What does “live-in nanny” mean?
A live-in nanny is an employee whose accommodation is connected to the job. The family provides the agreed living accommodation, and the nanny works the hours stated in the employment arrangement. The nanny is not automatically on duty whenever they are in the home.
The role can be full-time or, less commonly, structured around another agreed schedule. If the household also expects substantial cleaning, laundry or wider home management, a nanny-housekeeper may be a clearer job description.
When can a live-in nanny arrangement work well?
Families often consider live-in support when they want a stable weekly childcare routine and have suitable accommodation available. It can also reduce the practical uncertainty of a daily commute, especially when the working day starts early or finishes later.
The arrangement only works well when the private-living and working boundaries are clear. The family should decide in advance how evenings, weekends, travel, babysitting, overnight duties and schedule changes will be handled rather than assuming that living in the home creates automatic availability.
What should be agreed before you recruit?
- Normal days and hours: the regular working schedule and how overtime or extra babysitting is requested.
- Childcare duties: the children’s ages, routines, meals, school or nursery, activities and any age-specific responsibilities.
- Household duties: whether tasks are limited to children-related areas or whether the job is genuinely a nanny-housekeeper role.
- Accommodation: the room or suite provided, bathroom access, storage, meals or kitchen use, Wi-Fi and household arrangements that affect private time.
- Travel: whether the nanny is expected to travel with the family and how those periods are paid and organised.
- Driving: whether driving is essential and what vehicle or insurance arrangements apply.
- Pay: agree gross pay, not just a net take-home figure, because household-employer payroll obligations are separate.
Use our job description template before the interview so candidates are comparing the same role.
Live-in does not mean 24/7 working
Living at the workplace and working at the workplace are not the same thing. The employment terms should say when the nanny is working and when they are off duty. If the role includes regular overnight duties or sleep-in requirements, those arrangements need to be described and assessed separately.
Working-time rules for domestic workers contain specific provisions and exceptions, so do not rely on a generic “live-in” label to decide hours or rest. The practical rule for a family is simple: write the schedule, rest arrangements and any on-call duties clearly, then check the current official guidance or obtain professional advice if the pattern is unusual.
Accommodation and minimum wage
Accommodation supplied by an employer can affect National Minimum Wage calculations. From April 2026 the statutory accommodation offset is £11.10 per day, or £77.70 per week. The offset is a specific minimum-wage calculation rule; it is not the market rent of the room and it does not mean a family can deduct any accommodation charge it chooses without affecting minimum-wage compliance.
See GOV.UK accommodation offset guidance and our live-in nanny accommodation guide for the practical setup.
What does a live-in nanny cost?
Pay varies with the working hours, children’s ages, level of experience, duties, overnight expectations and the accommodation arrangement. We are not using the older salary figures that previously appeared across the site as a current 2026 market benchmark. Families should discuss the actual role and current candidate expectations before making an offer.
The agency’s current permanent placement fee is separate from the nanny’s salary. See Filipino Nanny Agency fees. For employment payroll, see our nanny PAYE and National Insurance guide.
How we approach a live-in brief
Our current client terms require families to specify the exact nature of the work and the arrangement required. For a live-in role, that means we need more than the label “live-in nanny”. The useful brief includes the working hours, children’s ages, childcare duties, accommodation, travel expectations and any household tasks.
We then compare individual candidates on relevant experience, references, communication, availability and the evidence relevant to the role. Our candidate screening process explains what the agency checks and what the family must still verify as the employer.
Live-in vs live-out: which arrangement is better?
Neither is automatically better. A live-in arrangement can remove the daily commute and may work well for households with suitable accommodation and a consistent schedule. A live-out nanny preserves a clearer physical separation between work and private life and may suit families that do not have appropriate accommodation.
Use our live-in vs live-out nanny comparison to assess the trade-offs, or review our live-out Filipino nanny service.
How to hire a live-in Filipino nanny
- Define the hours, childcare duties and accommodation.
- Send the family brief through the client enquiry form.
- Review candidates against the written role.
- Use structured nanny interview questions.
- Complete references and employer checks.
- Use an agreed paid trial before the offer where appropriate.
- Put the agreed terms into the employment documentation.
For the full sequence, see how to hire a Filipino nanny in London.