Useful Information

Employee or volunteer?

The first thing to work out is whether the person helping you is an employee or a volunteer. To be classed as an employee, an individual has to show that they have a contract.

A contract can be a written document or a verbal agreement. For further advice, contact ACAS on

Email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Telephone 08457 47 47 47 8am – 8pm Monday to Friday, 9am – 1pm Saturdays

Web http://www.acas.org.uk

For more information, about volunteers please contact Volunteering England Information Service on

Email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Telephone 0800 028 3304 (10.30am – 12.30pm and 2 – 4pm Monday to Friday)

Web www.volunteering.org.uk

By post Volunteering England

Regent’s Wharf

8 All Saints Street

London

N1 9RL

To see examples of how this works, In Control have produced a book called “Top Tips on supporting people to plan”. You can find this information at:

http://www.in-control.org.uk/downloads/0086_top_tips_SUPPORT.pdf

Employment choices

Employees can either be employed directly by you, employed through an agency or self employed.

Employed directly by you

The major advantage of employing someone directly is that they usually work just for you. This is good because it helps to build a strong relationship. You will be able to discuss any issues or problems that arise directly with the employee resulting in feeling more in control of how things work. You are also entitled to a notice period from the person when they want to finish working with you – this helps you to plan ahead and ensure you have ongoing support. You will be responsible for paying your employee’s tax and national insurance.

Employed through an agency

Employing someone through an agency has the advantage of ensuring that cover is provided during an employee’s holiday or sickness periods. The agency will also be responsible for payroll, sickness pay and holiday pay. They will also be responsible for disciplinary and supervisory issues – and, with the right relationship with the agency, you should be able to have input into this process. One of the disadvantages is that you could be provided with different staff – although this is something you could discuss with the agency. Another disadvantage is that the agency will make a charge for their services – what you pay per hour is not what the employee will receive.

Self Employed

Someone who is self employed works for themselves which means they sort out their own tax and National Insurance (NI), issuing you with an invoice at the end of every pay period. Although there are some advantages of contracting someone who is self employed – e.g. no payroll to sort out and no holiday or sickness payments – there are also disadvantages. For example, they may work for other people not just you, if they can’t come to work they may send someone in their place and they don’t need to provide holiday/sickness absence cover unless it is specified in the contract.

If someone says they are self employed, you need to ask to see evidence of this from the Tax Office otherwise you could be liable for their payments.

HM Revenue and Customs produce a straight forward leaflet (IR56) which helps you to find out if someone is employed or self employed. You can get this from your local Tax Office or from their website: www.hmrc.gov.uk.

Job roles and descriptions

To help you employ the right person for your needs, it will help to prepare a job description and person specification. The job description will outline what jobs and tasks you want your employee to do, as well as their working days and hours.

You will need to think carefully about all the things you need help with and other things you might want to do that your employee will need to help you with.

The person specification will list the qualifications, skills and attributes you want someone you employ to have.

Matching Staff: looks at both what skills/supports and what personality characteristics make for good matches. If you decide to use this tool, you can choose to use the table or the graphic.

Support wanted

and needed

Skills needed

Personality characteristics needed

Shared interests

Example: Job Description

Job Description for live-in Personal Assistant

It is the job of the Personal Assistant to provide supervision/physical assistance/emotional support or encouragement to enable me (the employer) to lead an individual and independent lifestyle in my own home and within the community and to access facilities and opportunities that enable my full participation in the community.

The Personal Assistant should understand their role in facilitating my self-defined needs. They should feel confident to ask what these needs are, always listen to my requests and interpret them correctly.

Personal Assistants should have common sense and be able to show initiative; be able to handle the physical skills of lifting, handling, pushing and bending; have good communication skills and be able to provide emotional support. The Personal Assistant does not have to be a strong person physically to do the job well. However, general good health is important.

