Au Pair Advice

[PepsDream]

Hi,

My wife and I are exploring options for wrap around care. The biggest challenge is the evening nursery pick up Mon-Thurs and we are consider an au pair to help. Our son is 13 months old and we are thinking we need help between 5pm to 6.30pm Monday to Thursday as fixed hours with the odd morning nursery drop off and ad hock hours to cover as needed. Expectations would be pick up child from nursery, settle him in at home - feed him. My wife or I will do bathtime and put him to bed. Is this something an pair would be suitable for? We have a nice spare room so can live in. Thinking circa 15 hours per week. Budget around £200 per week. Does this sound right?

Cany anyone recommend where to find or post a job like this?

Thanks!

Where are you based? If London, you’d be paying them £13.33 per hour which is less than the London living wage. So no not fair. NMW is £12.21. Would they have to pay rent or pay for food shopping or would this be provided. Might appeal to someone younger with less experience but would you want to risk your child’s life for paying a cheaper wage? But if they didn’t live in the room then I suppose it might appeal to someone who wants flexibility.

Is the nursery in walking distance from your house or is it a car or bus ride? Travel time should also be paid.

The hourly rate for someone whose rent and food are covered (so different to NLW needs) is not too bad but you may well find you need to offer more hours to be attractive eg guaranteed two full evenings a week babysitting or whatever

Look at ads on au pair sites and see how you compare.

I don't know if your timings would be classed as "extended periods" but the guidance I'm aware of is that au pairs shouldn't have sole care for under 2s for extended periods.

@Blurrywateryeye the au pair would be living in the house and the host family would provide meals.

Salary-wise that's absolutely fine. You're underneath the NI and tax barriers so you won't need to register as an employer, but make it clear that her gross salary is £200 as she'll probably get another job during the day. I think and hour and a half with a little one is fine, they shouldn't be looking after under 2's for long periods.

Finding an au pair at the moment though is tricky. You're limited to people from the UK/Ireland or those who can get a tier 5 youth mobility visa (Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians). Best place to look for someone is on au pair world
https://www.aupairworld.com/en]]

You will need to pay minimum wage but you can deduct around £75 a week for providing room and board.

Are au-pairs still available post Brexit?

My rule of thumb withau-pairs was that they helped me when the DC were toddler/baby stage but were fine for a few hours a day when the DC were 5+ and old enough to dob.

NMW/LLW wasn't an issue. In 2008/9 our au-pair got £90pw, a house mobile, language classes, two return flights home in 12 months, and full board. Accommodation was a double bedroom and bathroom in zone 2 London (in lodger terms it was probably worth £750ish pcm). She did about 15 hpw for that which included tidying the children's bedrooms and their laundry.

Is £200 the gross amount the au pair will get each week? If yes, that could possibly work since you are providing board and lodging. Since your child is below 2 years old, 1 1/2 hours per day is good, as au pairs are not allowed to look after them for extended hours. We got an au pair from little ones a few years ago and it worked out great for us at the time, so it’s definitely worth a shot since you don’t need long hours. You can get some free advice from them

au pairs are still a thing but on a vastly reduced scale post Brexit.

to my mind they're most useful for primary school aged children.