Personal Assistants

The following information and advice covers the areas of prevention, self-care and resources to help maintain or improve your overall health and wellbeing.

A Personal Assistant can be employed by yourself or via an agency to carry out any tasks to assist you to maintain your independence such as;

Personal care and hygiene, such as washing, dressing or using the toilet
Accessing services in the community such as leisure and social activities
Driving to help you get around
Correspondence and paperwork
Attending doctor and hospital appointment
Domestic household tasks, meal preparation, laundry and cleaning
Escorting you to meetings, community events, day trips and outings
Help you with medication
Assisting you to fulfil your parenting role
Maintaining relations with family and friends
Work, training and educational activities
Mobility in your home and in the wider community
Accessing necessary facilities and making use of public transport
Shopping and ironing
Supporting family carers when they need respite or break from their caring role

You can employ a Personal Assistant with your own funds or, if you have eligible needs, you may receive some help with costs depending on the outcome of a financial assessment.

For further information about the process of assessment, planning care and paying for care download the Care and Support In Lincolnshire guide from the Lincolnshire County Council website.

Information about assessments and eligibility can be found on the Lincolnshire County Council Website.

If you are eligible then you may be entitled to a Personal Budget. This is an amount of money that you can use for your care and support. If you are to receive a personal budget then you will have a financial assessment to determine whether the Local Authority will contribute and whether you need to make a contribution towards your care and support.

You can use this budget to buy the care and support you need, in one of the following ways:

as a Direct Payment – this means that you will be able to purchase your care and support yourself within your allocated Personal Budget
by asking Adult Care to make arrangements to meet your care and support needs

The most choice and control is usually achieved by having a Direct Payment. you could then use the money to employ a Personal Assistant or use an agency who will meet your needs in accordance with your Care and Support Plan.

Direct Payments can be paid to;

You
someone else you nominate or is authorised to act on your behalf
a Direct Payment Support Service who will manage the financial aspect of your Direct Payment for you
any combination of the above

A Personal Assistant can be employed directly by you or via an agency.

If you use an agency, then they will take care of much of the paperwork, recruitment and other things such as DBS checks, sick pay, holiday pay, workplace pensions and insurances etc. However, you are not guaranteed to have the person you want, or the same person to help you each time.

If you employ a Personal Assistant directly you will need to recruit the right person for you, and who can carry out the duties in the job description, and you will need to take care of making sure they are eligible to work in the UK. You will also need to you take care of their employment contract, tax, national insurance, workplace insurance, workplace pension, sick pay, holiday pay (and cover), DBS checks. This can sound daunting but there is lots of help available.

Lincolnshire County Council commission a Direct Payment Support Service, Penderels Trust, who provide lots of information, advice and support, including a payroll service, support to recruit a PA and templates for contracts of employment.

If you are using your Personal Budget to employ a PA, or you have had contact with Adult Care and are self-funding your care, ask the Adult Care practitioner you have spoken with to make a referral to Penderels Trust.

For further information about employing a PA, including payroll tools, please see the links below.

A Personal Assistant can be recruited by an agency or you could do this yourself.

Find out more information about recruitment.

Job Description

A job description is a list of tasks you need your personal assistant to do. A person specification is a list of the skills, experience, and personal qualities you would like your personal assistant to have. If you have a care plan you may have specific requirements that you will need to think about when writing the person specification.

The LCC Direct Payments Support Service (Penderels Trust) can support with this.

Recruiting a carer or a Personal Assistant

Unless there’s someone you already know, you’ll need to advertise, interview and carry out checks.

You will need to make sure you have Employers Liability Insurance in place before you start the recruitment.

The LCC Direct Payments Support Service (Penderels Trust) can support with this.

Recruitment agencies might charge you, but it might be worth it for the added peace of mind.

You could look for a PA using Job Centre Plus, Penderels PA Finder or Universal Jobmatch.

Interviews

Prepare for the interview – Put together a list of questions based on the job description and the candidate's qualifications and experience
Do not interview alone – It is safer, and you can gain a second opinion
Allow time between interviews – to allow you to take notes
Don’t rush a decision – take time to make the decision, you could re-interview, ask for more information or even re-advertise if no-one was suitable

You should check the candidate's right to work in the UK. As an employer, you must make sure that any prospective worker is eligible to work in the UK before you employ them.

Ask to check people’s passports or other ID to prove they’re from the European Economic Area or have a visa to work here.

Remember to keep a copy of the paperwork.

You can check a job applicants right to work in the UK.

Once you have decided who you want to employ, contact them and offer them the job. Tell them that you will first need to check their references and carry out any other checks (for example a DBS check). Make sure you give enough time between offering the job and start date to enable you to carry out the checks.

Once your preferred person has accepted the job, send a letter to the people you interviewed who did not get the job. Be prepared to give unsuccessful candidates some feedback if they ask for it.

Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks (previously CRB checks)

Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks are now called Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks, or Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) checks in Scotland.

a DBS check should only be done for a successful job applicant

You can find further information about DBS checks on GOV.uk.

References

You should ask for the details of referees, who you should then contact for the successful applicant. It is usual to ask for two, which should include at least one previous employer. They can reply via post, email or via a phone call but it is best to have the reference in writing.

You will need to ensure you take care of the following before the PA Starts.

Contract of employment
Paying your personal assistant - you can use a payroll service to help you do this
Providing a pension
Redundancy
Maternity, paternity and adoption rights
Health and safety
Employers Liability Insurance

The LCC Direct Payments Support Service (Penderels Trust) can provide advice and support with the above.

A guide is available from Skills for Care

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Personal Assistants

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