Childminder and nanny hourly rates

Childcare rates per hour, and what a nanny really costs

The hourly rate a nanny quotes is gross salary. As their employer you also pay employer's National Insurance and a workplace pension, and you run their payroll.

Billy the Kip explains

Hiring a nanny makes you an employer. The hourly rate is only the start.

Where you liveNanny's gross hourly rateHours a week

Gross salary, 52 paid weeks: £52,978
Employer's National Insurance, 15% above £96 a week: +£7,198
Pension, 3% of qualifying earnings: +£1,321
Cost to you per year: £61,496

Average childcare rates per hour

Region	Nursery, under 2	Childminder, under 2	After-school club	Nanny (gross)
Inner London	£9.52	£9.06	£4.54	£21.63
Outer London	£8.68	£7.96	£4.84	£22.64
South East	£8.08	£5.96	£5.60	£17.56
East of England	£7.67	£6.24	£4.94	£17.56
South West	£7.23	£6.99	£4.32	£17.56
West Midlands	£6.99	£5.74	£5.01	£17.56
East Midlands	£6.61	£5.57	£4.74	£17.56
North West	£7.12	£5.50	£3.64	£17.56
Yorkshire and the Humber	£6.25	£5.02	£4.01	£17.56
North East	£6.65	£4.91	£4.64	£17.56
Scotland	£5.32	£5.83	£4.74	£16.52
Wales	£6.53	£5.48	£4.95	£17.56

Nursery and childminder: Coram's 25-hour weekly price divided by 25. After-school: Coram's weekly price divided by 15 hours (3 hours a day, our assumption). Nanny: Nannytax 2026 average gross rate for a live-out nanny (Inner London, Outer London and Home Counties, Scotland, rest of UK).

Employing a nanny

A nanny working in your home is your employee, not self-employed. You pay employer's National Insurance at 15% on earnings above £96 a week, and you must enrol them in a workplace pension and pay at least 3% of their earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 a year. Households employing a nanny can't claim the Employment Allowance, so the National Insurance is payable in full.

Many families use a nanny payroll service. A nanny share, where two families split one nanny, cuts the cost per family. If your nanny is registered (with Ofsted's voluntary register in England), you can pay them through Tax-Free Childcare.

Babysitting and home childcare rates

Occasional babysitters are usually informal and not registered, so there's no official average and Tax-Free Childcare can't pay them. For regular care in your home, the nanny rates above are the closest reliable guide.

Sources

Checked October 2026. Every figure on this page comes from these sources.

This site gives estimates. For a final answer on what you can get, use the GOV.UK childcare calculator.