Finding a new au pair

[Peonylass]

I'm struggling to find an au pair. I've only had one so far and it went quite well, but they went home for further study. We've apparently had a glowing reference to the agency from her.

The agency I'd used previously has said that they've had no cvs come through for weeks. I've tried a couple of other agencies but been turned down by the only one to respond, as they're not taking on new clients. I've been registered with two of the big au pair websites for a couple of months, and I'm on them every few days, but had nil response.

I am guessing it's Brexit and the recent terrorist incidents which is putting prospective au pairs off (on top of being a fairly average family in a semi, in a rural location away from London, with two mildly autistic kids).

Does anyone have any suggestions as to where else to try? I'm still fairly new to this so only tried agencies last time I was looking.

Not sure if you're aware but there's a mumsnet page just about Au Pairs, you might get more responses there 😊

I'm not sure as we don't have an Au Pair but friends who have had gone through websites where you make a profile and can look at the Au Pairs profiles and contact one another. So not through an agency as such.

I've also noticed that most of the Au Pairs only really want to do s year or so, so my friends are having to go through the matching process before the existing one leaves to allow an overlap or short gap.

Thanks, for some reason I couldn't find it earlier so assumed it didn't exist and that I was having a senior moment. From the posts there it does look like I am not the only one!

I've tried the DIY websites and haven't had a sniff of anything at all.

I'm happy with a year - in reality I don't want one over the 6 week summer anyway so 10-11 months suits me fine. My last one only stayed 9 months as she got a place on a course starting in June.