Mother helps need some advice

[yuleho]

I have decided to look for a mothers help, as I would like someone with a bit more nouse than an Au pair and capable of looking after twins ( 3year old )for 2 days a week also have two older children and can get to grips with some cleaning. This will include bottoming a room a week 3 bathrooms, family Ironing ect ? so a bit more than 'light house work'. So I generally need a good all rounder with lots of common sense and able to cook meals. And some running about and keep up with a fast pace.
I need 42 hours a week live in
What is the going rate? I'm outside London in Lancashire living costs a lot cheaper,
Where do I find one?
What sort of experience to look for? Mature person? Or maybe 3 time Au pair with excellent refs? Or do I opt for Aussie or others that have visa requirements?
Any advice please?
I am a tight budget but can offer good perks separate accommodation, use of car and other things

anyone?

For 42 hours per week, I would expect that you will need to be offering around £150-£200 net per week, if your aim is to get someone who has experience of childcare and will be more like a house keeper. Don't think there is any such thing as a going rate, but as the job is live-in, you don't need to comply with National Minimum Wage, so you can offer just below NMW and see what applicants you get. If you don't get applicants who fit the bill, you need to raise the amount you are paying!

If you are not in a hurry, you can play around with the figures and start offering something quite low. Another thing you could do, is to advertise without giving a salary indication and then ask applicants about their salary expectation once they know more about what the job.

Gumtree may be a good place to start looking for someone. Not sure which Gumtree is your nearest, perhaps try manchester.gumtree.com as that will probably get a lot of visits, even from people a fair distance from manchester itself.

If you make it a Daily Job, rather than live-in, then a more mature applicant may work well. Though NMW will then apply, so will cost more.

Thanks- brilliant ideas about salary expectations. I am in bit of hurry but willing to wait. I have got some inspiration from the Grumtree Ads and noticed such variety of salaries for 38-40 hours a week( on an average week helper would more likely to be doing a 39hrs up to 46hrs on odd occasion).
I had consulted an agency as wasn't sure the type of person to look for. Agency recommended £200 plus on top of the extortionate finders fee. I must say the quality of CVs was very poor and all wanted to be near a city, which I am not. There were two Au pairs, and neither had looked after pre-schoolers before and the other was a Filipino that sounded promising, but I was disappointed, as money featured in every sentence, and she was willing to ditch her family for £10 more a week which doesn?t give me confidence. I have also had a look at some previous threads and thought Au pair world or Great Au pair site might be worth a try, but ideally It would be better if I could interview in the UK. The right person would need to like the quiet life as there are no Au pairs and not much night life locally.