16 December 2021
Do you employ your own Personal Assistants (PAs), carers or support workers? If so please can you complete this short survey by the Local Government Association about the recruitment and retention of PAs. It has been designed by people who employ PAs, for people who employ PAs. If you prefer, In Control are offering two one-hour online zoom video meetings on 5 January 2022 where you can talk through the survey questions instead of filling in the form. The deadline is 22nd January 2022.
FULL ARTICLE05 November 2021
A new study on personal support, gender and sexuality is looking for participants. If you’d like to take part you must be aged between 18 and 30, live in England and have over 6 months experience of managing your support arrangements. You do not have to have a PA right now. The study asks how young disabled adults make decisions about hiring personal assistants, and whether gender or sexuality (of a PA or individual employer) shape those decisions.
FULL ARTICLE03 November 2021
Are you employed as a PA for an adult over the age of 18 and feel you could benefit from further training? Do you employ your own PA(s) and want to further their skills and knowledge or improve your understanding of your role and responsibilities as an individual employer? If so, Disability Sheffield are running a number of FREE courses in partnership with Skills for Care and Sheffield City Council starting this November until March 2022.
FULL ARTICLE30 July 2021
The Independent Living Group, a UK wide membership organisation set up to support Individual Employers and their staff, has reported a lot of enquiries from individual employers and Direct Payment professionals about the continued use of PPE since the relaxation of restrictions in England on 19th July. In response to this ILG Support have put together a new advice note for individual employers explaining that in some cases, individual employers won’t be quite so ready to relax the rules.
FULL ARTICLE11 February 2021
Are you a PA? Would you like to tell people a bit about what it’s like to be a PA and what you enjoy about it? We want to raise the profile of the crucial work Personal Assistants do and encourage more people to think about becoming one. But we need your help to do so! We’re looking for all kinds of PAs, from all kinds of backgrounds to share their experiences. Your PA story is important and will make a difference.
FULL ARTICLE10 September 2020
Employees are entitled to time off work to help someone who depends on them (a ‘dependant’) in an unexpected event or emergency. This could apply to situations to do with Coronavirus and may be useful to support management of circumstances where personal assistants request time off work to help someone who depends on them if they become unwell due to COVID-19 .
FULL ARTICLE02 July 2020
If your PA is returning to work in the near future the Sheffield Individual Employer and PA Development Group has produced a new Risk Assessment Tool to support individual employers to minimise any risks for their PAs to return to work. The Risk Assessment Tool is a useful guide to conversations with your PA about risk and gives topics and poses questions. You can record on the document what you and your PA have agreed will happen and review it as national guidance changes.
FULL ARTICLE26 March 2020
In response to a city wide need for more personal assistants due to the impact of the Coronavirus, Disability Sheffield is hosting a new Covid-19 PA register. The purpose of the register is to hold the details of PAs and other support workers (e.g. from day services) who are available for work and to match people in need of support with a potential PA.
FULL ARTICLE28 May 2019
Disability Sheffield has been working in partnership with Sheffield Hallam University and University of York to continue the development of their research project, Workplace Personal Assistants (WPA). We are keen to work with employers to develop a policy/guidance that can be adapted for each workplace and easily adopted by businesses to ensure that all aspects of having WPAs are considered.
FULL ARTICLE17 September 2018
Do you employ your own Personal Assistants or Carers but want more skills and knowledge to boost your confidence as an employer? Or are you looking to hire them but don’t know where to start? Then our free courses are for you! Our training on ‘Being a Good Employer’ for individual employers is split into three modules. You can attend all three or any you feel necessary for yourself. The first module on Advertising and Recruiting takes place on Monday 24 September.
FULL ARTICLE