|
|
DEFINITIONS OF CHILDCARE
|
Aupairs
Aupairs are unqualified
and they always live in as part of the family. Aupairs are most suited to
families with children over pre-school age as they are not usually trained
to work with children and therefore are not generally considered suitable
to look after children under the age of three for long periods of time,
while parents are out. They can be a good option for providing
after-school childcare. UK Home Office standard guidelines for Au Pairs are
as follows. - An Au-Pair placement is an arrangement whereby a single
person aged from 17 to 27 inclusive, comes to the United Kingdom to study
English; and lives for up to two years as a member of an English-speaking
family while they learn English; and helps in the home for a maximum of 5
hours per day, with at least two full days off per week, in return for a
reasonable allowance (pocket money) and the use of a room of his or her
own.
The Au-pair will be living as `Part of ` an English
speaking family. The host family should expect the au-pair to interact with
them, even when they are `off duty`. It is very important that the au-pair
becomes a `member` of the family. This is the key to a successful au-pair
placement. The way to achieve this is to help the au-pair get to know every
individual in the family as well as possible, encourage conversation - talk
to them and ask them questions. The au-pair will respect the privacy of all
of the members of the host family and the family too should respect the
privacy of the au-pair. When you have made a ‘friend for life` with your
au-pair, you and she have had a successful placement.
You can expect your au-pair to be mature and relatively
independent. The au-pair understands that the family does not want an
additional child to care for – and that they are coming here to assist you
with your children and in your home.
In return, you can expect the au-pair to assist you for
up to 25 weekday hours per week, usually 5 hours per day. The duties
required of aupairs by their host families will vary greatly from one
family to another.
Some of the duties that you can expect of an au-pair
might be; -
- Helping to get the children out of bed, washed and dressed in
the mornings.
- Making sure the children have a proper breakfast in the
mornings.
- Taking children to School or Nursery School, and collecting
them afterwards.
- Caring for the children outside of school hours, while the
parents are still at work.
- Entertaining the children during the day while the parents are
working.
- Preparing or cooking a simple meal for her and the children.
- Taking the children swimming, to the park or to their
after-school sport or dance class.
- Laundry duties, such as washing, drying and ironing laundry.
- Cleaning duties, such as hoovering,
washing floors, dusting surfaces and washing dishes.
- Tidy duties, such as making beds, putting toys away, and
picking up after the children.
- Up to a maximum of two weekday evenings baby-sitting per week.
ost
families will require the au-pair to carry out, only some of these duties
as part of the 25 hours per week. The host family can reasonably expect
that the au-pair carry out some of the household duties outside her
`working hours` because she is sharing the house with you and therefore
contributing to the amount of housework required overall.
WHAT THE AU-PAIRS EXPECT FROM THEIR FAMILIES
The au-pair has been informed of the Home Office
standard guidelines, and is aware of what they can reasonably expect from
you as a host family, and what they must give in return.
The au-pair will be cared for by the family as a member
of their family.
You as the host family will ensure that the au-pair is
only expected to work for approximately 25 hours per week, and ensure that
the duties expected of the au-pair are clearly explained, so that the
aupair knows what is expected of her. If you do occasionally ask your
au-pair to baby-sit for any evenings over and above the two she is able to
do as part of her conditions, then you can expect to be pay between £10 and
£15 per session on those evenings.
The host family will provide the au-pair with a room of
her own, which you should not enter without your au-pairs personal
permission - It is unlikely that there will be a lock on the au-pairs
bedroom door - Nor is it likely that any of the other bedrooms will have
locks on the doors. As an au-pair, living in another family’s
home, she is in an extremely trusted position, and likewise you - the
family, accept that the au-pair needs to be trusting of you. For this
reason, all Antoinettes families are required to provide a personal
reference to Antoinettes Agency,
(these references are checked in the same way that we check your potential
carers references) before we are able to send any candidates applications
to you.
You can expect to pay for all the groceries and bills as
usual – her board and accommodation should be free and unconditional.
Try to remember that, there are as many horror stories
about families, heard by au-pairs, as there are horror stories heard about
Aupairs by host families!
When your new Aupair arrives, Antoinettes Agency
provides you with a ‘Family pack’ to assist you in making sure that your
new Aupair settles in well.
Nannies
Nannies are qualified carers who offer one-to-one care in the child's own home
environment. Nannies can look after children of any age, but will mainly
care for children of pre-school age on a sole charge basis. Engaging a
nanny is usually a long term commitment. Nannies can provide childcare
tailor-made for your children’s needs. Nannies
provide childcare in your own home. Trained nannies can provide you with
high quality, professional childcare. They can look after children of any age
and they can often work flexible hours to fit in with your working hours.
