Tag: parents

How to poach-proof your nanny relationship

A good nanny is a prize, one that other families may stoop low enough to try to steal from you. Nanny poaching can happen anywhere from the school gate to your own garden gate and it can be anyone including your next door neighbour or anyone close friend.

Some will say that a nanny who allows herself to be poached wasn’t happy in her job anyway. After all when you’re in a content and committed relationship you’re not casting around for a better partner! If you do sweep the room occasionally it’s just eye candy, and while your nanny might periodically flick through job ads it isn’t necessarily a sign of discontent. Poaching is more dangerous. Poaching is the equivalent of someone coming up to you in a bar, buying you a drink or six while whispering sweet nothings in your ear and ultimately enticing you to come home with them.

You can’t stop someone coming up to your nanny and buying them that drink, but you can make sure their sweet nothings fall on deaf ears and here’s how…

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Spotlight on Holidays

As employees nannies are entitled to paid holiday and the amount is specified in the contract. It can be expressed as weeks, days or hours depending on the nanny’s employment pattern – see here for more.

Previously the norm was to give 4 weeks plus Bank Holidays, but recently the trend has been to state 5.6 weeks (28 days) including Bank Holidays, which usually works out to the same amount but fairer to part-time workers who may not be actively working on Bank Holidays but are still entitled to the same proportion of holiday as full-time employees. Holiday in a nanny share can be complicated to arrange but it’s important that the nanny gets their full holiday entitlement so both families must communicate clearly.

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Food allergens and nannies

As of December last year businesses providing food, which includes childcare providers, have to give information about the allergens in the food they provide. This applies not only to home-made food but also pre-prepared food bought and served when out and about. In practice children are unable to make their own decisions about avoiding allergens so it’s important to communicate with parents about foods to avoid, what you will be serving, and when their children have consumed allergens.

The legislation applies to 14 allergens:

  • Celery (this includes celeriac)
  • Cereals which contain gluten such as wheat, rye and barley
  • Crustaceans (eg crab, lobster and prawns)
  • Eggs
  • Fish
  • Lupin beans/seeds
  • Milk
  • Molluscs (shellfish, snails, squid etc)
  • Mustard
  • Nuts eg almonds, Brazil nuts, cashew, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, pecan nuts or pistachio
  • Peanuts
  • Sesame
  • Soybeans
  • Sulphur dioxide/sulphites (a type of preservative) above 10mg/kilo or litre.

Nannies tend to cook food that parents provide, so the parents should be aware of which allergens are available for consumption. It’s worth noting down in a communication diary what allergens were contained in the food consumed that day. Similarly if eating out inform the parents what allergens were present in writing, so make a habit of noting down food information when out and about.

 

NB Self-employed nannies, as a business, do have a responsibility to provide this information, like nurseries and childminders.

Sickness etiquette

It’s a fact of life that people get ill, and those in contact with small children more often than most. One of the advantages of a nanny is that they will care for poorly children, but an oft cited disadvantage is that you rely on one person for your childcare, as you do with a childminder, and if they are sick you have no childcare. The sooner everyone knows about any sickness, the easier it is to deal with the disruption.

Tips for parents:

Sick children: As we said a nanny will normally care for sick children as part of their job, but it’s always good to give your nanny a heads up before they arrive. If your nanny is female and your children have an illness which could be dangerous in pregnancy you should warn your nanny in case they are in the early stages and haven’t told you.

Sick parents: There’s no reason your nanny shouldn’t come to work but they might need to adjust their plans slightly to give you the peace and quiet you need to recuperate.

Sick nannies: Before employing a nanny it’s a good idea to have a backup plan in place. Local nanny agencies should have temporary nannies available to work in your area or your employer may offer emergency childcare solutions. Most nannies will only take time off when they’re absolutely incapable of coming to work so even if it’s a day when you have a really important meeting try not to make them feel worse than they already do.

Tips for nannies:

Sick children: Your charges may want Mummy or Daddy, and many more cuddles than usual. Make sure your employers understand that your priority is your poorly charge and the usual jobs might not get done.

