The Au-Pair agency for your family

Au-Pairs At Home is an agency which gives you a personalised service, finding the right au-pair for your family. Our fees are just £250 per placement, but we take pride in providing a thorough service. We screen applicants carefully to make sure that your needs and their hopes are well matched.

If your au-pair placement falls through within the first eight weeks, for any reason, we will find you another au-pair, free of charge.

We are based in the Reading, Newbury and Basingstoke area, but can find an au-pair for you, wherever you live in the UK.

We are currently placing au-pairs from Europe who are keen to live with families in Britain. At the moment we have a number of au pairs available from Italy, Spain and France. Many have childcare experience and occasionally we have qualified teachers or nursery nurses. We can also find people with experience in caring for children with special needs, or caring for the elderly.

Short-term summer au pair placements can be arranged, for instance if you need help with childcare during the school holidays.

What does an Au-Pair do?

Help if you have children....

Au-pairs often help families with children, broadening their knowledge of other cultures and bringing a young person's sense of fun, while taking the strain off busy parents. Au-pairs are not just childminders; you can expect an au-pair to help with anything that a member of your family would normally do.

Here are some ways that an au-pair might help in a family with children:

Getting children dressed in the morning and taking them to school
Collecting children from school and looking after them until you return home
Caring for younger children while you work from home or part-time
Helping with homework, languages, sports, or music lessons
Playing with toddlers while you have quality time with older children

We recommend that au pairs working with children attend a paediatric first-aid course, and we can help to arrange this for you. Suitable courses are held by the Red Cross and St John's Ambulance. Basic courses take just a few hours.

....and help in other ways...

You do not need to have children to have an au pair! Au pairs can be male or female, and can help you with gardening or DIY projects, or caring for horses, cats or dogs.

Here are some ways that an au-pair might make a difference to you, whether you have children or not:

Doing light housework
Walking dogs, exercising horses, caring for cats
Just being there, collecting deliveries, and keeping your home occupied and secure while you are out
House-sitting while you are on holiday
Helping an elderly friend or relative with housework or shopping

Home Care for the Elderly

Au-pairs can assist with home care for the elderly, providing home help, security and companionship in the comfort of the senior citizen's own home.

Regulations and Costs

The law and Home Office guidelines relating to au-pairs state that they may work up to 25 hours per week, plus two evenings' babysitting. Au-pairs from EU member countries can participate in an 'au-pair plus' scheme, working a 38-hour week.

In return, you provide board, lodging, and pocket money of at least £45 per week. The host family also often pays for English language classes, eg at a local Adult Education college. It is a mutually beneficial arrangement which enables the au pair to learn about life in Britain, and to improve his or her English, while making your life easier.

We charge just £250 to find an au pair for you, and will find another free of charge if your first placement does not work out, at any time within the first eight weeks.

Contact Us

If you'd like to find out more, or just have a chat to find out if an au-pair would be right for you, contact Valerie King on valerie.k@tesco.net or telephone 0118 9811109