The licensed nursery assistant is an early childhood professional who provides childcare in her home. Its status is subject to prior approval and training. Parents who entrust their babies to him become his employers: they must respect the legal conditions of remuneration, hiring and dismissal.

Like the nursery or the nanny at home, the approved nursery assistant is one of the childcare options available to parents of young children.

Maternal assistant status

It necessarily has an approval issued by the president of the departmental council after consultation with the maternal and child protection service (PMI) of the department.

Once her approval has been obtained, the childminder must also follow a 120-hour training course: 60 hours must be completed before the reception of the first child, the other 60 hours can be spread over 2 years from the reception of the child. first child. Holders of the childcare auxiliary diploma or early childhood CAP are exempt from training.

The qualification of the nursery assistant as well as the recurring control visits made by the PMI to her home are often a guarantee of confidence for young parents.

The conditions for exercising custody

The licensed nursery assistant can take care of a maximum of 4 children simultaneously.

She exercises either:

• At his own home.
• Within a “Home of Maternal Assistants” (Mam), subject to obtaining a specific approval. Moms are open to a maximum of 4 childminders, for a maximum of 16 children in total.

Maternal assistant, nanny, babysitter: what are the differences?

Before choosing the most suitable solution, it is important to understand the differences between childcare arrangements. In summary :

• The nursery assistant is a professional who welcomes children to her home or to a dedicated structure.
• The nanny does not have any specific professional training. She keeps the child at the parents’ home. In the case of joint custody, the home nanny works with one of the families or alternately at the home of each of them.
• The au pair is a person of foreign nationality who takes care of the children at home within the limit of 30 hours per week.
• The babysitter is an extra care solution. It can also be very useful when the nanny or childminder is temporarily unavailable – in case of illness or while on vacation, for example.

The remuneration is an element to take into account before opting for the type of care for your young child. In general, employing a licensed childminder is a lower cost than employing a home nanny.

Childminders freely set their rates. In any case, their remuneration is made up of several elements:

• The basic salary: € 2,75 gross per hour and per child minimum.
• Maintenance allowance: € 3,01 per day minimum.
• Meal and travel allowances, if applicable.

Parents who do not exceed the applicable resource ceilings can benefit from financial assistance from CAF, within the framework of the PAJE system. The free choice of childcare supplement (Cmg) is an allowance paid each month to reimburse part of the childcare costs incurred by the family. Its amount is calculated according to the parents’ income and the monthly remuneration of the childminder. In any case, at least 15% of the expenses remain at their charge.

To find an approved childminder near her home, several multicriteria search tools are available online (1) (2). Parents can contact several people and carry out a job interview for each of them intended to get to know childminders better, in order to make their choice better.

Once the approved nursery assistant has been chosen, the parents sign their employment contract with her. This is a CDI, drawn up in writing, which mentions in particular:

• The date on which the maternal assistant’s approval was obtained or renewed.
• Childcare hours.
• The amount of remuneration.
• Paid vacation.
• Specific custody conditions, if applicable.

As a rule, the nursery assistant has a model contract. Otherwise, parents can use the CDI model provided by Pajemploi (3).

Throughout the contract, parents must declare the salary of their childminder on a monthly basis. Employers can declare wages directly online on the Pajemploi website (4).

Parents can terminate the employment contract without having to justify the reason for the termination.

• Termination of the CDI during the trial period: the employer and the childminder are free to terminate the employment contract, without any prior obligation.
• Termination of the CDI of a childminder employed for less than a year: parents must respect a notice period of 15 days.
• Termination of the CDI of a childminder employed for more than a year: parents must respect a notice period of 1 month.

Each of the parties to the contract may decide that the notice will not be given.

At the end of the nursery assistant’s contract, the employer parents pay her her legal benefits and give her the end of permanent contract documents – work certificate, employment center certificate and balance of any account.