Sick parents: It can be hard having parents at home, especially when the children don’t understand that they need to rest. Don’t feel too awkward though – chances are they’re too busy feeling rubbish to listen to your out of tune renditions of head, shoulders, knees and toes at nappy change time.

Sick nannies: Call, rather than text, if you know the night before that you won’t be in the next day. Send a text between 10pm and 6am and follow it up with a phone call to make sure your employers know you won’t be in. If you can suggest any nanny friends who might be happy to cover all or part of the day, and it’s a good idea to have a list in the nanny diary at your boss’s house, then your employers will probably be very grateful.

Nasty payroll surprises and how to avoid them

It’s the time of year when parents are doing their first payroll run with a new nanny and if your initial sums were out it can be an unpleasant experience discovering that you’ve got a higher bill than you thought you had.

Problem #1 Nanny has another job

Even if it’s a Saturday job, if she had that job first she’ll be on a BR tax code with you, which means no tax free allowance and all earnings taxed at 20%. It used to be possible to split tax codes but HMRC are very reluctant to do that since real time information (RTI) was introduced. If you agreed a net salary then you are liable for all the tax and National Insurance contributions, which can be a lot more than you bargained for.

Problem #2 Nanny has a student loan

Student loan repayments kick in above £325/week (£1,409/month or £16,910/year) gross.  9% of the amount above this salary needs to be paid to the Student Loans Company on the nanny’s behalf, and you’re also liable for this if you agreed a net salary, which if a nanny is earning £2,250 a month is an extra £75. Nannies with degrees are becoming increasingly common, and most of those who have studied in the UK will have taken out a student loan. An even nastier surprise is where you think you’ve employed a nanny and are paying under the repayment threshold but overtime has pushed them over.

Problem #3 Nanny has a special code      

HMRC allocate codes based on an individual’s situation. Most people with one job will have a standard tax code (for 2014 this is 1000L), however if a nanny has to pay back tax which was underpaid in previous years or receives benefits in kind they may have a special tax code which reduces their personal allowance (for example 700L which means they have a personal tax allowance of only £7,000 for the year), increasing your tax liability if you have agreed upon a net salary.

The simplest way to avoid any nasty surprises your end is to agree a gross salary in the contract. That way you know what your costs are, and you deduct the amount of tax (and anything else) your nanny is required to pay rather than adding to your bill.

Pitching a nanny salary

Pitching a nanny salary can be difficult. No two nanny jobs are the same, ever family has different requirements and expectations, and even jobs with many variables in common might be advertised with very different salaries. There are four main things which affect a salary: location, the nanny’s profile, the demands of the job and perks.

To get an idea of salaries in you local area look at jobs which are being advertised. The nannyjob.co.uk search feature will enable you to do this and includes jobs through agencies which can offer a good guide to what nannies are really looking for and what nanny agents feel is a reasonable salary for the nannies they place.

Just as every job is different every nanny is different. There are all kinds of nannies from those with no qualifications to those with relevant postgraduate degrees, those with no experience of nannying or even any childcare to those with many decades. Take into account the kind of nanny you want. Experience and qualifications come with a price tag, and an experienced nanny who feels undervalued won’t hesitate to look around for a better deal. Equally an inexperienced or unqualified nanny might be cheaper but will need more guidance and management from you and the time you need to invest may outweigh the additional cost of a more experienced nanny.

Think objectively about the demands of the job. Do you need to sweeten the deal? Long hours or a very heavy workload may need a higher salary to attract candidates. Travel might seem an attractive prospect but in reality it’s very disruptive for a live out nanny as they are still paying rent and bills. Even a live in nanny may have a gym membership she can’t use or have to cancel meeting up with friends. Although a nanny is paid on a per family basis, a job with 6 children will be less attractive than a job with 2 so you may need to offer more money to make it worth their while.

A nanny share represents increased work for the nanny, not necessarily because of the extra child (although dealing with children close in age can be more challenging than a sibling group) but because they then have 2 sets of parents to communicate with and please. Scheduling holiday becomes more complicated and there’s a risk that they may lose their job if the share falls apart. To reflect all this nanny share salaries are usually around 25% higher (gross) than a single family – still a cost saver for you!

