Anyone had a live out au pair?

[IsleOfRight]

How did it work out and how did you find them?

What hours and duties did they do?

I think we need an au pair but have no spare bedroom.

There is no such thing as a live out au pair. Are you looking for a babysitter/cleaner? Or an after school nanny?

If they are helping around the home whilst you are there, you could call them a mothers help.

If they are having sole charge of children you could call them a nanny.

When advertising include the duties you want someone to do and say if you will be around most of the time or if it is more a sole charge job.

A key part of being an au-pair is living with the family joining in some family activities. So as you are not providing live-in they are not an au-pair but would be an employee doing whatever you wanted them to do in exchange for payment.

Oh that's interesting. Someone told me you can have au pairs that are part of the au pair scheme eg on an au pair visa, but they don't live in.

If your aupair has to do both ends of the schoolrun (split schoolrun duties), it is often difficult to have a live-out aupair unless your aupair is living close-by. That makes your pool of live-out aupairs that you can choose from rather small.

Live-out aupairs may start out as live-in aupairs in the UK and then either get a friend/boyfriend to move in with and prefer to live-out. Or upgrade themselves to nanny (with nanny wages or mid-nanny-aupair wages) so that they can afford to live-out. They will typically have more experience than a fresh-off-the-boat aupair

I am not too bothered about nanny, mother's help or aupair nomenclature. Ultimately, I treat all my aupairs like employees on the legal front and are clear what their duties and hours are.

I don't think an "au pair visa" exists anymore, but when it did living with the family was part of the cultural exchange element.

If you make sure you hire someone from the EU (save for Bulgaria and Romania (till the end of 2013) and Croatia), you don’t have to worry about an aupair visa (whatever that is). It makes life a lot simpler to not have to worry about visas. I avoid Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders and Americans too, even though it is possible to get some form of visa for them.

I think Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders here on working holiday visas are no problem - very difficult for Americans to get work visas though.

You can have someone who lives out, but does the job of an au pair, but you can't pay them as an au pair. They're an employee and are entitled to the minimum wage, tax paid etc.

The au pair scheme only exists for A2 nationals now and requires the au pair to live with the family. If you get someone from the other EU countries or on a youth mobility visa you don't need to accommodate them. But then they aren't an au pair....

It was a definitely a condition of an au pair scheme that they lived with the family and that the family spoke English, helped them enrol on a language course and gave them time for lessons.

Ah thank you. What I want is someone to come for three hours a day three days a week (say 8.30am-11.30am) and take the kids out to the park or library. The kids are nearly three and nearly one. Then I would also appreciate one or two nights a week babysitting from about 7pm-11pm including putting the kids to bed.

So no housework, no feeding the kids, etc. just having fun out of the house and keeping them safe.

I'd advertise for a babysitter. If you could make the morning hours 9.30-12.30 then it might suit a local mum with school age children.

As your children are so young, you probably at least want someone with some childcare experience - either their own, or previous work as an au pair or in a nursery.

A part time nanny would be more expensive, think £10+ an hour, but would have experience, maybe qualifications, CRB check, first aid.

If you are happy with just a babysitter you could probably pay around £7 an hour. You'll have to register as an employer and deduct tax and NI from their wage (payroll agencies can do this for you), particularly if they have another job.

You could probably find an older lady locally to help. I used to have someone like this when my kids were infants and it worked really well. I'd put a sign up in the local corner/village shop and maybe an ad on you local Gumtree.

Expect to pay a fair rate though. I paid £8 an hour 10 years ago!

I had a live out aupair. She came over as an aupair then met her boyfriend so wanted to live with him, she did everything as a normal aupair but went home in the evening, she was great. Paid her a bit extra tho

I'd look at a nursery if I were you. Some will do mornings only. You won't have all the hassle of being an employer. Your oldest will get 15 hours a week free from the term after they're 3. Nurseries will take childcare vouchers if you/DH can get them at work. The nursery nurses will be willing/able to babysit in the evenings.

It sounds like a nice job for someone older or, possibly, a gap year student. I would advertise for a mothers help or part time nanny and see who applies.

But it's not a babysitter job, mother's help position or an au pair job. It's a part time nanny position. A babysitter is somebody who comes in the evening to look after your sleeping (or nearly asleep) child, a mother's help hasn't got that level of responsibility and is usually shared charge and an au pair lives with the family. There is no such thing as a live out au pair as the idea of an au pair is to live with a family and learn our language and culture. I care about the nomenclature because as a nanny it's a pita to try find work when people want to pay pittance because the 'live-out au pair' down the road will accept that much.

Wage depends on where you are. I do a similar position (3 x 4hours) and get £10gph in SE as an employee. Trying to find the same again now my hours have dropped in that role but haven't found anything like it frustratingly!

I agree ConfusedPixie

agree with ConfusedPixie, but it works the other way too. Its very annoying when you are advertising for a nanny, the people that describe themselves as nannies. (ie au pairs with no childcare experience or qualifications).

I have had live out childcare before - but only for older children. I've had a couple of people who've recently graduated and been unable to find work or who have been filling in time until they go abroad. Mine came in for an hour in the morning and helped out and then picked up from school from 3-6pm (doing stuff like dinner, homework etc). the people I used were unqualified although had some experience, and were lovely. it really worked well for me. I paid alot more than I pay live in au pairs thoughas they have rent and other expenses that live in au pairs don't have to pay.

I think you could advertise for a live out mother's help myself as you are going to be in the house when the childcarer is going to be there.

I paid £250 for that. - so it was an hour most mornings, and from 3-6.15 ish every day.

Thanks confusedpixie that's helpful. Do you think many nannies want that kind of part time job? (We're the grotty bit of north London).

Also would a nanny do bedtime and babysitting once a week do you think?

Perhaps you could find someone who has an after school job or before/after school? They would probably come and do evenings too if you could flex a bit around their current commitments.

It wouldn't work as a standalone job but neither do most before/after school positions and people will take them because work is hard to come by at the moment.

If you'd consider a nanny with their own child that would also open up the field.

I will be in the house mornings which is why I want someone to take them to an activity or something while I do a few hours of work.

It might work for some who chop and change hours like Nom says, that's what I do but won't be from next year as my hours have chopped and changed a little too much for my liking!

Isle
Where in north London are you?