Au pairs

[Diddlydoo]

I am thinking about an au pair for looking after my 5 year old daughter. Does anyone know the best way to start looking for one and what is the going rate? I live in Bath.

There are websites to look at such as www.aupairs.co.uk to put your advert or see who are offering their services. You will have to pay to get hold of their details, however, so not sure if that is ok with you.
I think the rate is 55-75 pounds per week for roughly 20-25 hours work. We pay ours 65 a week.

if you do not want to use an agency, then you can try website like greataupair.com and aupairworld.net, where families and aupairs put their profiles up and can communicate through the sitee's messaging system, if one of them is a paid member (in the vast majority of cases its the family).
then you can try ads on gumtree.com or nannyjob.co.uk , dont know the other website off top of my head as i dont use them.

the recommended minimum (BAAPA) for a typical 25 hours a week is 70 pounds. then it goes up with experience and/or hours up to £107 a week when you would need to start operate paye (which you can but people like to avoid the hassle of doing so).

I agree that £70 is about right for 25 hours. We pay £100 for 35 hours (that gets you mature graduate drivers. You could drop to maybe £85 for a complete newbie for 35 hours)