Personal requirements for supervision/physical assistance/emotional support or encouragement:

Personal care and general activities of daily living, e.g. getting up and going to bed, communication
Washing and bathing/showering, grooming, attention to hair, nails, skin, eyes, etc
Continence management, assisting in maintaining bowel and bladder routine
Dressing and undressing
Planning and preparation of meals and other refreshments, serving, feeding and clearing away
Shopping
Household tasks as required in the home: general cleaning, ironing, washing, cleaning windows, etc, in order to maintain a safe, secure and comfortable living environment
Household and financial management, including maintenance
General mobility in and out of the home and accessing goods, facilities and services enjoyed by people without disabilities, eg educational and leisure activities
“Sleeping in” cover

Example: Personal Assistant Support Checklist

Adapted from NCIL (National Centre for Independent Living) Personal Assistant Support Checklist

This list is to help you to decide what you might need a Personal Assistant to do for you, how you want it done and to help you decide how much time you might need for each task. It is a tool that you can use to help you to manage your Personal Assistant and help both you and him/her to be clear about what is expected.

Personal care

Getting up - How long does it take?

Going to bed - What is involved?

Night assistance - When and how long?

Washing - Special requirements?

Dressing - How much assistance is needed?

Bladder/bowel care - Use of equipment/What time of day?

Hair, nail care - Any specific needs?

Exercise routine - Type and frequency?

Eating - How much assistance needed?

Domestic needs

House cleaning - How often?

Shopping - Time involved?

Laundry -Time involved?

Meal preparation - What is included?

Maintenance of equipment - Planning and decision making?

Other household tasks

Other needs

Child care - Tasks involved

Employment - Routine?

Study - Number of days per week?

Visiting friends/relatives - How much assistance needed?

Meetings - How much assistance needed?

Entertainment - How much assistance needed?

Correspondence - How much assistance needed?

Paperwork/paying bills - How much assistance needed?

Other considerations

Do they own a car and have a clean driving licence?

Do they understand my communication needs?

Do they share my interests (eg, hobbies, leisure, etc)?

Example: Personal Assistant Skills Checklist

Adapted from NCIL (National Centre for Independent Living) Personal Assistant Skills Checklist

Name: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Please tick where you have experience of providing assistance to people who are disabled or older.

Independent Living		Personal Care
o	Maintaining control	o	Getting in and out of bed
o	Promoting choice	o	Dressing and undressing
o	Living life fully in the community	o	Washing
		o	Bathing/showering
General		o	Shaving
o	With shopping	o	With hair, skin, nails, feet, eyes
o	With housework	o	To use the toilet
o	With moving and transferring people	o	To use a commode
o	With food preparation and cooking	o	To use a bottle
o	To eat
o	With physiotherapy exercises	Equipment
o	With medication	o	With wheelchairs
o	With finances	o	With a hoist
o	With correspondence
o	With gardening	Living Life
o	With maintaining a house	o	With keeping appointments
o	With staying healthy	o	With seeing friends
o	With behaviour	o	With work experience/job travel
o	With communication	o	With going to keep fit classes
		o	With socialising
Continence		o	With swimming
o	With a catheter	o	With work
o	With colostomy bag	o	With learning
		o	With transport
Other
o	………………………………………………….	o	……………………………………………………
o	………………………………………………….	o	……………………………………………………

Other equipment such as……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

I speak/use the following languages……………………………………………………………………………………………..

Please list any others skills not already mentioned:

………………………….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Please tell me about any other experience you have had that you think might be important:

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Signed:…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Date:………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Recruiting staff

Job advertisements

To recruit staff you will need to advertise the job. The advertisement should be brief, stating the type of work, where, working hours, rate of pay, how to apply and closing date for applications. If you are advertising for a Personal Assistant, due to the personal nature of the care, it is legally acceptable to give a gender preference in your advertisement. You will also need to include some way for candidates to contact you – first and foremost you need to consider your safety so it is suggested that you only include your telephone number or an e-mail address if you have one.

There are many different places you place an advertisement, although most people use local newspapers and journals. Your local JobCentre Plus will place advertisements free of charge, or you could advertise in your local college, supermarket, shop or the places you enjoy going to.

Application form

When people who have seen your advertisement ring, you can send them an application form. A copy of the job description should be sent with the application form, together with the person specification or skills checklist. The application form is used to gather all the relevant information that you are looking for.

When the closing date for application arrives, you should look through all the application forms you have received and check them against the job description and person specification or skills checklist. This will help you to make a decision about which applicants would be best to interview.

References

References are an important part of the recruitment process. They allow you to ask other people about the suitability of the applicant for the job you want them to do. Referee details are usually asked for on the application form. A referee is the person who gives a reference. Usually, one of the referees is the applicant’s current or most recent employer. References will help you to decide if you want to employ an applicant or not.

