Summer au pair - how does it work?

[GeorgeEliot]

Thinking of getting a male au pair to help out with the ds's (13 and 10) this summer. Especially as the eldest is now too old for the Summer Holiday Club they used to go to, which has a cut off at 12.

I will be working 3 days a week most weeks, sometimes 4. Will I be able to rely on the au pair to look after the ds's all the time I am at work? We live in a rural area, so he will need to drive a bit, or cycle.

Isn't it customary to give time off to attend language courses? Who pays for that?

I guess he will help a bit around the house, but main objective is to have someone who can play with my boys and stop them being glued to the computer the whole time. We have someone in mind, the son of friends of friends, so not going through an agency.

Never done this before so all advice gratefully received!

For a summer job 3 full days a week would be fine I imagine (that makes 30ish hours) but it may be difficult to find a language course over the summer. You're not obliged to pay but some families do or go 50/50.

I suspect you'll be under the limit for tax and NI. I don't know how much you were planning to pay but it's worth bearing in mind if you were thinking of going above £100/week.

You'll need to draw up a contract which hopefully will be signed and put away - it's just to make sure everything is above board - and check your house insurance has employer's liability. Double check that he has unlimited working rights in the UK if you want 3 full days (just to simplify things, there are some nationalities with restrictions where you may find yourself having to fit it below a certain number of hours).

APs need quite a lot of handholding so you might need to draw up lists of activities or devise a weekly programme. It's reasonable to expect them to clear up after themselves and your boys should be helping, of course. Do make an effort to include him in activities outside work hours too.

There are associated costs, notably food and car insurance.

Thanks Fraktal.

What is the going rate for an au pair (we are outside London) and how many hours a week do they normally work?

If he's looking after the dc for 3 days a week, presume he should have the rest of the week off - but I guess he will still be with us as he won't know anyone and will only be here for the summer. I am very keen to make it a positive experience for all - want him to have a good time - but worried about getting him getting bored?

As you will discover on here the term "au pair " is a vague one as the old working hours limit does not apply to EU nationals (I am not sure about non-EU countries or "new EU countries). So you can set the hours you want with pay in accordance with that.

We live in London and currently pay £75 per week for an older au pair. She is meant to work 25 hours per week but actually does less because I get home earlier than expected. We give them a TV and DVD player in their room. We pay for all food and they can use the car for local journeys during the day and for longer trips by arrangement. When we have had younger au pairs we have paid a little bit less.

We offer au pairs the chance to be as much a part of the family as they would like to be. We stress that they can sit with us in the evening and chat and watch TV or they can be in their room or elsewhere in the house just as we would expect an older child to. They are welcome to join us on trips to see family/family outings and we also stress they are welcome to join is when we have friends over. One au pair joined in with us all the time and really became part of the family, while an other spent most of her free time out/ in her room. Both worked out well.

English courses: we don't pay for them but local authority ones are quite cheap albeit often fairly basic and they may not run in the summer. We also have a language school nearby which trains TEFL teachers and so offers free lessons to those willing to be taught by trainees. The free courses are not advertised so it might be worth phoning round a few local language schools to ask. We normally recommend these as a good starting point as we think that in the first few months they will learn so much by being surrounded by English anyway. These courses are very popular with local au pairs and a good source of friends.
HTH