Au pair in London - advice please

[Embarra55ed]

We’ve got a 5 year old and 3 year old. From next year they will both be in preschool/school until 3.30pm during the week.

Up until now we’ve had a nanny who looks after the younger one all day and then both kids once the older one comes home from school. We would love our nanny to stay on but she doesn’t want to do after school hours.

We are thinking of getting an au pair instead. We’d need cover for 3.30-5.30/6 x4 days/week.

1. is it reasonable to ask an au pair to do this?
2. is it possible to get au pairs post-Brexit?

Experiences and tips would be great. We have a spare room with an en suite and would be very happy to share our home with someone. An after school nanny is an obvious alternative but it’s really hard to get them in our area as most nannies understandably want more hours.

Very difficult post Brexit unless the au pair is already here and they have pre-settled status. There are several Facebook groups. This explains more: https://www.aupairworld.com/en/blog/brexit

Alternative is to procure a student from a local uni or college? There are also several agencies who specialize in this using actors who often have spells between work.

Thank you! I’ll have a look at that. The blog post suggests that there is still a good supply of people from commonwealth countries but I’d be interested to hear from people with recent experience of the reality. And how far in advance do you typically need to start looking?

Do you mean from the next school year, so September? If so you need to get a move on! I think you want to look 3-6 months before you go back. I would warn that Commonwealth citizens are fab but will be very keen to travel as much as possible so they won’t be a long term prospect. (Generalization I know!). Your best bet is to see whether any au pairs already here are searching for new families.

The one family I know who has au pairs has had a fairly mixed experience, finding that some of the au pairs just didn’t seem to know what to do with or enjoy looking after kids. Au pairs have always been hit and miss I believe (since for many it’s their first childcare experience) but it used to be possible to be choosy, now that’s not possible post brexit. And as PP said - that’s assuming you can find one at all.

If you have long school holidays you may find a nanny is willing to do after school plus full time in the holidays- especially if you could add on a few extra hours in school hours during which she does laundry, errands etc. Try putting an ad on childcare.com with the hours you can offer - that’s how we found our after school nanny last year. We did have to look around a fair bit to find her (lots of unsuitable applicants) but she was lovely!

No, not September! It would be next September (24) at latest but probably more like April depending when a space comes up in the preschool (DC2 is autumn born and starting school sept 25). But I wanted to suss out possibilities well in advance.

The last estimate I read, was that there was around 8% of pre-Brexit level au pairs, willing and able to come to the UK.

That means that you need to be able to offer something extra or be lucky that you gel with someone (or both!) Most do like to come to London though and your USP could be that you only need then 4 days a week. As they're so in demand, they do tend to also be quite flakey.

Most of my friends who previously used au pairs, use Koru Kids now. They also seem to be a bit flakey, but there's more of them.

I would look for both and au pair and an after school nanny and see where you get, Koru kids can be a back up.

Thank you @underneaththeash - wow 8%! Yes good advice re trying for both. Friends have had limited success with Koru Kids recently but we’ve got a while to sort it out. I actually (maybe unusually) really like the thought of having someone living in the house and feeling like a real family member for the kids, but clearly very much depends on who you get!

I would advertise for a live in nanny who is doing some extra qualifications so needs freetime to study. But happy to do full time in holidays.
As realistically in uk you have school holiday of some sort every 6 weeks. How will you cover that?

So contract would be something like Mon-thurs 2-6pm term time ( to allow 1hr of them helping at home with dinner prep or tidying toys or kids laundry also)

Full time in holidays - 8-6pm.

Extra pay in term time if they work full day covering child sickness

A friend of mine has got a student from a local uni as someone else suggested here, they’re British and it seems fine. However things may change when their course ends.

I do know of someone working here part time whilst she studies (no DC well adult DC) who does child drop off and pick up etc but doesn’t live in (has her own property) and she’s foreign.

@Embarra55ed just wondering how you got on? we're considering using an agency. if you managed to find an au pair it'd be great to know how!

Any tips on au pair reputable agencies tri3d and tested. For my neice

@Roylesue things have changed again! On the 1st April the government removed the minimum wage exemption for domestic workers, which basically means that the 'au pair' status legally doesn't exist anymore.

So for an 18yo "au pair" working 30 hours a week the weekly salary would be around £220/week. She would also need to register as an employer. How old is your niece's child?

My neice will be 18, next year

I'm more concerned that she gets a reputable agency and isn't exploited without support

Thanks for your reply.

Ah so she wants to be an au pair, not get one....
Which country does she want to work in? It works very differently everywhere. For example in the US you have to go through an agency, but you also need to have a certain level of experience. In France you have to have a minimum level of French for example.