Employing a nanny is an important responsibility because it will be up to
you to make sure the person is able to look after your children well. Being
a nanny is a skilled and demanding job. When we select and accept nannies
onto OUR register, among many other criteria we look for training, experience
and a positive attitude.
Live-in nannies live in your home and will need to be provided with a
private bedroom and food in addition to their salary.
Daily nannies come to your home to look after your children.
Nanny-share arrangements can be set up to share a nanny with another
family.
Nannies usually look after the family in that family’s
home. However, in the case of nanny-shares the children of two or more
families can be looked after in the home of either family. In England and Wales, a nanny looking after children of more than two families must
register with the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) as a child
minder.
Nannies come to your home to
care for your child and usually arrive at an agreed time, which will be
before you need to leave for work. It is a good idea if you can arrange the
Nanny's hours to overlap your work hours, so that there are at least 15
minutes every day, once you have arrived home, to discuss the general
happenings of the day. This time can be very important for the Nanny as
well as parents, as it shows your Nanny that she is valued and can help you
both build a good relationship for the future.
 With a nanny comes the
responsibility of becoming an ‘employer’ and the
costs of tax and insurance to consider on top of the wages quoted. In
addition you may need to provide the Nanny with a `petrol allowance -
usually around 35p per mile, It is also a good idea to provide the Nanny
with a weekly `float`, which will allow your Nanny to take your children to
places like the swimming pool and buy ice-creams etc. This `float` is
especially important in the school holidays.
Employing a Nanny can be
quite an expensive form of childcare (unless you have two or more children)
- however, it is also, the most flexible, and beneficial to the child, as
it offers one-to-one care in the child's own home environment.
A nanny is essentially employed
to carry out all child related care in the absence of the parents. A
typical day in the life of any nanny might involve; -
- Helping to get the children
out of bed, washed and dressed in the mornings.
- Making sure the children
have a proper breakfast in the mornings.
- Taking children to School
or Nursery School, and collecting them afterwards.
- Caring for the children all
day while the parents are still at work.
- Entertaining, educating and
creating fun activities for the children during the day.
- Preparing or cooking a meal
for the children.
- Taking the children
swimming, to the park or to other sport, dance or activities.
Nannies often spend two years or
longer training for their qualification to work in the
childcare sector. The course will have provided the nanny with a wealth of
knowledge regarding many aspects of childcare and the correct ways in which
to care of children. It is important to remember that nannies are not
housekeepers and most nannies prefer not to do any housework as part of
their job specification at all. Given the above duties, nannies do not
often have the time to do great amounts of housework. At best you should
expect that your Nanny maintains your home environment to its usual
standard in your absence. If nursery duties or housework are important for
you to include in the nanny’s working day, please
make sure you make this clear in your family details form and discuss these
requirements at interview. Remember….anyone can
clean – but you would not want ‘anyone’ to look after your children.
Some Nursery duties that you
might request of a nanny can be; -
- Childrens Laundry duties, such as
washing, drying and ironing of childrens
laundry.
- Cleaning duties within childrens playrooms and bathroom only, such as hoovering, washing floors, dusting surfaces.
- Tidy duties, such as
helping / teaching the children to make their beds, and put their toys
away.
- The cleaning and sterilizing of any bottles and baby
equipment and any toys
- The preparation and
pureeing of baby foods.
- To ensure a smooth course
during the nanny’s employment follow these
suggestions;
If you have got time, and can
make arrangements with the nanny, try to arrange a few sessions for her to
drop in and spend some time with the children while you are at home, before
your nanny’s contract actually begins. Show your
nanny how to operate all of the household equipment including the cooker
(especially if you have an Aga or a Rayburn
oven), dishwasher and washing machine etc.
Make sure your nanny is aware of
any illnesses or allergies that the children may suffer from, what causes an allergic reaction and what course
of action to take.
When the nanny first starts her
new position in your household, she may need to be shown where everything
is in the house. As long as you have explained your requirements clearly at
the interview, you can expect your nanny to ‘get started straight away’ and
should not need to spell out your requirements. You can and should expect a
good nanny to ‘hit the ground running’ on day one.
Make sure your nanny knows what
specific duties are expected of her, write a list
of duties that are her sole responsibility.
Make sure your nanny always
carry out these duties as and when expected. If the duties are not being
carried out as you require them, please discuss this with your nanny as
soon as possible. It is most likely to be the result of a misunderstanding.