Interviews

To help you choose the right person for the job, you will need to hold interviews. It is best to set aside one day to hold the interviews on. You might want to have a friend or relative at the interviews with you: this will ensure your safety, offer you moral support and they may also be able to help with questions. They can also give you a second opinion. You will need to decide where to hold the interviews.

You will need to prepare a list of questions to ask the candidates. It is important, in order to make the interview process fair, that each candidate gets asked the same set of questions. It is a good idea to keep a note of their answers so that you can remember what they have said and compare answers.

You can ask candidates about the skills they have, what their experience is and why they are interested in the job. You can talk about interests and hobbies – this will help you find out if they are suitable to work with you.

You can also use the interview to tell them about your expectations, working hours, salary, leave entitlement, etc. You may also want to use this opportunity to check that they are legally entitled to work in the UK.

The interview is important as it helps you to get as much information about the candidate as possible helping you to make the best decision. An interview does not mean that you will need to offer the job straight away. Take time to think, don’t make your decision in a hurry. It may be that you don’t want any of the people you have interviewed working for you – that’s ok, you can always re-advertise.

The successful candidate

Once you have chosen someone you want to employ (a successful candidate) you will need to contact them and inform them of this. You will probably have to negotiate terms of service with the successful candidate. Once these have been agreed, you will need to arrange a start date – they may not be able to start straight away. You will need to write to the successful candidate outlining what you have agreed.

Probation period

It is always a good idea when you start employing someone to initially employ them on a trial or a probationary period. This can be any length of time you wish, but is usually a couple of months. This time is used to ensure that your employee is suitable and works well with you. It also gives them time to see if they like working for you.

It is good practice to tell people at interview about any probation period and how long it will last for. This information will also need to be included in the contract. At the end of the probation period, if you and your employee are happy, the contract can then be made permanent.

However, if there are problems during this time, you should discuss issues and concerns with your employee. If things aren’t working out as you had anticipated, you can extend the probation period, but you must put your reasons and the additional time in writing to your employee. It is easier to end the contract during the probation period than once the contract has been made permanent.

Example: Job Advertisements

Part-time Personal Care Assistant needed for man with disabilities, 8 – 10am and 4 – 6pm weekdays. Assistance with personal care (showering, hair washing, dressing) and domestic duties (vacuuming, ironing, meal preparation, food shopping). £6.50 per hour. Freshwater area. Call ……. Closing date is ……..

------------------------

Hi, I’m Lizzie, I’m 24 and have a learning disability. I’m looking for support staff who can help me. The things I like to do are:

Go on really fast rides and on lots of different sorts of transport
Go clothes shopping
Go clubbing and singing karaoke
Go to adult education lessons in beauty

I like to be busy and I don’t like to be stuck inside. Do you like doing any of these? If you do and would like to help me, please phone me on …. Hourly rate is between £6 – £9 per hour.

Example: Application Form

Thank you to NCIL (National Centre for Independent Living) for allowing the use of this information

Within the nature of the work for which you are applying this position is exempt from the provisions of Section 4(2) of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, by virtue of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exemptions) Order 1975. Applicants are therefore not entitled to withhold information about convictions which for other purposes are `spent' under the provisions of this Act. In the event of employment, any failure to disclose such convictions could result in dismissal. Information given is confidential and will only be considered for the purposes of this application.

Job Application Form

Please fill in this form and send back to the address at the end of this form.

1. Name: _________________________________________________________________

2. Address: _______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

3. Telephone number: _____________________________ _________________________

4. Education and Training

Do you have any training or education that would help you be a Personal Assistant (PA)?

If you do, please tell me where you got this training and what it was about.

_______________________________________________________________________

5. Your Work Experience

Tell me about the work that you have done:

_______________________________________________________________________

6. Speaking Up

What does speaking up for yourself mean to you?

_______________________________________________________________________

7. How has speaking up made your life better?

_______________________________________________________________________

8. What do you think are the important things people with a disability/mental health problems/physical disability/sensory impairment/who are older* want to do with their lives?

* delete as appropriate

_______________________________________________________________________

9. Why do you think it is difficult for people with a disability/mental health problem/physical disability/sensory impairment/who are older* to speak up for themselves?

