New to finding au pair - Brexit visa etc

[SparklySeal]

I'm in outer london and thinking about a first au pair for 25-30 hours a week.

My questions are:

• are visas now needed and what would they need from dec 2020 (looking at gov website but confused)
• how long would they stay realistically, we've has the luxury of stable nannies so far
• how likely we can find any au pairs if we need a good driver (or would anyone be willing to walk 30 min with 2 children to school daily)
• would they typically be willing to babysit or work more hours as optional but paid (at good rates)?
• how do you manage evenings and weekends, I'm quite introverted

Thanks in advance...

Au pair visas don’t exist at the moment. Certain nationalities such as Canadians, New Zealanders, Australians can get tier 5 visas to allow them to come to the uk, but it’s not know yet what will happen with EU citizens.

Most au pairs stay 6 months to a year. (6 months is often a good starting point, especially if you’ve not had one before).

If you want a driver then they need to be over 22 or the insurance is astronomical.

You can ask if they would like to work extra hours.

They usually eat with you in the evenings, I would recommend that you make it clear that you want to eat with your DH once/twice a week and that evening they can eat with kids. Weekends, they’re often with their friends, but we take ours out somewhere once every month or so. It depends on the au pair.

Thanks @underneaththeash!
Very helpful bits.
Sounds like it's going to be tough to attract aupairs with the uncertainty.

I dont know how others do it but most weekday evenings, by the time kids are in bed, i have a bowl of cereal for dinner then collapse in exhaustion. Dh gets back very late. Sad existence eh. No problem around including the aupair on weekends for homecooked meals and trips/eating out though