her age, but assuming 20s or 30s, will be 2 x £380 (tax free) plus letting her work or be paid out her notice period, and paying out any holiday balance.

In terms of process, what you would do is sit her down and tell her your thoughts and what you were proposing, then give her a short letter inviting her to a meeting in a couple of days to discuss it in detail. We can help you with this when you're ready. The important thing with redundancies is that you have proposals not final decisions until you've had a couple of meetings/discussions with the nanny.

to her, not "too her", obviously...

What Ribena said. Doesn't matter if you know (think) you will need a nanny later on. You might end up taking a year mat leave, you might decide not to go back, you might decide to go back part time, you might take a career break, you might prefer a nursery or childminder next time. There are so many variables when it comes to maternity leave and so many people (think they) know exactly what will happen and then change their mind that it's perfectly fine for you to make her redundant now. You could also mention the cost issue, not only is she not really needed now anyway, and you don't know at this point if/when she might be needed down the line or on what basis, you can't justify the cost of employing her while you are not earning.

There are lots of reasons so don't worry about the justification. As long as you follow a reasonable procedure like Ribena described and pay her what she is entitled to, you don't need a lawyer and you don't need to worry.

Oh, just realised I was a bit unclear on the redundancy pay. It's max £380 x 2 if she's in her 20s or 30s with two full years of service. If she actually earns less than £380 per week gross, it's two weeks' pay.

You are such STARS! OK, so the first step will be to actually make the decision that I want to make her redundant. Then it's sit down and tell her my thoughts (whilst making clear that they are proposals at the moment). Then propose a meeting. Then come back and ask you for some more advice. You are so fabulous, thank you!

Sit down and make the decision that you propose to make her redundant (not want to) ,