Twins and childcare

[seventwin]

I have six month old twins and the time has come to start thinking about going back to work. I had presumed I would use a local nursery for them both, but complications in their health at the moment means that we have to prevent them from catching colds etc to the best of our ability so looks like a nursery is out! This will only be for the first couple of years until they get bigger and stronger.

Therefore I'm contemplating a nanny to come to our home for two days a week. Does anyone have any experience of this and know how much it would cost. I know it would depend on the nanny but just some rough guidance. Also, do I have to use an agency or can I hire privately through a website such as childcare.com? I presume that childcare vouchers can go towards them as long as they are ousted registered etc?

I though the bonus of this would be a babysitter who the babies know and we trust.

Any thoughts and comments greatly appreciated. Will post this in childcare threads as well

Thanks.

[ceeveebee]

I have 11 mo twins and returned to work 3 days a week recently. We have a nanny who comes to our house and looks after them from 8am to 6, then she stays until 7pm to help me with bathtime. I found her on Gunter and she worked for me 3 afternoons a week from when they were about 4 months old as I needed an extra pair if hands, and thankfully she was happy to give up her other nannying job to work for me ( although only 3 days it is 33 hours).

She's not a qualified nanny but because she worked with me for a few months wasn't that bothered about that. So I can't use childcare vouchers but you could do for an ofsted registered nanny. I pay £10 ph (London) but for qualified would be more like £12 I think. You have to employ them and pay holiday pay, sick pay and national insurance.

For me it is a much better option than nursery because I don't like the idea of them being out of the house for 10-11 hours a day, also there isn't really a nursery within reasonable walking distance and I commute to work, and actually it's significantly cheaper (nursery places round here are £70-£85 per day per child). Also I get to leave them in their pj's!

[ceeveebee]

Gunter!! Gumtree!!

[toomuchpink]

I live outside of London and pay £9 per hour for a fully qualified, experienced nanny to look after three children. I know other people who pay £8/ £8.50. As ceeveebee says there are other costs because you have to be their employer. We also pay a company to provide payroll for us, but it is not too much.
We did not want to pay agency fees to search for a nanny (some quoted around £500). We advertised on gumtree as other people seemed to do this in our region and got more than 20 applications. It has all worked brilliantly for us so far. The advantage of an agency I imagine is they handle some of the bureaucratic stress at the start. Arranging time to interview people, sorting out a contract, getting criminal records checks and sorting out the childcare voucher payments seemed to take forever on top of looking after three children, but it has been worth it. My oldest went to nursery until we got the nanny, but I have to say there are lots of advantages to having someone looking after them in our home.

[seventwin]

Lots to think about, thank you! I'm definitely edging more towards a nanny, I think there are so many advantages, will have a look on gum tree. Think I better get started though as looking to go back in a couple of months....have contacted work and going to start discussions with them soon. Thanks again :-)