Would you recruit an AP for 1 month only? (and other questions) - long sorry

[Millarkie]

I thought I was all set up for most of the year. Current (fabulous) AP leaves in January, with a 1 week overlap with next AP who was due to stay til end of July (end of school term) and then our last nanny's (also lovely) sister had said that she was interested in holiday nannying for us (so hopefully would cover easter hols and summer hols).
However, next AP emailed me on Christmas day to say 'Merry Christmas and I can only stay til end of June now' (leaves me 3.5 weeks of term that (at a minimum) I need after-school childcare for).
In the meantime, I hear from ex-nanny that her sister is having such a great time in her University town (she is doing a childcare related degree) that she may stay there during the Uni holidays (giving me easter and summer hols to find childcare for).

I think options are:

1. Holiday club for easter and some of summer hols plus after-school club for the last 3.5 weeks of term. (but dd has some problems that mean we were trying to avoid 'new' situations for her, and main reason we have an AP is that my trains home are very unreliable and I am scared of being late for After-school club, also dh works abroad for about 1 week out of every six so I need someone who can do the morning routine if necessary).
2. Recruit another AP for the month of July only and then use Holiday club for easter/summer (but a month feels a very short time to settle someone new in and not sure how much an AP would gain from only a month - not sure how easy it is to recruit for a July start either). 3)Try and find a temp live-in nanny who could start beg of July and do the before/after school runs for a month and then do full-on holiday care (have no idea of the cost of live-in nannys round here though!)
3. Have an AP for July until as long as possible to cover afterschool in termtime and to provide dog companionship/walks and holiday club pick ups (maybe will be able to use less holiday club hours this way) (And advertise for another teaching student type holiday nanny - just in case I can find one).

I'm going round in circles at the moment - so any other suggestions? (obviously dh and I will be taking leave to spend time with the children too - but we can't cover it all!

Have/would you recruit a 1 month only AP?
Do you have an idea of the cost of a live-in nanny (kids are school age, I have no requirements of qualifications/experience, just common sense and a knowledge of first aid) in rural Essex - ie. not 'agency' rates.

Oh heck....help!

what about putting an ad on gumtree / nanny job (then you would avoid all the agency fees)

you may find a nanny with her own child could cover a few hours for you if you were prepared to let her own child come to?

a live in nanny would be expensive but its the type of thing that word of mouth might find someone local who could help you out

Thanks NannyL - I'm used to paying 'nanny' costs for the summer (but for a live-out nanny) and previous to that we had nannys when the children were pre-school age. I guess live-in should be cheaper than live-out (but potentially a lot more than AP plus holiday club...)
The live-in requirement is to cover the early mornings when dh is abroad ( I leave for work before 6am) which I think it would be difficult to find a live-out nanny who would be happy to start work that early. (he was prepared to stay in the UK for the 6 weeks summer hols but can't manage 10.5 weeks without a trip).
I guess I could put an ad on gumtree and see who answers, and discuss pay expectations then. We live in a small village (although has good transport links) so not many local people to ask around.

Its not hard to recruit a 1 month AP for the holidays from Au Pair World. I have had a couple of short term gap-fillers, it worked fine.

Thanks Nighbynigh - so you had APs that settled quickly and worked out ok for just one month.

Am wondering if it's worth looking for a canadian/aussie/kiwi with some childcare experience who might be able to AuPair+, and might be up to a couple of days (would be 8am-3pm sole charge) each week during the hols..so normal AP hours before hols, a couple of days child supervision in hols and pick ups from hol club on the other days...s'pose would depend on recruiting an experienced AP (but my current AP has loads of childcare experience and is better than a couple of my former nannies!)

Ho hum... think I might have to try APworld plus GreatAP for such a creature, and also gumtree for the more traditional live-in nanny type role and see who's out there.

We found through APW a superb Finnish girl (a perfect Christmas elf who told ds wonderful tales of Lapland) for 3 weeks last Christmas.

for 1 months i would go for an aupair who had been an aupair previously. that should make the settling in easier

and for july there should be plenty of girls wanting a summer job

Lots of people do summer holiday only APs don't they? Ours have always been from Sep to Jul but lots of people might just want to do a shorter stint.

Have you thought of having the AP from Jul through to Sep? Or would that be impractical?

Am trying to talk dh into having AP july-sept (or beyond) - it would mean that we have APs all year round and we are (slowly) doing work on the house. We need to replace the family bathroom and it would be easier to do that with no AP as AP has the second bathroom to herself (it's ensuite to her room).
But..on the bright side, having an AP through the hols would mean that I would have back up if dh needed to travel at anytime.
Well, I'm stirring into action, I've emailed nanny's sister to nudge her into confirming the rumour that she won't be available and I've changed my APworld profile asking for standard AP duties from July, but offering an 'upgrade' to nanny if they have enough childcare experience (obviously to be paid at nanny rate not AP pocket money and will have to be EU and allowed to work in UK), and I've contacted a german teacher who is looking for a AP post.
Main problem is that most of the APs want to start mid-July which would mean that I have no cover for 2 weeks.

Has anyone used an AP to cover full days in holidays then? Gooseegg/Quattro?

Good idea about the previous AP experience Caterpilarr.

Thanks everyone.

Hi, I work as a nanny and have done temp work between jobs. I have a new permanent job to start in Feb, and have just taken on a month long temp job for jan, so that I don't have a month with no wages! Got the job via netmums, so it may be possible for you to find nannies who only need short term work, we are out there!!

