Arranging your own care

Employing a personal assistant can help you live independently and in a way that you choose.

There are many benefits to employing a personal assistant:

• they work for you

• you decide what you want them to do

• you decide when you want them to work

When you employ a personal assistant you become an employer.

This can be daunting as there are lots of things to think about.

You will have responsibilities as an employer. It is important that you are fully aware of what your responsibilities are.

Before you employ a personal assistant you will need to consider the following:-

• Contract of employment

• Paying your personal assistant
• Providing a pension
• Redundancy

• Maternity, Paternity, Adoption Rights and Parental Leave

• Health & Safety
• Insurance

There are brokerage services available to support you with your direct payment.

People who are using a Direct Payment to arrange their own care and support may need advice and support to do this.

To help customers find the advice and support they need, City of York Council has set up a list of providers.

We recommend you choose a provider from this list although you may choose to use someone else or not have support at all.

Here's a list of Direct Payment support providers

We thank Inspired Pics who provided the images for this publication.

You should seek permission from the image owner if you wish to use any of these images.