* delete as appropriate

_______________________________________________________________________

10. Why do you think you would be a good personal assistant?

_______________________________________________________________________

11. References

I need to talk with 2 people who know you and how you work. I need to have 2 good reports from these people about you and your work before I can offer you the job.

Please give me the name, address and telephone number of the 2 people I can contact to ask some questions about you.

One of these should be a boss, past boss, teacher or trainer who knows you.

Reference 1

Their name______________________________________________________________

Their Address____________________________________________________________

Their Telephone Number___________________________________________________

How do you know this person?______________________________________________

If you get an interview, may we contact this person before your interview?

o Yes / o No

Reference 2

Their name______________________________________________________________

Their Address____________________________________________________________

Their Telephone Number___________________________________________________

How do you know this person?______________________________________________

If you get an interview, may we contact this person before your interview?

o Yes / o No

Everything I have written on this form is correct as far as I know. I understand that if any information about me is found not be true, I could lose my job without any notice.

I know I will have to have a CRB check done.

Please sign if this is true.

Name_________________________________________

Date__________________________________________

When you have finished this form, please send it to:

………………………………………………………………………

Employment contracts

The contract of employment will record the terms of service agreed between you and your employee. It will need to include hours of work, any flexible working agreements, sick leave procedures and entitlement, annual leave procedures and entitlement, disciplinary procedures and salary details. If you choose to use a probation period, you must include details of this in the contract.

You can go to Business Link’s website where you can develop a contract on-line – www.businesslink.gov.uk.

You must issue your employee with a contract of employment within 2 months of them starting to work for you.

Example: Employment Contract

Name of employer: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Name of employee: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

1. Commencement of employment

Your employment began on: ………………………………………………………………………………………………….

2. Job title

Your are employed as a: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

3. Job description

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

4. Job location

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

5. Pay

Your rate of pay is: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

You are paid at intervals of: ………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Other pay information: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

6. Hours of work

Your hours of work are: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………

7. Holidays

Your holiday entitlement is: …………………………………………………………………….…………………………….

Your holiday pay is: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Your holiday year begins on: …………………………………………………………………………………………………

You are entitled to the following public holidays: ………………………………………………………………..

8. Sickness absence

Your sick pay entitlement is: ………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Your rate of payment is: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….

For sickness lasting xx days or longer, you must get a medical certificate. For sickness periods less than this you will be required to complete a self-certification form.

9. Absence from work

If for any reason you cannot come to work, you should telephone …………….. as soon as possible on the first day of your absence by (time) and speak to (name).

10. Pension scheme

I do/do not* operate a pension scheme. The details of the pension scheme are as follows:

* delete as necessary

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

11. Ending the employment

Your contract is for an indefinite period but subject to notice.

After one month you must give one week’s notice to terminate your employment.

After one month you are entitled to one week’s notice for the first two years in your job and after that you get an extra week for each year up to a maximum of 12 weeks after 12 years.

For example:

Length of service Notice

More than one month but less than 2 years 1 week

More than 2 years but less than 3 years 2 weeks

More than 3 years but less than 4 years 3 weeks

(and so on with an extra week for each year until)

More than 12 years 12 weeks

OR your employment contract is for a fixed term and expires on: ……………………………………..

OR your employment is temporary and is expected to continue for: ………………………………….

12. Disciplinary rules

[include disciplinary rules here]

13. Disciplinary procedure

[include disciplinary procedure here]

14. Grievances

If you have a grievance concerning your employment, please contact ………………………………

15. Grievance procedure

[include grievance procedure here]

16. I acknowledge receipt of my particulars of employment:

Signed: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Date: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

CRB checks

CRB checks used to be called Police Checks. This is the new name for them. These are checks carried out on individuals for any listed previous convictions for a criminal offence.

As an individual employer you are not obliged to make a CRB check on your employee. However, we would strongly recommend that you do as this will help you to make the best choice when employing someone. You will need to contact a registered local organisation (referred to as an umbrella organisation) which can make the request on your behalf.

There are two levels of CRB check – Standard and Enhanced. For those employees who are likely to have ongoing and regular contact or will be in sole charge of a vulnerable adult, an Enhanced check should be obtained.

On the Isle of Wight, the Direct Payments Support Scheme based in the Riverside Centre can do this. They can be contacted on: 01983 522823 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

CRB checks for volunteers are free, although an umbrella organisation may make an administration charge.

