Where to start? Totally new to this

[GingerPCatt]

Im going to be looking for an au pair or a nanny soon. My DS will be 15 mo. My DH works in another city so is only home at weekends so I want someone to live in. I need someone to look after DS while I'm at work do a bit of light housekeeping and just be another pair of hands in the morning and evening.
Should I look for a nanny or au pair? I'm not really sure the differences. Where should I advertise the job and how much is the going rate?
Once I've found someone what's the process? Do I need to have them sign a contract? Will they need holiday time and do I pay for that? Should they sort out their own taxes?
It's most likely the job will only be for a couple of months until I can relocate to DHs city. Will that put people off?
Thanks for any advise! I'm as you can guess totally new to this since DS is my first and we've had family help up til now.

It is not recommended for an au pair to have sole charge of a child under 3. An au pair is usually here to learn the language/experience the culture and do a bit of childcare/light housekeeping in return for board and pocket money. They would normally work around 25 hours a week. An au pair plus may work around 35 hours a week.

If you are looking for more than 35 hours a week then you probably need to be looking for a nanny, particularly if you work more than a few hours and need someone to take sole responsibility for your 15 month old.

You can advertise the job locally, on childcare.co.uk, nannyjob.co.uk, gumtree, netmums local or look through an agency (expensive).

The going rate depends very much on your location.

Yes they should sign a contract. Yes they are entitled to paid holiday. You need to register as an employer as it is your responsibility to pay the nanny's tax/NI contributions.

Most nannies are looking for long term/permanent roles, but there are many that would be happy with a temporary job (particularly if you live in a nice area with things to do/see).

As it is providing all day care for a under 5, advertise it as live-in nanny, as I expect you want someone with childcare experience.

You are the employer and are responsible for deductine employee income tax and employee national insurance from the nannies gross pay and paying thst to HMRC. You also pay emplpyers National insurance. A nanny payroll company can assist you with paperwork and remind you when to pay HMRC, such as www.payefornannies.co.uk
You can get a feel for cost involved by using MrAnchovy's excellent calculator wwe.mranchovy.com/calc

For a live in nanny I would imagine a salary of £300+ per week would apply, it will depend on their experience and things like working hours - sounds like you may be wanting 12 hour days like 7 to 7. Have you considered what the hours of work will be?

Apart from the collective mn wisdom - I expect an agency for Nannies will be able to comprehensively answer all those questions for a prospective client and possibly some more you haven't even thought of yet. I would speak to the professionals and get some guidance. The more informed you are the better your decision will be.

I may get shouted down here, but although 'officially' an aupair is only expected to work 25-35 hours a week, and in theory is here on a cultural exchange programme, there are a lot of people happy to take an aupair-type role, (about £150 pocket money/week plus board etc) and do a lot more hours.

A lot of these are girls/women with substantial childcare experience in their own countries, where they either can't get jobs due to the recession or who want to improve their long-term career opportunities by improving their English.

Obviously you would need to be very selective, and careful with references, if you went down this route, but I have recently been advertising for a new aupair and was inundated with applications from Spanish, Italian, Hungarian, Latvian etc girls who had heaps of experience but wanted to come to the UK for a bit.

Quite a few of the mums I know have had long-term aupairs on this basis.

If you are interested, take a look at aupairworld dot net to get a better idea.

I will caveat all of this by saying that I had a full time live-out nanny at the time dc1 was that age....now I have 3 dcs in full time nursery/pre-school/school we have a 'normal' aupair to help with mornings and evenings, and that works brilliantly.

'there are a lot of people happy to take an aupair-type role, (about £150 pocket money/week plus board etc) and do a lot more hours'

there a lot of people happy to work in sweat shops because they can't work anywhere else.....doesn't mean it's right does it?!

Normal aupair pocket money is about £60-90/week, depending on where the family live.

I know several families who pay £150-200/week for more hours, and everyone seems happy with it. But of course its a 'piece of string' question. Why is £150/week for 45 hours slave labour if everyone else gets £80 for 30?

Having said that, I don't know anyone with an aupair doing full time childcare (7am-7pm kind of thing), and can't imagine that one would be a) capable and b) safe to have that level of responsibility. But the OP hasn't been very clear about how many hours she needs, or if she works FT (I was assuming not), and I expect an aupair would be happier to move house with the family.

When I interviewed nannies there was a few au pairs that applied ,I think a lot come over they are an au pair for a while do a really easy of stead course and then call themselves nannies.

I think it is more if a chance taking an au pair on sometimes it's like having another child in your house. I have a job to understand my son I can't imagine it would be easy with someone where English is the second language.

Thanks for the tips! I work pt so I'm home by 3. Ideally I'd look after DS from 3-7ish, but with back up from 5-6 so I can make dinner. Is that a reasonable plan? that would be about 9 hrs a day.
I'm in Oxford. Does anyone have recommendations on agencies or nannies?
Many thanks!