Can an aupair legally work for another family during the day?

[IlanaK]

I am advertising on findababysitter for a part time nanny. I have had some replies from people who are currently aupairs for families with older children who are at school during the day. Before I even consider interviewing any of them, is this legal?

Broadly, yes in the sense that if they're EU citizens or here on a youth mobility tiered visa they have no restriction on working hours. This doesn't apply to tiered student visas or Romanians and Bulgarians entering the UK as an au pair.

You would have to check the tax/ NI situation and the contract with their host family before making any sweeping decisions though.

yes, and is a very common practise among au pairs.

The thing I would consider is that if my daughter is sick and unable to go to school the agreement with my au pair is that she would stay home and look after her (I obviously increase her money for that). So you could find your childcare lost on a particular day through this situation.
My au pair cleans for other people in a similar situation, but obviously not having your cleaning done is not as inconvenient as not having childcare.

I've written 2 long replies to this and lost both due to power cuts, so I'm trying again!

Legally - you would need to check the visa/passport just as you would with any new employee. The vast majority of au pairs I have come across are EU citizens and therefore can have paid employment in the UK.
Tax/NI-wise, once the person is earning over the NI limit then tax/NI become payable and I would suspect that the host family will want the tax allowance so your tax bill will be higher than if you employed someone with no other employment.

I know many au pairs who do cleaning or evening babysitting for other families but not daytime nannying. I would want to have a lot of discussion with the au pair's host family before offering a job covering their expectations because if they get upset and terminate the au pair's contract (which often happens with a very short - 1 week if you're lucky notice period) then au pair will be flying home and you will have no nanny.
Things to discuss with host family include the notice period, how long the au pair is meant to be staying (and how they are getting along with host family - are they in a stable position). Whether the au pair will always be available for the hours you require (will she be expected to work longer hours for the host family during school holidays or if the children are off school). Whether the host family believe the au pair is capable of looking after children which she doesn't know well - this comes from my experience of neighbours asking my au pair to babysit for them..the au pair at that time was competent enough to watch my children under very clear guidelines and after being supervised for some time, but I felt concerned about the other family deciding that she must be 'good' with kids in general just because she was OK with mine.
From a host family point of view, I was not happy with our au pair taking on extra jobs because the main reason we chose an au pair rather than use after school club was to cover unscheduled delays in my commute,ie. most weeks she finished at 5.30 when I got home but I liked to know that if I got delayed that there was someone with the children until dh got home much later. It didn't happen often but in my mind I was paying out £800 a month instead of £400 for school club and putting up with the intrusion into our live that an AP brings
mainly to get peace of mind. To then be concerned that if my commute was disrupted then I would be stressed about getting in contact with dh and getting him back in time to let AP get to the babysitting job etc. would destroy the point of having an AP in the first place.

I've mentioned this on another thread but I would also bear in mind that host families can sometimes be a little flighty about this even if they get on with the AP. It can all be okay until they decide it's cutting in to the time they need them. And then as Ecoli says you could be looking at a very short notice period to make alternative arrangements.

All of what Ecoli says is good, but what I would also do, if it seems like the family is quite happy for her to work for you, is consider trying to get some sort of written contract...

They may be quite happy. I was quite happy for our AP to get a regular evening gig with another family as it meant we had a bit more free time in the evening and the extra spending money seems to be about to fund some travel over Easter. But I know other families that have not been at all happy their AP is doing this.

Harriet I'm assuming you mean a contract with the host family - not that the OP 'should' have a contract with the au pair (because that should be a given).

Nope, I meant that whatever arrangement she had with the other person's AP she needs to get it in writing. She probably WOULD anyway I guess, just saying.

Oh absolutely. I think it might not be a bad idea to have a written agreement with the host family too but that didn't occur to me until I read your message and wondered what you meant!

Well, in our nanny share we don't have a contract with the other family as well as with the nanny. So I don't know how that would work. (Yes we have a complicated life. But I think I've said that before.)

Frakkin can I ask you to please take a look at my other thread? Sorry to be cheeky.

Well it could leave you up the creek if your nanny decided she didn't like you any more/the other family - but I don't know the ins and outs of your contract! If it works then it works...

What I would want to avoid in the OP's case is an au pair who decided she was putting the OP's job above her own existing job (holiday care etc) and the host family losing out as they're presumably the ones who have the au pair because they need someone living in/with the flexibility of an AP. I just think it would be courteous but not necessarily necessary!

I shall go find other thread.

Thanks everyone. Lots of really good information there. I have to say, I feel uneasy about the idea of hiring someone who is already an aupair for another family and this has all confirmed that.