Part time jobs tend to get more per hour gross – a nanny with multiple employers may end up being on a BR tax code since real-time reporting was introduced (which is why you should never agree net) so to keep their take home pay in line consider paying a little more. It’s also harder for a before and after school nanny to get a job during school hours, or an afternoon nanny to fill their mornings, so again consider paying a little more than a full time position would per hour so they can survive.

Job longevity is a definite perk. If your job is a relatively temporary one or your children are close to school age again you might need to offer a little more to compensate for the lack of stability, unless you can guarantee the job with the same pay but reduced hours in the future.

One of the most common perks is allowing a nanny to bring their own child(ren) to work with them. There are lots of different opinions on pitching a salary for a nanny with own child (NWOC). Some will say you’re paying for the experience and competence of the nanny and that stays the same even if she brings her child along. Others saying a 20-30% reduction is pay is appropriate because your children are no longer getting undivided attention, you cannot enter into a share to reduce your costs, you have increased wear and tear on your house and your nanny may be less flexible with hours. Remember you cannot pay less than minimum wage!

Finally the most important thing is what you can afford. There’s no point advertising £15/hour if you can’t afford it. It’s best to advertise a narrow range and keep some in reserve. We suggest aiming to keep round £1/hour to negotiate with comfortably. Although it may not feel a lot on an hourly basis you don’t need to go up in increments of £1/hour when negotiating – for most nanny jobs that’s £50/week, or £2.5k/year, so you can add £10 to the weekly pay even if it only works out to 20p/hour. This will allow you to offer an exceptional candidate that little bit extra at interview, or plan a pay rise in the future.

Surviving emergency childcare

It happens to everyone at some point. Sick child, sick childminder or nanny, unexpected business trip, one child in hospital and siblings not allowed in or your carefully prepared backup plan for nursery closure has fallen through. You need emergency childcare. Apart from the logistics of sourcing a temporary nanny, emergency childminder or last minute nursery place there are a few things to consider. You want to make the handover as smooth and stressfree as possible for you, your temporary childcare and above all your child.

 

It happens to everyone at some point. Sick child, sick childminder or nanny, unexpected business trip, one child in hospital and siblings not allowed in or your carefully prepared backup plan for nursery closure has fallen through. You need emergency childcare. Apart from the logistics of sourcing a temporary nanny, emergency childminder or last minute nursery place there are a few things to consider. You want to make the handover as smooth and stress-free as possible for you, your temporary childcare and above all your child

 

There are many ways to find emergency childcare, via an agency or searching for temporary nannies with availability. It’s best to maximise your chances by following as many leads as possible. Once you’ve found someone don’t be tempted to skip steps – ask for at least 2 references and either request scans of their checks and qualifications or get them to bring them along so you can see for yourself before they start work.

Prepare your child as much as possible for the change to his routine by talking about the new childcare and highlighting the advantages and similarities. Reassure them that this isn’t a permanent change to their routine and they will be able to return to normal afterwards. A special comforter, blanket or cuddly toy, even if usually reserved for bedtimes, may help your child deal with the transition.

Leave a much detail as possible for your new nanny or childminder concerning your child’s routine and favourite foods and activities and, if you have chosen an emergency nanny, your house.An experienced temporary nanny will be used to parachuting in and getting on with it but it’s better to have too much detail than none at all. After all if everything is going well they may not need to refer to your speedily put together manual but should they need to know something it will make their life, and yours, a lot easier if they can just scan through to find what they need to know.

Where possible ensure sufficient time for a handover but don’t drag it out for too long. It’s hard leaving your child with someone she and you don’t know but it can be very confusing if you’ve explained that the emergency nanny or childminder is going to look after her and then you don’t leave. Tell the emergency childcarer to call you if there are any problems or your child doesn’t settle, and leave as many numbers as possible for you and your partner so you can be reached easily.

Discuss payment beforehand. There’s nothing worse than turning up at the end of the day with an empty purse to find that they are expecting cash. There’s nothing illegal about paying in cash, in fact many childcarers who take short-notice, short-term jobs prefer it as it means they know they’ve been paid. Be aware that paying in cash doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t have to deduct tax and National Insurance or a temporary nanny; some are self-employed but if they’re there for more than a few days they may be expecting you to act as their employer. If you already employ a nanny and use a payroll agency then they should be able to help you.

