Mothers' Helps

What is a Mother's Help?

A mother's help is not qualified in child care. He/she may have done some child care work either baby-sitting at week-ends and evenings or worked casually in a child care centre/nursery. Mothers' Helps usually want to work with children after leaving school/college/university or wish to take time off from a job and will normally commit to working for a family for a year.

Family Registration for a Mother's Help

Duties

The mother's help duties are to assist the mother/father with the children and generally help around the house, e.g. vacuuming, dusting, preparing meals, light washing, ironing, etc. An older and more experienced mother's help may be asked to take sole charge of the children.

A live-in mother's help will expect to have his/her own room with usually a TV provided. He/she should have 2 days off per week, normally taken at week-ends and have most evenings free apart from 1-2 weekly baby-sitting evenings and such baby-sitting evenings will not be charged for by the mother's help but will be inclusive in his/her weekly salary.

If a mother's help lives out, he/she will normally work a 5 day week from Monday to Friday. A daily mother's help will not expect to do any evening baby-sitting unless this is agreed beforehand and is paid as an extra.

There is no registration fee for clients only a placement fee once the mother's help has accepted a job offer.

Salaries are based on age and experience and you should contact our agency direct for advice on daily and live-in weekly/monthly salary rates.

Delaney International recommend using a skilled payroll service such as 'nannytax', tel no 0845 226 2203 to handle the mother's help PAYE and national insurance.

Terms of employment

It is essential where the placement is permanent (i.e. more than a few months) to have a written statement of the employee's terms of employment which should be signed by you both and dated to avoid any misunderstanding. Suggested terms are as follows:-

Duties - including hours of work and time off.
Holidays - 4 weeks paid annual holiday, Employees usually have public holidays free but if they do have to work over a public holiday, they should be given time off in lieu or paid for the day/s that they have worked.
Sickness provision - how much benefit will you pay and for how long?
Salary - whether this is paid net of tax and National Insurance contributions and on an agreed date each week/month.
Notice of termination - employees are entitled to a minimum of 1 week's notice and usually this is normal on either side within the first 4 weeks of employment although it is fair to give 2 weeks' notice if the employee is from abroad. 3-4 weeks' notice should be given after 4 weeks continuous service. Summary/immediate dismissal is usual in the event of serious misconduct, e.g. theft or drunkenness.
Probationary period - and if so for how long?
Confidentiality - you may wish to state that business and private affairs of the family should be kept confidential.

The above terms should be discussed before the employee starts work and the statement or contract should be signed by you both and dated either on her arrival or beforehand.

Please note that all placements made between Delaney International Ltd and our clients are subject to compliance with our agency's terms of business.

Terms of Business