UK national wants to work as au pair in the UK is that OK??

[rachelcaroline]

Hello I am looking for an au pair and placed an ad on the gumtree I had a very good response from an English girl who is 16 looking to work as an au pair here in the uk while she goes to childcare college is that legal? I thought it was only foreign students who could do it? Any advice
Thanks RC

I'm not sure that you can. I think in order to qualify as an aupair they have to be from another country. I'm not sure an Irish national could work as an aupair in the UK either. I think the principle behind the au pair scheme is learning English.
Not completely sure though. I think if you take on a UK citizen you would have to employ them as a mother's help.

I was looking at a website sometime back and there was lots of english aupairs on it - live in or live out. I'm sure it was something like aupair.com Most of the uk ones already had NNEB's etc and some wanted to bring along their children.

Not sure I'd want a 16yr old though at the start of her training - would she not get better support/mentor from those already qualified in a nursery environment? Then take her on at 17 based on references from her work experience settings.

I think she would be classed as a Mothers Help rather than an \link{http://www.workingintheuk.gov.uk/working_in_the_uk/en/homepage/schemes_and_programmes/au_pairs.html\au-pair}. As a Mothers Help she could go to college and study anything she liked.

Being English (will assume she's a British National) she doesn't need a work permit to work in the UK.

She's too young to be an au-pair - see \link{http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1018721068281\UK Visas AuPairs} as the scheme defines an au-pair as being 17 to 27 years old.

Thank you for all advice I have been in touch with the local Citizens advice bureau and she can be classed as a live in mothers help which is a different pay structure but similar to the au-pair set up. Thanks RC

Just hire her as an employee and pay her £60 per week or whatever you had in mind. So long as she makes less than somewhere around £100/week your taxes are hardly anything. There is no minimum wage for live-in employees so don't feel you have to pay her more than other au pairs would make.

And you can give her any job title you like.