How to hire a live-in nanny in the UK
Katerina Galkina · EN · 07/10/2026
Читать на русскомA live-in nanny is an employee with accommodation, so the agreement should describe employment and household arrangements separately. A spare room does not create round-the-clock availability. Start with a weekly schedule showing when parents take responsibility themselves.
Separate work from personal time
Record start and finish times, school runs, child-related cooking and cleaning, evening hours, travel and weekends. Agree night waking and on-call arrangements separately: pay and working-time treatment depend on the actual duties and applicable rules.
Provide breaks, rest and holiday. GOV.UK sets out employment rights and working-time responsibilities for household employers. Have a complicated schedule checked by a payroll specialist or Acas before hiring. Employing someone in your home ↗.
Calculate pay correctly
Agree gross pay and the employer's complete cost. Accommodation does not allow you to replace wages arbitrarily with a room's market rent. Minimum-wage calculations use a specific accommodation offset, updated annually. Food and ordinary household benefits do not count in the same way. GOV.UK: accommodation and minimum wage ↗.
Ask a professional to demonstrate the calculation for free accommodation or any charge. Do not apply informal au-pair assumptions to a professional nanny role.
Describe living arrangements
Specify a private room, bathroom and kitchen access, food, internet, visitors, keys and shared areas. Agree mutual privacy and safety without expecting constant monitoring of the employee.
Discuss accommodation during family holidays, illness and what happens to the room when employment ends. Obtain legal advice on disputed housing terms: employment notice does not itself resolve every accommodation consequence.
Complete checks and employment arrangements
Check experience, references, first aid and an appropriate DBS. Voluntary Ofsted registration in England is available to live-in nannies; see the Ofsted guide ↗.
Before work begins, check right to work and arrange the contract, payroll and required insurance. Visitor permission should not be treated as permission to work. Obtain written agreement on the final schedule, pay and living conditions, then review whether actual duties still match the contract.