Tips for employing an au pair please help !

[poosticks]

Questions for any mums / au pairs

1. what is a reasonable overtime rate for over the 35 hours?

2.What about including the 2 evenings work in the basic wage is this normal ?

1. Gumtree is proving very slow and after 40 responses i am just interviewing 3 candidates ; are there some easier options that are also affordable and less depressing ?

1. do you offer your au pairs holiday pay after a suitable period

Any tips most welcome

1. it is 25 hours for a basic AP. Anything more than that would be an AP+ and you need to pay more accordingly. Typically £90+ for 35 hours depending on where you are and then you start hitting the NI threshold. We have a normal AP and don't do overtime except in exceptional circumstances (it wouldn't leave time for college etc). If I've been ill and she's done an extra afternoon, or an early start she wouldn't normally do, we might add £20 to her weekly pay.

1. as long as you are upfront from the start you can include 2 nights babysitting per week. I personally think this is quite a lot bearing in mind what you pay them so I only put one night per week babysitting in the contract.

1. you could try aupair-world.net. A lot of AP host families on here have had success with them.

1. Again, up to you but you should arrange at the start and put in your contract. We always give approx a week paid off over Christmas and normally will offer for them to go home for a few long weekends, and pay for any days they are away.

1. If our au pair does over her usual hours (which are standardly 17 hours but we pay £85 which is the going-rate round here for 30 hours) -e.g. kids school shut due to snow, we have given her £20 for a half-day and £40 for a 'full day' on top of her normal £85. And we give her the option of refusing the extra hours. I feel it is important to remember that au pair have their own things to do and respect that so we don't expect her to always be available to stand in.

2.We, in theory, asked for 2 evenings babysitting a week, (but as I said above, we generally overpay/underwork our au pair). In practice we might need her to babysit once a fortnight.

3.We used aupair-world.net which is relatively cheap (about £30 for 3 months I think).

4.Not so far, would probably consider it if I had one who stayed over 6 months though.

thanks for your advice !

I've only interviewed 2 candidates and another 1 tomorrow ... one seemed workable she has childcare experience (looked after one child of 3 and childrens camps) but has not been an au pair, her english is quite poor, so I'm not entirely convinced she'll cope with 1 toddler and school drop offs by car.

poosticks, ask if they can provide references. I look out for aupairs who are able to provide English speaking references, ideally from past aupair family but past (non-related) families they babysat for also acceptable. Ask for a telephone number (email not as good), ideally landline.

Apart from finding out about her, part of the call is to cross-check details she has given you. Eg, ask the number and age of the children, names, dates and any other details. If it is some friend impersonating a family as a favour to her, they are likely to trip up on the details.