What is an au pair arrangement?

What is an au pair?

Au pairs are young foreign nationals who provide help in the home (childcare and light housework) while studying (part time) to improve their English.

Au pairs always live in.

Au pairs are on duty for up to 25 hours per week in return for board and lodging plus pocket money. Up to two nights babysitting can be added on top of that. In line with other reputable agencies we now recommend £65 per week pocket money.

This type of arrangement applies to au pairs of all nationalities and if you stick to this, it will be clear that this is a "cultural exchange" arrangement and issues such as NI and migrant worker registrations won't arise (although there may be other formalities for non-EU au pairs and those from Romania and Bulgaria).

We believe occasional extra hours to be acceptable for EU au pairs (such as our Hungarian au pairs) for example during the school holidays, but to avoid grey areas we don't arrange what is loosely termed "au pair plus".

Most au pairs are looking to stay for a year but often stay longer. Summer au pair placements are very popular and the quality of applicant can be exceptional. We can also arrange 6-month au pairs depending on supply.

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If you require trained child care or if "cultural exchange" and some degree of mentoring is of no interest to you (or you are simply too busy for it) it's best to go for another childcare option. (For trained live-in child care a nanny agency may be able to help.)

Although the au pair may have less life-experience than you they must be accorded high status in your household and their reasonable needs must be placed on a par with your own requirements, which may involve certain concessions on your part that you might not wish to make for a professional childcarer or domestic staff.

Au pairs expect two full days off per week and must be able to attend English lessons that are convenient to get to two or three times per week.

Au pairs won't normally have had much childcare experience and won't be expecting to have to cope with children who aren't easy to deal with or be left in sole charge of under-twos.

Au pairs don't normally work for the agency that introduces them to you (although you should check this) and so au pairs aren't "agency staff" in that sense.

The Home Office au pair guidelines seem to have now been withdrawn with the introduction of a different scheme to encourage youth mobility but it is still clear that having a visitors visa does not normally suffice for those taking up au pair positions.

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Au pair accommodation

A clean, safe, reasonably well decorated and furnished room with wardrobe space and a TV is normally expected. En suite facilities aren't required but the standard of comfort in the au pair's room should be comparable to that of the rest of the house.

Internet access in some form has become a requirement in recent years and is useful not only for keeping in touch with family and other au pairs in the area, but for the learning opportunities it provides. (On our Hungarian web pages for example we have childcare-specific vocabulary which you could encourage them to browse.)

Good English spoken

There are a good number of non-native English speakers within the host families we recruit for but since the motivation of the au pair's stay is to learn English the language of communication within the family circle must be English.

Where hosts are mainly non-native speakers, candidates will need to be reassured that the level of English spoken is excellent.

Practicalities to check out first

Contact Brick au pair agency.

Home

Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham, Birmingham, Newcastle au pair service discounts.

Hungarian au pair applicants please visit our Hungarian pages

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