Millarkie - yes we had a fab German ap for just the Summer holidays and her duties were to care for ds for all day on the days we worked out of the home, and to care for ds for less hours (basically to take him out and to exhaust him!) mornings only on the days when I worked in the house as a childminder - so that he could then join us to play for the afternoon with the worst of his destructive energy run off.

No housework and only one ds (5) so not such a heavy load for her.

She also came on holiday with us for a week and spent most of the time in a wetsuit supervising and joining in at the beach. Very important ime to find a genuine swimmer if you choose a summer ap. Lots say they like swimming in their profiles but then come up with loads of reasons to get out of it.

Thanks Shelley - good to hear that there may be a temp nanny out there (is the pay rate higher because it's temp work?)

Gooseegg - thanks - that's reassuring. Would like to avoid putting dd into holiday club if I can - she's found it hard adjusting to her new school and I like to think they can veg out a couple of days a week in the hols. Will look out for a swimmer (particularly because we want to spend a few weekends this summer teaching the kids to sail).

Gooseegg - can I be cheeky and ask how much you paid your AP for full days, and how you did the NI/tax (I have nannypaye subscription so they can calculate it, but not sure how AP gets an NI number etc.

Hi - yes we've used the APs to cover full days in the holidays. Normally there are things like tennis camps and stuff to take up a couple of days a week, so not too bad. Also our APs only ever did around 15 hours a week in termtime, so a few full days in holidays sort of made it up to 22 hours a week (our limit).

try through an agency- short term booking

Thanks Scottishmummy and Quatro.

We generally need 17.5 hours a week termtime but pay £85 pocket money (plus perks) so within the aupair+ range.. would like to put the children into some sports courses this summer, so maybe we could average hours over the weeks.

Our first AP was just for the summer for approx. 10 weeks. She was at university in Slovakia and wanted a summer job to improve her English and help finance her course. She was so good and fitted in so well that she came back to us the next year as well. She came through an agency and was brilliant.

that is a nice result

I work to a six week rota so more hours required some weeks than others.

But an average over six weeks of exactly 25 hrs paid at under the threshold for tax plus perks - therefore no need for tax/NI.

When I first advertised on APW for a Summer au pair I had 270 applications in two days.

I then emailed a comprehensive rota of expected hours/duties to those on my shortlist.

Lots of excellent university students search for summer positions.

I recommend Primary teaching students.

Thanks Shelley - good to hear that there may be a temp nanny out there (is the pay rate higher because it's temp work?)

No, pay is the same as permanent position, well at least it is up here is rural Yorkshire!!

The temp job I've got was through a nanny agency, I agree with ScottishMummy, that you might be better trying it that way. More chance of getting someone who is looking for a temp position as a stop gap like I was.

Thanks Shelly, have decided to try for a long term au pair for now (to try to avoid the kids having a different childcarer every few weeks) and if I can't get one, I'm reassured about the temp nanny plan (and I'm guessing most temp nannys don't know what start dates etc. they have months in advance).

Well, have had lots of potential summer au pairs apply - one in particular seems good (student teacher etc), but I can't 'average' the hours for the summer hols so it will mean asking her to apply for a NI number (she is EU so should be ok (?) ) and most importantly, working out what a reasonable wage for the equivalent of a live-in nanny is round these parts..

If anyone has 'upgraded' an au pair for the hols and could help me out with salary expectations I would be grateful (understand if privacy required though).

I've got a 'perfect' applicant now, but no idea of how much to pay for the holiday period.
Potential au pair/live-in nanny is doing a degree which involves spending her second year abroad studying in a town near to us. She can't afford to rent a room while she studies so is looking for an au pair job. She has excellent english. She has au paired before, once for over a year and for 3 months last summer, both former host families have given glowing references and say she will be fine with sole charge during school hols.
So, I have been hunting around to find out what would be a fair amount to offer her for school hols cover, but there are no current live-in nanny wanted adverts in my area..and the only local nanny agency, last time I spoke to them insisted that 'their nannies get £12 net per hour minimum' which I know is rubbish.
Shall I just think of a number and double it

I would just pay the normal au pair rate (adjusted for how many hours she is doing).

My feeling with paying overtime to an ap was that the free room and board was part of the low hourly rate for the first 25 hours. For hours worked after that I would have paid minimum wage or above as they'd already 'paid' for their room if that makes any sense. So if you'd (for example) normally pay £85 for 17.5 hours, but want her to do 8-6 5 days per week you're asking for an extra 32.5 hours in holidays. So for those 32.5 hours you'd pay an hourly rate of £6+? So about an extra £200 per week in the holidays. That will take her over the tax/NI threshold I think won't it?

Since you're paying a higher rate generally if you pay £85 for 17.5 hours in termtime, then you could possibly try averaging the hours slightly, but I'd imagine that could get complicated.

over £97 per week will take her over the NI limit - but I've just remembered that students who don't expect to earn over their annual tax-free allowance don't have to pay the tax and claim it back anymore..as long as we keep records and sign a form..so that's one worry less.
Am thinking that for the 6 weeks of the main school hols, we will go on hols for 2 weeks, and grandparents will probably have the kids for 2 half weeks, and hopefully we will be able to get the kids into some sort of holiday activity clubs (tennis, drama, swimming type things) for some hours on the other weeks so we may be able to keep APs hours down to a sane amount.
When I have asked our current AP to look after a child for a day (when off school for minor reason) I have paid £5 per hour on top of her normal rate so that's a bit of a precedent. I'm going to ask current AP when she gets back from her Christmas break if she has any AP friends who do a similar job so I won't be storing up trouble either with future AP or the other local AP host families

Thank you lots for your suggestions - I have taken them on board!