Advice on Au Pair World after agency let down

[jennywren060]

Hello,

I recently hired our first au pair through Perfect Au Pair agency. I figured I didn't know what I was doing, so I paid a large fee (£700) to ensure an agency went through correct vetting procedures etc. Sadly the person we ended up with has been far from ideal. My worries at point of hiring were minimised by the agency, and looking back I feel she was not referenced properly. In hindsight I would trust my gut instinct, but I thought best to accept they were the experts and go with it. This girl has been pretty unstable and although the agency offered to help replace them at one point, they then went out of contact.

Does anyone know of a better agency, or should I try Au Pair World? I still feel pretty new to this, am a single parent and have a lot on my plate, so I want to try and get it right this time around. Any advice much appreciated.

Thank you
Jenny

Go for APW you will have a much larger pool of candidates. Although you will need to do the leg work of writing the ad, contacting candidates and responding to messages, Skype interviews and reference checking. That said, you know best what you and your family needs and who is most likely to "work" in your family so you have a much better chance of getting it right.

I would second Au Pair World. You have do do a lot of leg work in terms of contacting au pairs yourself and the pool of candidates is much larger than an agency.

Go with your gut when you communicate with them, it's usually right.

I agree with the others - we used Au Pair World too & our au pair is great.