au pair - when & where to find

[clare21]

We're going to get an au pair when our long standing nanny leaves at the end of march. Any tips on when to start looking, and where? Think we are going for an au pair + ie who'll do extra hours for extra pay etc. Live in London.

We used aupair-world.net and I would start looking now for a march start date. You tend to get lots of contacts from APW but you can weed them down quite easily. Try to keep at least a couple of good applicants in hand until you have checked references and they have a flight booked as the au pairs are always talking to more than one family at a time.

also greataupair.com,
and then gumtree.com and nannyjob.co.uk - good for aps who are in uk already and can be interviewed in person.

we have found au pair world the best but it may depend where you are etc? We used almondbury once.. never again... very expensive and they dont actually do anything! and we also found they had alot of uk applicants and in our experience uk au pairs dont get the idea that they are not 'staff' 'friends' but part of your family. where as the other european girls we have had have been great and see us as a host family and enjoy being here more as a result! i allow at least 3 months to find a new au pair if i can.
great au pair has been ok but alot of american girls who want to earn alot of money!

abacus au pair agency is simply the best have used her 4 years in a row and have never had any complaints. My friend has recently recruited from there.