If you are employing personal assistants (PA’s), you will need to make sure that you are abiding by employment law.  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 want to 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.

Payroll Service

WECIL can run your payroll on your behalf and make an additional charge for this service.  There are also a number of other local payroll providers.    You can ask your Care Manager for a list of some of these or find it at www.bathnes.gov.uk   (Follow the links A-Z: Direct Payments)

Other advice

You can get further advice from the following organisations:

ACAS

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

National Centre for Independent Living

Website:  www.ncil.org.uk                            

Telephone:  08457 47 47 47           Text: 0207 587 1177

E-mail: info@ncil.org.uk

DirectGov    Webpage:  http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/HealthAndSupport/ArrangingHealthAndSocialCare/index.htm