Finding an Au Pair or Mother's Help

We will, through our personal selective matching service, help you to choose the most suitable Au Pair or Mother's Help for you and your family.

Our matching service is conducted based on your registration information and also from our discussions with you by listening to your real needs and requirements you expect from live-in support with childcare and domestic duties within your home. This essential information is the first step in finding a suitable applicant.

Au Pairs are usually aged between 18-27 from within the EU. There is no age restriction on EU nationals and so we do also find that we have older applicants also wanting to be Au Pairs on this Cultural Exchange Program. An Au Pair will want to improve their English level and understand and embrace British Culture.

An Au Pair can stay with a host family for 6 months to 2 years, which does give you great continuity and you can build a rewarding good relationship within your home for children. Shorter placements are also arranged to cover the Summer Holidays as a Childcare solution.

Some Au Pairs can drive for the host family. We do encourage and recommend that you do allow them to have some practice lessons first to adjust to UK driving.

 

Au Pair

An Au Pair can work up to 30 hours per week which includes any evening babysitting required Any babysitting or hours required outside of the 30 hours must be paid at minimum hourly rate of £4 per hour. Many families do pay more than this.
They must also have 2 full free days off for their rest days.
You can choose as the Host Family how the hours are spread out to suit your needs and requirements. We can help you to establish a routine that works best for your family.

The minimum weekly pocket money allowance for up to and including 25 hours per week is a minimum £80 per week and a minimum of £90 per week for 30 hours.
Most Au Pairs are happy to work extra hours per week if the weekly schedule with your family still allows them to attend a language course weekly for their English.
Any babysitting required of the host family from the Au Pair must be included in the weekly hours.

Any hours required outside of the scheduled hours, must be paid at a rate of £4 per hour.

Contribution to language school for English lessons is strongly recommended along with the recommendation of a completion bonus if the agreed length of stay is completed.

 

An Au Pair:

 

• Should not be expected to have sole charge of a child below the age of 2 years.
• Can be expected to do childcare and light housework duties such as; vacuuming, dusting, meal preparation and simple cooking, children’s laundry/ironing – please ask us for more information in regards to this, especially of you may need more support in housework.
• Should be allowed the time to attend an English course. The usual lessons are twice a week for approximately 2-2.5 hours per session. It is expected that Host Families do also contribute to the cost and if living in a rural area, help contribute to travel costs.
• Is not qualified in Childcare but will have had some experience in babysitting.

A minimum of 2 weeks’ notice is required to be given by the Host family or Au Pair should there be a change in circumstances.

Please click HERE to register for an Au Pair

Mother’s Help

A Mothers Help is an individual who is usually a little older than Au Pair. They are willing to work longer hours than the 30 hours per week and are willing to take on more duties in childcare and housekeeping. Usual weekly hours would be 40 – 48 hours per week. They will still need to have 2 full days off a week.
Even though a Mothers Help does live in with you similar to an Au Pair, this is more of a work program rather than a cultural exchange program for Au Pairs.
Please do speak to us about weekly money rates to pay to a Mothers Help and what the entitlements, Tax & NI would be. A Mothers Help will live with you like a Family member and have their full board and lodging with you.

A Mothers Help will not be qualified in childcare unless they have worked in their Home Country as a School Teacher, Nanny or as Nursery Staff.
If we do provide a Mothers Help that does have any qualifications like this – please be mindful that child rearing and education does differ slightly from country to country and you as a Host Family must provide the routine, training and support, so they can settle in as quickly as possible.

Some Mothers Helps, if they have the experience and are willing, can have sole charge of children below the age of 2 years.
Please do contact us to talk this through based on your needs as Family.

Everyday life can be full of non- stop activity. Children add yet more things to plan and organise. Arranging an Au Pair or Mothers Help is an ideal way to allow you to ensure the children are well looked after, even while you are busy.

The Process

We recommend that you register as early as possible for an Au Pair or Mothers Help as our rigorous selection process limits the number of applicants available.
If at any time you are uncertain about anything or would like to ask further information, then please do not hesitate to contact us.

The first step required is for you to contact us to discuss your requirements (if you agree with our terms and conditions). This can be done by calling us on the telephone or by completing the ‘registration page’ below. If you complete the registration page, we will contact you also to discuss.

Once we have received your requirements we will liaise with our partner agencies to find suitable applicants that can fit in with your needs.
All applicants will have been carefully screened.

We will send detailed information on the potential applicants to you by e-mail,
Once you have selected an Au Pair or Mother’s Help from the selection we will then arrange for you to interview the applicant to discuss requirements, placement and suitable start dates.
Interviews are normally arranged by Skype, FaceTime, WhatsApp video or by a Phone call for you to speak with your selected applicants.
The Interview Stage is an important part of the selection process.
We can provide to you some “Suggested interview Questions” that you may well find useful.

On confirmation that both you and the applicant are happy we will then require a letter of invitation/introduction from you so that we can forward all your details onto our partner agency and the chosen applicant.
We can assist you with preparing a letter of invitation – please do ask us about this. At this time of confirmation stage,
Our agency T&C’s will also need to be checked and signed.  At this time of confirmation stage, we will require payment of our agency fee within 7 working days.
Only once we have received your payment will we confirm the start dates of the au pair to you.

Travel to the UK (and visas where necessary if coming from countries that are participants of the Tier 5 – Youth Mobility Scheme) are arranged by the applicant unless otherwise agreed.

We will provide you with all their travel dates time and arrival.
We also post out welcome packs to your home for your Au Pair’s arrival. Included in the welcome pack is; a UK sim card, the BAPAA Au Pair Handbook, exclusive log-in access to BAPAA’s Aupairfriends website and the AuPairs UK app, discount offers for sight seeing trips and much more.

For any host family that have children aged 8 years or younger, we can provide to you the BAPAA’s Childcare Handbook for you to use as part of your settling in process with your new Au Pair and a Family Handbook with great tips in too!

You will be required to meet your au pair at an airport/bus station or port on their arrival into the UK. Please confirm this with your new Au Pair/ Mothers’ Help or contact us so that we can do this for you.

Please click HERE to register for a Mothers Help