General Advice re: Assistants Please!

[Schnakes]

Hello,

I am giving some consideration to "hiring" an assistant. A friend of mine is a registered childminder but has not had any enquiries in nearly a year (mainly due to location, IMO). I am absolutely inundated with parents looking for places at the moment, and have considered asking her to join forces with me so that I can take more children on and she can start earning a living!!! We often do work together anyway, and have the same mindset when it comes to the miding. Im confident that the working relationship would be good.

Can anybody give me a little more info? Firstly - am I right in assuming that because she is registered in her own right she would still be self employed? (Dont want to get involved in paying her taxes etc!!). Also - where can I find guidance on how we go about registering as a partnership? And would the numbers we could take on rise? Since that would be my sole reason for taking her on - Im hoping the answer is yes!!!

Also - what do you do re: paying an assistant?? And what would happen if one of us wanted to take leave?

Lastly!! Mr S suggested tonight that he register as a childminder. (:eek: ). This is because he spends a lot of time with the children and feels that it would help me out immensley if he was legally registered to provide extra care. The children adore him and visa versa (to the point that Im slightly jelous, but thats another story!!!) and it really just makes sense. He works shifts so he doesnt intend to actually BE a childminder - just someone who helps me out. Is there a maximum amount of "assistants" that can work from one address??

Thanks for reading...hope that all made sense!

Sx

[LittleMissSparkles]

sorry but i cant help you with this one, there are a few of the ladies who work along side their husands as assistants who will help you im sure, good luck though didnt want to read and run xxxx

[sarah707]

I work with another childminder - I have lots of space but we opted to keep it to 6 children on the certificate... or you have to apply for planning permission and that's quite a process apparently and your neighbours are contacted to see if they mind the extra cars etc... and I did not want to go down that route as I have the neighbours from hell.

If you employ someone I understand you have to pay their, tax, NI and the minimum wage... If Mr S worked with you, you could pay him what you want and tell him what to do... :laughing: You would have to carefully consider his NI though, as you wouldn't want to lose the entitlements.

The only thing would be, he would need contracts of his own for under 8s or Ofsted cannot inspect him... the childminder I work with currently has 2 children on roll, 1 aged 11 and 1 aged nearly 9, so according to Ofsted, they will not inspect and he is not classed as working yet...!

And it is a matter of all eggs in one basket... that's a big one to consider... even if you take on an assistant, what if you hit a quiet patch and couldn't pay him/her one month? The agreement between you would have to be very carefully worded.

I hope this helps with your decision... I know Pauline works with her hubby as an assistant, you could pm her... :D

[fionamal]

My husband is my assistant as he works from home 3 days per week and when its busy its great to have an extra pair of hands.

As he is still working for his company i dont pay him anything as hes already being paid.

I was told that even though I have him as my assistant for 3 days i cannot take on anymore kids as it goes on the size of the house as well.

[manjay]

My husband is a registered childminder. I don't pay him he just does it out of the goodness of his heart!!! It is really handy as he is around at home alot so when I go on my girlie weekend in a few weeks he can have the children on the Friday without me taking a day off!! We are only registered for the same number of children whether we are working alone or together. Plus we don't have the dreaded OFSTED register to pay for.

amanda xx

[Lincsminder]

My husband is my assistant and again I dont pay him. Then I have a friend who walks home from school with me, this is helpful if I have lots to bring home then my dh gets home from work at 4pm. I dont pay my friend unless she is here for longer or I leave the children with her. She is self employed so just bills me for her time and this works well for us.

[Schnakes]

Thanks for all the advice, ladies...good tip re: the tax, too!

I have decided not to ask my friend to "assist" me....I think it will make my life more complicated than it needs to be - although it would be nice to the have the company I have to admit!!

Definately going to get Mr S registered though. It would mske my life so much easier!

Thanks again,

Sx

[jo hawkins]

Just be careful doing that i did it with a friend, but the she dropped me in it and reported me to Ofsted saying i was always over my numbers. she also took a retainer of a parent then let them down at the last minute.
i would never do it again

Jo

[christine e]

Hi
I know one or two Childminders who are employing assistants and one thing that I don't think they are thinking of in entitlement to redundancy payment in the event of you not wanting to continue the employment and I think this is an area that needs some investigation. With a growing trend of employing assistants I am going to suggest at the next NCMA regional forum that NCMA puts together some guidelines for Childminders employing assistants and their responsibilities to employees. I know this doesn't help you know but I think this is something that does need attention.
Christine

[brillminder]

my recently checked 2 assistants( friends) have been added to help me cover extra numbers for 7 weeks till one goes school & 1 to preschool, doinf it for travel expenses as and when i need fingers crossed it works out for the time i need :) Had to chase ofsted for the authorised person letters & have parents sign to say they can do intimate care and be left for short periods of time :)

[Hannahlg]

i work with my mum as an assistant. All the taxs etx comes out of me and mum joint accout nfor the childminding buissies.

the ways she pays me is that at theend of the month she adds how mych monday we have made that month she puts some away for stuff to buy tips etc. And the gives us half each of what is left etc.

so if we made £2,200 a month we would put £200 in back then get £1000 each