advice about taking on an assistant

[littleraspberry]

I am trying very hard to take on some more children, and struggling to get my head around the numbers. I currently have my 2 year old son, plus one 2.5 year old on a Tuesday and Wednesday and one 2 year old on a Thursday. Luckily the parents of these two are able to move their days to Monday and Friday so that I can fit in another family. This is a 15 month old to start next month, and an 9 week old to start around September/October when she will be about 9 months.
This all seems fine, except one of my parents has just said that she would like me to have her little one for the 15 hours funded time (I am accredited) as of next January. Around that time she also might want me to have their new baby (not born yet, but will be 9 months by then). This is all very up in the air as she is in fact hoping not to go back to work, and so won't need childcare, and they don't live in the same town as me so their older child will eventually go to a primary school I can't get to. I was expecting her to go to a playgroup in their town, in fact, and would not be entirely surprised if they changed their minds.
If they don't change their minds, though, I'm looking at needing a variation for four children for two days: a three year old, 2 two and a half year olds and a nine month old on one day; and a three year old, a two and a half year old, a two year old and a nearly one year old on another day.
On top of this, we have been trying for our second child for a while now, and I need to consider what effect dropping another baby into the mix will have. Its all very mixed up.

So I'm trying to work out what my options are, clearly for at least a few months in the future, no rush yet!
I was considering taking on an assistant, but got a bit scared about having to sort out tax and NI, etc. However, now I've read here that an assistant can be self-employed? How does that work?
If I were to take on an assistant, would my numbers go up automatically for the time s/he is working with me, or do I need to apply to Ofsted for that as well?
And is it even worth it, or should I just give up and turn down the new family in the hope something easier to organise comes along. I don't really want to do that though.

[rickysmiths]

I was told when I inquired that you had to employ an Assistant but others on here do have self employed ones.


Yes you do have to Register them with Ofsted and the process can take several months while they check references and do a CRB.

If you want to leave them with the children they need to do a First Aid course.

No it is not automatic that Ofsted will increase your numbers when working with an assistant.

Several things to consider generally:

What will you do if assistant is off sick or on holiday?

How many children extra do you need just to cover the assistants pay and possibly tax, NI, Holiday Pay, Sick Pay and the cost of an accountant to do your payroll for you? and before it is worthwhile because you make more money which surely is the only reason to take on an assistant and all that means.

You should be able to get a variation for 4 under 5s if they are siblings or current parents changing days etc.