This Petition has been endorsed by Sandra Landau MBE who was awarded her MBE in 2017 for Service to Au Pairs and cultural exchange.  Please sign this petition and circulate to as many people as possible, and like us on Facebook and follow and retweet us on Twitter.

The #saveaupairs petition has been updated as of 09/04/2020:

DESPITE ASSURANCES FROM PREVIOUS NOTABLE MINISTERS UNDER CONSERVATIVE GOVERNMENT IN 2018-19 THAT THE AU PAIR PROGRAMME WOULD NOT BE FORGOTTEN AND IS A VAULABLE CONTRIBUTION – THE EU PAIR PROGRAMME HAS BEEN YET AGAIN… FORGOTTEN!

Current government visa proposals will result in Au Pairing between the UK and EU coming to an end on 31 December 2020.

This means an end to the fantastic and highly valued cultural exchange programme that enable Au Pairs from the EU to join families in the UK, and an end to UK young people joining families in the EU.

THERE IS A SOLUTION!!! 

POST BREXIT -  The youth mobility visa is an existing Visa and we demand the UK government to automatically allow EU countries to be eligible and included in this visa to enable their young people to continue to come here for up to 2 years.
The cap on numbers should be lifted in accordance with the advice from the migration advisory committee. 
An Au Pair’s living costs are underwritten by a host family so proof of this role should enable a reduction in the level of financial proof required.

Please sign this petition because none of the visas that will be in place for 1 January 2021 are applicable for Au Pairs!

Thousands of Host Families which include Key Workers rely upon Au Pairs for flexible childcare. The impact of having NO Au Pair Programme will be detrimental and have a crippling financial impact on these families.

AU PAIRING between the UK and EU is under severe threat from the uncertainty of Brexit, which could spell an end to au pairs from the EU joining families in the UK, and an end to UK young people joining families in the EU.

Au pairing is a unique form of cultural exchange for young people that is neither work nor holiday, and where visits last much longer than typical holidays. It therefore requires clear provision in immigration law for suitable rights that are different to work or holiday visas. These rights existed for 30 years before the UK joined the Common Market and will need to exist again after the UK leaves the EU. However, at present there seem to be NO PLANS for such arrangements in any Brexit proposals.

As a result, Europe’s oldest, simplest and most effective cultural exchange programme between the UK and EU countries could simply come to a halt.

This would mean an end to the mutually beneficial exchange that takes place between a young person and a family with children. An end to the tradition where a young person joins a family as a temporary family member, providing help with childcare and family activities in exchange for a secure place in the family and for pocket money. An end to the programme of individual learning (particularly of the host country language) and mutual cultural exchange.

It would also be a catastrophe for thousands of hard working families, as they struggle to adjust their work and living arrangements, and a hit on the productivity of UK plc.

This valuable experience needs to be protected, to give young people and families a clear and secure basis on which to continue to enjoy the benefits of au pairing.

In April 2018 we called upon Theresa May, David Davis and UK negotiators, and on Jean-Claude Juncker, Michel Barnier and all EU Heads of State, to make clear and unambiguous arrangements that ensure the door stays open for young people throughout the EU to make extended visits to the UK and for UK young people to make extended visits to the EU for the once-in-a-lifetime experience of au pairing.

We were told that the valuable Au Pair Programme would not be forgotten!

Save Europe’s oldest existing cultural exchange programme for the sake of young people and families.

#SaveAuPairs

Please sign this petition and circulate to as many people as possible, and like us on Facebook and follow and retweet us on Twitter.