Prepare for emergencies by leaving a letter of consent for medical treatment. It would be exceptionally bad luck to face a trip to A&E on top of your childcare crisis but these things can happen and it’s safer to be prepared.

Finally, give yourself permission to make the day as easy as possible. The housework can wait, dinner can be the freezer’s finest or a takeaway, take a taxi – surviving emergency childcare is tough enough without extra work.

Hopefully you and your child will come through smiling, and even asking for your temporary nanny to come back!

 

Employed or self-employed?

This is a question which comes up a lot and there isn’t really a short answer. Employment status depends on each individual job. Being self-employed for one activity doesn’t mean that a nanny is self-employed for all jobs. Some nannies may find that they are employed part of the week by a family that they work for regularly and self-employed part of the week working with lots of different families. We’re going to look at some of the indicators of employment status that HMRC use to assess status and the pros and cons of being self-employed for nannies and parents.

  • Do they have to do the work themselves?
  • Can someone tell them at any time what to do, where to carry out the work or when and how to do it?
  • Can they work a set amount of hours?
  • Can someone move them from task to task?
  • Are they paid by the hour, week, or month?
  • Can they get overtime pay or bonus payment?

Nannies are usually:

–  required to look after the children personally

– required to follow the reasonable instructions of their employer, in a place determined by their employer and at a time chosen by their employer

–  contracted for a set amount of hours per day or per week

– able to have their job description changed by their employer

– paid hourly, weekly or monthly

–  paid extra for overtime and may receive a bonus

 

 

  • Can they hire someone to do the work or engage helpers at their own expense?
  • Do they risk their own money?
  • Do they provide the main items of equipment they need to do their job, not just the small tools that many employees provide for themselves?
  • Do they agree to do a job for a fixed price regardless of how long the job may take?
  • Can they decide what work to do, how and when to do the work and where to provide the services?
  • Do they regularly work for a number of different people?
  • Do they have to correct unsatisfactory work in their own time and at their own expense?

Nannies are not usually:

–  able to hire an assistant, unlike childminders

– required to risk their own money

– expected to provide the major pieces of equipment, such as a pushchair

– paid fixed price regardless of length, they are paid hourly, weekly or monthly and have fixed working hours

– able to decide the manner, timing and location of the work, the parents usually decide the hours required

– required to correct unsatisfactory work or finish tasks on their own time, they are typically paid overtime

The only criteria for self-employment a nanny may meet is working reguarly for a number of people.

 

So it’s clear that the majority of nannies working regularly with a family in a permanent position are employed. Even if a nanny works for 5 different families, each on a fixed day each week they are still likely to be employed by each of those families as employment is determined on a job by job basis.

 

Temporary nannies and specialists such as maternity nurses or behaviour consultants may meet certain additional critera. They may have risked their own money to undertake necessary specialsit training without a guarantee that they will be successful in finding work. They may decide the hours and days that they are available. They may agree to work for a fixed fee for an unspecified length of time.

 

Although self-employment can seem an attractive prospect it’s important to fully understand the implications for nannies and parents.

 

Pros for nannies:

You are in control of the times and days you work, so you can dictate when you will take time off and arrange to care for other children at the same time.

Some of your business expenses such as training and insurance can be offset against tax.

 

Cons for nannies:

You do not get sick, maternity or holiday pay.

You are not paid mileage.

You need to carry out a self-assessment each year for tax purposes, which means keeping accurate records.

You need to invoice parents for the work carried out.

You do not have a secure income.

 

Pros for parents:

You pay-as-you-go and are not liable for holiday, sick or maternity pay.

You don’t pay mileage – a self-employed person charges an all-inclusive rate which covers their expenses.

 

Cons for parents:

The overall cost is likely to exceed the gross wage agreed with an employee, as self-employed nannies need to put money on the side to pay their tax and national insurance and to cover periods without work.

If HMRC decide you should have been employing your nanny you will need to backpay the tax and National Insurance plus a fine which can be equal to that amount.