As information is passed through a third party you may not see the actual documents from the Bureau, but you will get a report on the general nature of the information that the Bureau has provided.

For information on CRB checks go to: www.crb.gov.uk

Vetting and barring

The Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) was created as part of the Government’s Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) to help prevent unsuitable people from working with children and vulnerable adults

The Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) is making independent barring decisions. It will continue to maintain two constantly updated lists, one for those barred from working with children, the other for those barred from working with vulnerable adults;
Existing requirements concerning Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) will remain in place, and those entitled to such checks can continue to apply for them;

For further information, go to http://www.isa-gov.org.uk/

Health and Safety

It is your responsibility as an employer to make sure that your employees work safely and have a safe place to work. It is your employee’s responsibility not to do anything that might cause you, themselves or others injury or harm. It is important that health and safety is the responsibility of both the employer and their staff.

You must always take practical and reasonable steps to reduce risk in any activity where a hazard has been identified. Where you think there might be a hazard, you will need to carry out a risk assessment. This is where you look at the risk and decide the safest way to deal with it. For example, is specialist equipment needed (e.g. hoist), does your employee need training (e.g. food hygiene if preparing food or manual handling if they are lifting you)? The Health and Safety Executive has a publication which can help with this called “Five steps to risk assessment” which can be found at: www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg163.pdf.

You will also need to think about the Health and Safety implications of your employee providing personal care. You will need to think about hygiene and things like providing your employee with gloves, etc.

You should also have an emergency checklist which should include things like where the first aid kit is, where the nearest telephone is, who to contact, etc. You may need to consider whether your employee needs first aid training.

If you have 5 or more employees (whether part-time or full-time), you must have a written Health and Safety Policy. The Health and Safety Executive have a leaflet which can help with this, it can be found at: www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg259.pdf.

Insurance

As an employer you have a legal duty to insure against accidents or injury to your staff or accidents or injury caused by them while they are at work for you. Here is a list of insurance that you will need to consider.

Employers’ Liability Compulsory Insurance

By law, if you employ anyone you must have Employers’ Liability Compulsory Insurance. It will insure you against liability for injury or illness to your employee arising out of their employment. It will enable you to meet the cost of any compensation claim for your employee’s injury or illness whether caused on or off site. When you take out your policy, your insurance company will send you a certificate of Employers’ Liability Insurance, a copy of which must be displayed where your employees can easily read it (with support if necessary). You must keep copies of certificates of insurance which have expired for at least 40 years.

Public Liability Insurance

You should also have Public Liability Insurance; whilst this is not a legal requirement it is recommended. This will insure you against any injury or damage caused to someone or their property by you or your employee while they are working for you.

Household insurance

Whilst this is not compulsory, it is recommended. You should invest in good comprehensive buildings and contents insurance to cover your property and its contents against any damage that may be caused by your employee. It is essential that you advise your insurance company if people will be working with you in your home as this may affect any claims.

Motability vehicle

If you have a motability vehicle and you want your employee to drive it, you will need to consider insurance. You will also need to check their driving licence to ensure they have one, that they are legally able to drive and whether they have any endorsements.

There are many insurance companies that specialise in providing insurance for people who have disabilities. One that is commonly used is Fish Insurance, their website address is: www.fishinsurance.co.uk or freephone 0500 432141.

Training

You might need to consider whether your employee needs training. This could be things like: safeguarding awareness, food hygiene, manual handling, first aid or health and safety. You will need to think about who provides the training as well as who pays for it. And, of course, if the training happens during your employee’s working hours, how you will get the support that they would normally provide.

Skills for Care produce a helpful guide which gives information and ideas about training Personal Assistants. This can be found on their website at: www.skillsforcare.org.uk or telephoning 0113 245 1716.

Employer’s responsibilities

Once you have made the decision to employ someone (rather than contract someone who is self employed or through an agency), there are rules you have to follow under employment law. Below is the list of things you must adhere to.

If you employ 5 or more people there are some additional rules that you will need to adhere to. These can be found on Business Link’s Employing People Checklist.