Encourage the nanny to take an
active role in the children’s school life, by
being involved and aware of special dates and activities, which are going
on at school. Use a Diary.
Whenever you have a question or
concern about anything at all, SPEAK TO YOUR NANNY AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
Your nanny will prefer to be told by you and have the opportunity to
discuss the problem, than to see you are worrying about something, and not
be too sure what they have done wrong. Try not to ‘save up’ several things
to discuss with your nanny all at once. It is much better to tackle any
issues as they arise, thus giving her the opportunity to acknowledge and
improve on things individually. That way, she is more likely to get it
right next time. The key thing with any queries or concerns you have is -
communication.
If your children are fussy
eaters or have a special diet to follow, draw up a special MENU, so that
the nanny can choose suitable snacks and meals to cook for the children. By
doing this she will learn what the children do and do not like to eat, as
well as what you like and do not like your children to eat!
If you have strong ideas about
what you would like your children to be doing during the day, write a clear
list of what you want/need the nanny to do with the children. Ask that the
nanny include a certain amount (but varied) of those activities each day
either in the morning or afternoon, and allow your children and the nanny
to choose their activities for the other half of the day.
The secret to any successful
nanny placement really, is to COMMUNICATE with your NANNY as often as you
can. The sooner you make an effort to get to know her, she will reciprocate
your behaviour, and you will all become friends
in no time.
If this is the first time you will engage a Nanny, you may find that you
have a lot of questions. We will always be happy to answer any queries or
concerns you have regarding your new Nanny, and to give advice when
requested. Please contact us at any time for an informal chat. The more
queries we answer for you – the better quality our service becomes.
Babysitters
Babysitters tend to be qualified carers, who already work
within the childcare sector, on either a full or part time basis, and who
are available for ad hoc evening or weekend bookings made via a
professional childcare consultancy.
Antoinette’s
baby-sitters are Nannies who we arrange to come to your home to care for
your child/children on an ad hoc basis so that you can have an evening or
day out, or even a weekend away, whenever you like.
All our Baby-sitters are in fact individuals who are
already working full time in the childcare sector, which includes teachers,
nannies, childminders, social workers and other
professions, who are already registered with Antoinettes and have provided
a complete application, which has been carefully vetted and thoroughly
checked by the Agency. Many childminders have
public liability insurance policies. Most nannies do not. Where a carer
does have an insurance policy, it is usually specific to their full time
job and therefore may not cover them during the time they are babysitting
for your children.
As a general rule of thumb, Nannies often spend two
years or longer training for their qualification to work in the
childcare sector. The course will have provided the nanny with a wealth of
knowledge regarding many aspects of childcare and the correct ways in which
to care of children, and as such Nannies make the best possible
Baby-sitters.
A babysitter is essentially employed to carry out all
child related care in the absence of the parents, during the period of the
booking.
A typical
evening/booking for any babysitter might involve; -
- Helping to get the children
washed and dressed and off to bed with a story.
- Making sure the children
have a proper supper before bed.
- General caring for the
children in the absence of the parents.
- Entertaining, educating and
creating fun activities for the children before bedtime.
- Possibly preparing or
cooking a meal for the children.
- Administering any medicines
if required to do so.
- Any other specific requests
made by the parents.
- Tidy duties, such as
helping / teaching the children to put their toys away.
- The cleaning and sterilizing of any bottles and baby
equipment used.
Maternity Nurses
Maternity
Nurses are usually specially trained nannies or midwives who have specialist or extensive experience with
babies. This is most often a temporary arrangement, to support new mothers.
The maternity nurse will take care of new babies for up to three months
after the birth and help the new mother to organise a suitable routine. The
length of the contract varies, depending on the family requirements. Most
Maternity Nurses are engaged for periods of between 1 and 12 weeks. They
usually live with the family for the term of the contract.
Mothers Helps
Mothers Helps usually work with you rather than looking after children
while you are out. They are ideal for new mothers, or mothers expecting baby’s who already have preschool age children. Most
mothers helps are newly qualified Nannies who are looking to
build on their childcare experience while working alongside the parents to
relieve the pressure of childcare and housework, usually for a period of
six months or longer.
Nurseries
Nurseries
offer full or part time group care within a secure environment for children
between the age of 0 and 5 yrs.
Information for
Clients
Information here...
Useful Links
Links here...
News
for families and clients
· Latest Nanny Positions
· Latest Aupair Positions
· Find a Nanny
· Find an Aupair
|
