Employing a Personal Assistant

Employing a Personal Assistant or close relative

There are things to consider when employing a personal assistant.

Please read our factsheet to help answer any questions you might have.

Employing a Personal Assistant Checklist

When we setup your Direct Payment you can ask for further advice.

Support to recruit a Personal Assistant (PA)

Are you looking to recruit a personal assistant to support you with your care needs? If so, the Cornwall Council Direct Payment team can support with any advice and guidance you may need including job adverts and DBS checks.

Skills for Care is an external company who provide useful information for:

• finding a personal assistant, and
• getting started with recruitment

They have created PA toolkit for individual employers to support employers to recruit, manage and train personal assistants.

They also have a guide on recruiting a personal assistant. This helps guide you through a:

• job description
• advert
• interviewing
• completing references and DBS check

Templates

If you have chosen to use a personal assistant, you need to ensure a contract of employment is in place before they start.

We recommend you ask your employer liability insurance provider for this.

Here are some useful templates to help you to recruit and manage your personal assistant. You can use them as they are or change them to suit your needs.

View the templates

Here are some other templates which might be helpful

• Contract of employment
• Risk assessment for multiple personal assistants
• Personal Assistant Timesheet
• Personal Assistant Sickness Absence Record
• Personal Assistant Advert

Eligibility to work in the UK

As an employer you must ensure that your personal assistant has the eligibility to work within the UK. Under the Asylum and Immigration Act it is a criminal offence to employ a person who does not have permission to work in the UK.

You could be fined up to £20,000 per illegally employed individual.

Please ensure, before a person starts work, that they provide evidence that they are legally entitled to work in the UK.

Here are some useful checklists to ensure you have everything covered:

• Direct Payment Guidance and eligibility Checklist
• Government Guidance Right to work checklist

Insurance Providers

When you employ a personal assistant, you must have insurance to protect you and your assistant. An amount is included in your Personal Budget to cover the cost of insurance.

You can choose any Insurance provider you wish, below is a list of our recommended Insurance Providers:

View the Insurance Services list

Training

We Find Any Learner offer online courses. These are Government-funded and so are available at no cost to you. They will help you to develop yours and your personal assistant's knowledge and skills at your own pace. You can do this in your own home within approximately 20 to 30 hours, or around 4 to 12 weeks.

The top 10 course choices are:

1. Mental Health
2. Event Planning
3. T User Skills
4. Principles for Digital Skills
5. Understanding Autism
6. Allergy Awareness
7. Bullying in Children and Young People
8. Safe Handling of Medication
9. Dementia Care
10. Children and Young People’s Mental Health

To be eligible, you need to be:

• Over 19 as of the 31st August 2021
• Living in Scotland or England
• Not on an Apprenticeship

For more information visit www.wefindanylearner.co.uk to enrol or call 01226 958 888 to find out more.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

The Government issued new guidance on 9 February 2023 on sourcing PPE.

There is a Government provided online portal for ordering supplies of PPE.  This is open to all Personal Assistants or anyone employing a Personal Assistant.

Your personal assistant needs to register for an account to access the free PPE. Or contact the PPE Portal enquiry line on 0800 876 6802.

Sign up to the Government PPE Portal

Free Personal Assistant Flu Vaccine

If you provide care and support directly to people, the Government recommends you receive a flu vaccine.  This includes all personal care assistants (PAs).

To get a free vaccination please go to www.gov.uk and download the letter of entitlement. This is to be completed by you as the employer to prove you employ a PA. Your PA can then visit their GP or local pharmacist to obtain the free vaccination.

Flu vaccination guidance for personal assistants (PAs)

Ask for money for training - individual employer funding

People who employ personal assistants can apply for money to pay for training to develop the knowledge and skills of their personal assistant and themselves as an employer. This opportunity is open to people who are in receipt of a social care Direct Payment and those that use their own money to employ personal assistants. Funding can be used for:

1. personal assistants training and development needs
2. the development of their knowledge and skills as an employer
3. hiring replacement support whilst your usual personal assistant is attending training courses.

Individual Employer Funding

Keeping in contact

Do you have an email address, so we can send you information quickly?

We would like to send messages and updates which relate to you and your situation as quickly and as easily as possible.

Do you have an email address where we can reach you?

This could be the email of a trusted person such as a family member or your PA if you don’t have one yourself.

Please send it to us at DirectPaymentsAdviceTeam@cornwall.gov.uk.