Recruitment

You must:

recruit people in a fair and non-discriminatory way
check that the person you want to employ is eligible to work in the UK
ensure that you adhere to the legal working age
give your employee a written contract within 2 months of them starting to work for you

Pay, tax and pensions

You must:

deduct tax and NI from your employee’s wages and pay them to HM Revenue and Customs
adhere to the National Minimum Wage regulations
give your employee an itemised pay slip
not make any unauthorised deductions from your employee’s wages
pay Statutory Sick Pay

Working hours and time off

You must:

give your employee paid leave each year
not ask your employee to work more than 48 hours a week unless they have given their voluntary written consent
give your employee 11 consecutive hours’ rest in any 24-hour period
give your employee an in-work rest break of 20 minutes if the working day is longer than 6 hours
give your employee 1 day off each week
limit the working hours for employees providing overnight care to any 7 hours in any 24-hour period
give your employee time off work in special circumstances (other than annual leave) – things like dealing with an emergency involving a dependant

Maternity, paternity and adoption rights

You must:

ensure that leave and pay are given for maternity, paternity and adoption leave

Contractual changes

You must:

ensure that changes to your employee’s contract of employment are made in agreement with them

Equal treatment

You must:

treat all employees equally, whether they are full time or part time
ensure that work of equal value gets paid at equal rates
not treat people differently because of race, nationality, ethnic group, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion or marital status

Health, safety and working environment

You must:

provide your employee with a secure, safe and healthy working environment
have employer liability insurance

Grievances, discipline and dismissal

You must:

ensure that disciplinary and grievance procedures comply with the minimum statutory requirements and be included as part of your employee’s contract
ensure that dismissals are not unlawful or unfair
ensure that you give any employee you are dismissing the correct notice period
give your employee the correct level of redundancy pay if you are making them redundant

For advice on workplace issues, contact ACAS at www.acas.org.uk Acas is the independent and impartial Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service.

For detailed information or help with any of these areas, here are some useful web links:

Employing people checklist: www.businesslink.gov.uk/employerchecklist

Directgov www.direct.gov.uk/employees

Holiday entitlement calculator: www.businesslink.gov.uk/annualleave

Redundancy calculator: www.businesslink.gov.uk/redundancycalculator

Other employment considerations

There are other things as an employer that you might want to think about. Some of these are listed below:

Paying your employee

As an employer, you will be responsible for paying your employee. You can either do this yourself or use a payroll agency. If you use an agency they will deal with all your payroll issues, including working out how much tax and NI should be paid and pay it to Revenue and Customs, as well as providing your employee with their payslip. If you decide to deal with your employee’s salary yourself, this will be based on a simple PAYE (Pay As You Earn) scheme. You can contact your local tax office which will provide you with the relevant training.

Revenue and Customs require you to keep PAYE records for 6 years after the tax year ends.

Supervision

Holding supervision sessions between you and your employee is good practice. It helps to maintain a good working relationship, it allows your employee to talk with you about things that may not be working and gives you the opportunity to give constructive feedback to your employee. It is important to remember to say what is good about the way they work as well as identifying areas where you would like them to do things differently. Supervision sessions should take place regularly. It is a good idea to keep a record of the supervision session.

Disciplinary procedures

It is worthwhile making a list of actions or behaviours that you consider so serious that it could result in your employee’s dismissal if such gross misconduct occurs. By sharing this with your employee it will help them to know exactly where they stand and make it easier for you if your employee does do something seriously wrong.

Keeping records

It is good practice for employers to keep records on each employee on:

Holiday entitlement
Sick leave taken
All correspondence between both of you
A note of any problems discussed during supervision and actions agreed
Any concerns about the care being provided
Any disciplinary action taken

Rota

To make things easier for both you and your employee, it might be worthwhile drawing up a rota of the days/hours worked and the tasks that you want completed.

What can your employee do and not do whilst on duty?

You will need to decide what your employee can and can’t do whilst on duty. For example, are you happy for them to drink alcohol if they are supporting you in a social setting; should they be part of your social group when you’re out or only get involved when support is needed.

Help!

We know this sounds daunting, but there are organisations that can offer advice and support on this complex area. Locally there is the Direct Payments Support Service that can be contacted on 01983 522823 or by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Further information

ACAS

(Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service)

08457 47 47 47

www.acas.org.uk

Business Link

0845 600 9 006

www.businesslink.gov.uk/employment

Citizens Advice Bureau

0845 120 2959

www.citizensadvice.org.uk

Commission for Race Equality (CRE)