Your nanny can decide they are not available to work, leaving you without childcare.

Your nanny can make arrangements to substitute someone else in her place.

Your nanny is not obliged to provide exclusive care for your children as long as she does not exceed two families at any one time.

You don’t have the same level of control over your children’s day.

 

 

First Aid for childcarers

One of the most common requirements for childcarers is a valid paediatric first aid certificate. All registered child minders have to hold this, as well as OFSTED registered nannies. Nurseries only have to have one member of staff trained but it’s good practice for most, if not all, staff to have done a course.

Accidents can happen at any time and frighteningly quickly. One of the biggest risks for small children is choking. The leading First Aid organizations in the UK have just published new guidance for managing choking in a baby. Instead of lying the baby along your arm and giving back slaps to dislodge the blockage they now recommend putting the child face down across your lap to administer back slaps. Changes like this are part of the reason a First Aid certificate should always be within date and fully renewed every 3 years.

It’s important to make sure the certificate specifically covers paediatric first aid as some treatment is different for children that won’t have been covered on an adult course.

Thorough First Aid training means a childcarer should feel confident about handling an incident and this will help them stay calm and remember what to do. A course should also involve hands on practice to ensure the techniques are correctly understood. No amount of reading can replace this practical component.

We urge parents to ensure their nannies and babysitters are trained in First Aid and support this petition to make it a legal requirement for all nursery worker to hold a First Aid certificate too. Please take a moment to read and sign.

First Aid courses are available through organisations such as the Red Cross and St John’s Ambulance, private providers and many nanny agencies.

Emergency planning

If you’re in the UK right now you won’t have been able to escape the weather forescats and the news reports of severe flooding, high winds and power outages, but how many nannies have an emergency plan agreed with the parents in case of disaster?

 

Imagine this:
Your workplace is on a flood plain and you start to notice water coming up through the drains. The river has flooded nearby fields and the road outside has started to flood. You start to worry that if you stay put you won’t be able to get your car out and will be trapped by the water. What do you do?

Or maybe you’ve been out for the day and as you return to your bosses’s house you find that the road is so flooded you can’t get by. Where do you go?

Obviously remaining in your charge’s home, where you employers expect you to be isn’t an option in either of those scenarios, but in the thick of an emergency situation it may be difficult to keep parents informed every step of the way. This is why a pre-agreed emergency plan that both nanny and parents are aware of is so important. Even if you don’t live on a flood plain you never know what might happen!

 

1. Agree a safe place, or two safe places in case one is also affected
If parents return home to find you gone and can’t get in touch with you they will know where to look. This might be your own home, your charge’s grandparents or a nanny friend’s. The idea is that you have somewhere to go away from the disaster, so the next street over probably won’t cut it. Make sure you know several alternative routes to get there too, and take natural obstacles like rivers into account.
 

2. Make a list of what to take with you

When you evacuate a house you need to assume that you won’t be back for a while. Some things, like a change of clothes and any special cuddly toys, you’ll take automatically, but your employer might want you to also take important documents with you too. Ask them if they have a file they would like you to grab on the way out, and if they don’t suggest they put one together.

 

3. Know how to secure the house before you leave

Obviously you and your charges are a priority but knowing how to switch the gas/electricity/water off (especially if it’s a gas leak or a plumbing disaster) could save time later.

 

4. Set an emergency contact

If you can’t check in with your employers for some reason, or they can’t reach you, designate a third party contact. That way if you have to leave your charge’s house and go to your agreed safe place you can leave a message with your employers and another person.

 

5. Have a waterproof emergency kit

Nannies nowadays usually have contact numbers on their mobile phone, and that’s fine until the network gets overloaded or your phone slips out of your pocket into the rising floodwaters. First item in your waterproof kit is laminated contact details for the parents and emergency contact. You should also laminate all your emergency information: your safe place, your ‘to-take’ list and instructions on how to secure the house. You should also have food and water, including baby milk if necessary (you can buy pre-sterilised, pre-made bottles), a first aid kit, and a torch and batteries.

 

It might seem extreme, and we hope you’ll never need to use it, but when it comes to you and your charge’s safety better safe than sorry!