Employing or hiring a Personal Assistant

On this page:

A Personal Assistant (PA) is a carer who is employed by an individual directly, instead of being employed by a care agency. Personal Assistants can also be self-employed.

The role of a Personal Assistant is varied and no two jobs are the same. Some examples of the kind of support Personal Assistants provide are:

  • Support with attending medical appointments and administration of medication 
  • Support with preparing meals   
  • Support with going out and about  
  • Support with household chores such as washing, cooking and cleaning

Benefits of hiring a PA

Hiring a Personal Assistant gives you greater choice over how and when you are supported.

It gives you greater control over who is supporting you. You can choose a PA with similar interests to you.

It also allows you to be more flexible with your support. If you need more support on one day but less the next, you can change the schedule to make sure that it works for you.

You can either employ your Personal Assistants, (making you the Personal Assistant’s employer) or hire self-employed Personal Assistants.

Employed Personal Assistants Self-employed Personal Assistants
Have set working patterns Can choose when they work
Have employment rights such as annual leave Don’t get annual leave
Get paid via the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) system, with a pay cheque Invoice for the hours they work

More information on the difference between being an employee and a self-employed person.

Basic steps to hiring a Personal Assistant

  • Create a job advert and ask the Personal Assistant Team for help finding a Personal Assistant
  • Look at who has applied and decide who to interview
  • Decide who you would like to hire
  • Complete pre-employment checks (Right to Work Check, DBS Check and contacting references)
  • Check employment status of Personal Assistant (employed or self-employed)

Job adverts can be published on job sites and social media, as well as the local paper or community noticeboard.

The Personal Assistant Team can help with this process. You can contact us by emailing: pa.register@reading.gov.uk

If you employ your Personal Assistants:

  • You need to get Employers’ Liability Insurance and Public Liability Insurance
  • You need to agree a start date and write a contract
  • You need to contact a payroll provider to deal with all pay-related requirements and who will register you as an employer

Hiring self-employed Personal Assistants

  • Tell the Personal Assistant Team so that we can do the relevant checks with the Personal Assistant
  • Agree fees and their terms of service
  • Personal Assistant will provide invoices

Qualifications and training

No specific qualifications, training or experience are needed to become a Personal Assistant.

When you advertise for the role of Personal Assistant, you must describe what training or experience you would expect them to have.

You can also offer your Personal Assistant training so they feel confident with their role.

If you’re not sure what to put in your job advert, contact the Personal Assistant Team: pa.register@reading.gov.uk

Financial help for getting a Personal Assistant

When we assess you as needing financial help for care and support, we give you an amount of money to pay for it. This is called your ‘Personal Budget’. You may have to put some of your own money towards your Personal Budget as well. This depends on your income and savings. We work out your ‘assessed contribution’ by doing a financial assessment.

Once you have your Personal Budget, we can arrange your care and support. If you want to arrange the care and support yourself, we give our part of the Personal Budget directly to you in a new bank account. This payment is called a Direct Payment (DP). You then add your part of the budget to this account as well. More information on Direct Payments.

You can use your Direct Payment to:

  • pay an agency to provide care and support
  • or hire a Personal Assistant directly, rather than through an agency

You can be your Personal Assistant’s employer or hire a self-employed Personal Assistant.

About the Personal Assistant team

We can help with:

  • Any questions you have about Personal Assistants
  • Putting out job adverts
  • Thinking about interview questions
  • Knowing what you need to do to be an employer
  • Providing template contracts and letters
  • Carrying out DBS Checks
  • Providing contact details to other services for more difficult to answer queries, such as insurance companies and payroll providers

You can contact us by emailing: pa.register@reading.gov.uk

Last updated on 17/02/2025