Advice and Support for employing your own Personal Assistants (PA’s)

If you employ a Personal Assistant directly, you will take on certain responsibilities as an employer.  This is the case whether you employ someone for a few hours a week or full-time.    You will therefore need to make sure that you are abiding by employment law.  This is a complex area and you should get advice about things like recruitment, employment contracts, employers’ insurance, paying salaries, income tax and National Insurance.    

West of England Centre for Inclusive Living (WECIL)

Bath & North East Somerset pays WECIL to provide an advice and support service to all service users who want to employ their own personal assistants.   We recommend that you use this service.   

If you use WECIL, a Direct Payment advisor will visit you at home.  They can provide assistance with recruiting staff and advice about being an employer, budgeting, training and administration.  They can also provide things like blank employment contracts and timesheets that you can use.   Once you have employed your personal assistants, WECIL have a helpline that you can ring during working hours.

Social Services charges £400/year for this service and this will be taken out of your Individual Budget.

If you do not want to use the WECIL support service, you should still get specialist advice about your legal responsibilities as an employer.   There are contact details for a number of useful organisations at the end of this leaflet.  

Payroll Service

WECIL can run your payroll on your behalf.  They make an additional charge for this service, which you can pay for out of your Budget.

There are also a number of other local payroll providers.  Some of them specialise in working with disabled people who are employing their staff and can offer additional legal advice and support.   You can ask your Care Manager for a list.

Rates of pay

When you are working out your Budget, you need to allow both for the wages you will pay (including any tax and National Insurance) and for extra costs that you will have as an employer.  These are things like employers’ National Insurance Contributions (NICs), holiday pay, Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) and administration costs (eg. advertising, insurance, phone calls, training, payroll, stationery etc).   

The table below shows the suggested hourly rates (until April 2007) that you should allow in your Budget to meet all these costs:

If you are using Personal Assistants at other times (eg. during the night), you should ask your Care Manager or WECIL for the recommended rates you should use.

The suggested rates are only guidelines and you can work out your own provided that they comply with employment legislation.

Useful Contacts

HM Revenues and Customs

New Employer Helpline (Monday – Friday 8am – 8pm; Saturday – Sunday 8am – 5pm).   Tel.   0845 6070143. 

Website: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/employers/

ACAS

Website:  http://www.acas.org.uk/   Helpline:   08457 47 47 47

National Centre for Independent Living

Website:  http://www.ncil.org.uk                         

Telephone:  08457 47 47 47           Text: 0207 587 1177

E-mail: info@ncil.org.uk

DirectGov    Website:  www.direct.gov.uk/DisabledPeople/HealthAndSupport/HealthAndSocialCareAssessments/fs/en

This information can be made available in a range of languages, large print, Braille, on tape, electronic and accessible formats.  Contact the Information Officer on 01225 477983, Minicom 01225 477043 or email information_officer@bathnes.gov.uk