Can au pairs register with Ofsted?

[1plus3plus1]

From reading the gov.uk website, it looks like they can, dependent on equivalent qualifications and DBS checks from their own country.
This would be really helpful to me in allowing me to partially pay them with childcare vouchers.
In reality how easy/common is this to do?!

Yes. There is no such thing in childcare law terms as an au-pair. So they are just seen as being a live-in nanny.

They would have to jump through lots of hoops:

DBS check - they will need 5 years of address history, so would need police checks from their home country and any they have been in during that time.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/criminal-records-checks-for-overseas-applicants

They will need to do some training - minimum requirement is:

Common Core Skills & Knowledge
Emergency Paediatric First Aid (6 hours) which covers:
• Be able to assess an emergency situation and prioritise what action to take
• Help a baby or child who is unresponsive and breathing normally
• Help a baby or child who is unresponsive and not breathing normally
• Help a baby or child who is having a seizure
• Help a baby or child who is choking
• Help a baby or child who is bleeding
• Help a baby or child who is suffering from shock caused by severe blood loss (hypovolemic shock)

If you are in London, then Paediatric First Aid and Common Core Skills can be done in one long day. See Here

They would need nanny insurance... such as www.mortonmichel.com/nanny

They would need to know about Safeguarding Children and Prevent Duty.

They MUST be aged 18 or over.

It is all doable but it might take some time.

If au pairs have done all of this training and jumped through all the ofsted hoops they would probably be looking for a nanny role at at least Minimum wage and not £80 per week.

If it is possible they'd have to pay out so much for insurance and everything the pocket money wouldn't cover even these requirements, let alone the yearly fee. As a nanny I'd pay all of the costs but if a parent wanted OFSTED they'd pay for it as there is nothing at all in it for the nanny. So may not be worth it once costs and times are taken into account.

I would use vouchers for pre-school/nursery, after school club, school holiday activity days, summer camp (such as PGL), anything like that which accept vouchers.
Au pair then does the wrap-around care which may be 2-5 hours per day.