Employing a personal assistant with direct payments can give you the freedom and flexibility to choose someone appropriate to meet you care and support needs and provide consistency.
Choosing your personal assistant
Who you employ to be your personal assistant can vary. You may be thinking about employing a:
- family member,
- friend,
- neighbour, or
- recruiting a skilled care worker.
In most cases the best person to employ will be someone you do not know but who has the right level of skills and experience to support you.
Although direct payments allow you to have more choice of personal assistant, there is still a requirement for us to ensure that they are the most appropriate person to meet your needs.
If you do not already have someone in mind, we encourage you to use our Direct Payments Support Service, provided through Dewis Centre for Independent Living, who can help you to find someone that is right for you. They may already know someone who would be suitable, or they will help you to recruit.
If you are thinking about employing a family member, there are certain conditions that must be met so before making any arrangements you must discuss this with your social work team.
Recruiting your personal assistant
Before employing anyone, it is a good idea to think about what it is you are looking for and what sort of person you want to support you and the type of tasks you would like your personal assistant to carry out. It might be useful to write a list including skills and tasks you want your personal assistant to have or do. This list will also help you to develop a job description that is essential when recruiting/employing staff. You must always remember that the tasks you can ask your personal assistant to help with must meet your needs that are set out in your Care and Support Plan.
You can employ more than one personal assistant to cover the support you have been assessed as needing. This is particularly important if you have direct payments to pay for more than 48 hours per week as we expect anyone receiving a direct payment to follow the current Working Time Regulations and only contract for a maximum 48 hour working week for each personal assistant. However, if there are exceptional circumstances that mean that if the personal assistant (with their agreement) opts out of the Working Time Regulations as there is no alternative support available. This must be discussed first with the case manager as we may not agree this on a long-term basis.
Dewis CIL will be able to advise you on this.
Not everyone can be employed as a personal assistant, maybe because they do not have a right to work in the UK or they have a criminal record. You must complete the right checks before employing anyone, this also includes if you are considering employing a family member as you will become their legal employer.
In some cases, we may not agree with the choice you have made and so may not agree to fund the direct payments for a particular person. If this happens, we will always discuss this with you beforehand.
Being an employer
When you choose to employ a personal assistant, you must also take on certain responsibilities and follow certain legislation. It is important you think about all areas of employing your own staff to ensure you are a good employer. Things you will need in place:
- Payroll
- Rates of Pay
- Employment Contracts
- Timesheets, Holiday Forms, Sickness Forms
- Employer's Liability Insurance
You must follow all current legislation and policies in relation to employment law; for example, sickness pay, maternity/paternity leave, and income tax.
If you choose to employ a personal assistant with your direct payments, the employment agreement will be between you and the personal assistant. Neither Cardiff Council Adult Services or Dewis CIL will have any legal obligation in relation to the personal assistant's employment.
Direct Payments Support Service
We fund Dewis CIL to provide our Direct Payment Support Service for everyone receiving direct payments from us. They are there to support you with all of this and can advise what your responsibilities are once you become an employer. Once you have recruited your personal
assistant you will need to manage them, and this includes making sure they are trained to carry out their duties.
If you want to employ a personal assistant, they will also support you to:
- Write a job description.
- Advertise the job.
- Interview potential staff.
- Choose the person you want to employ and obtain references.
- Complete DBS checks.
- Put together an Employment Contract.
We strongly encourage everyone receiving direct payments to use Dewis CIL for most, if not all aspects of managing their direct payments.
More information
Support is available from Dewis Centre for Independent Living on recruiting personal assistants or general information on direct payments. You can call them on 02922 405060.
If you are considering employing a relative, you should speak to your social work team before making any further arrangements.
