PA Employer’s Employment Responsibilities

Personal Assistant (PA) employers have a number of responsibilities relating to their employees, from recruitment and on-going support of PAs, to keeping their information safe.

Responsibilities as an employer include

To recruit people fairly and do not discriminate against anyone. This includes taking up of references and applying for a PVG check
Having a contingency plan in place to cover for staff annual leave and sickness
To have Employer’s Liability Insurance in place before staff start their employment, and to update this every year
To make sure that PAs have a written statement on their first day of employment that outlines their main terms and conditions of employment such as their job title, hours of work, pay, annual leave and sickness entitlement
To have a Job Description in place that details the role and tasks that a Personal Assistants will undertake
To pay your PAs’ wages, tax, National Insurance and pension (if applicable). Or to ask a payroll company to do this on your behalf.
To register with the Pensions Regulator and HMRC, or ask a payroll company to do this on your behalf
If you use a payroll company, to provide them with any information they need, such as copies of timesheets and any changes to staff details
To have a dedicated bank account, solely for the purpose of Self Directed Support funding received. You will need to provide bank statements for this account to the Local Authority Finance Team for monitoring purposes. If you use a pre-payment card, you do not need to have a bank account
To meet any Health and Safety requirements in the workplace so you do not put yourself or your PAs at risk
To provide any relevant training to your PAs to make sure they can do their job well. This includes training on using specific equipment, such as a hoist.
To make sure that your PAs have an induction into the workplace
To support your PAs through supervision and ongoing training and development
To make sure you comply with the law about protecting your PAs’ personal details (GDPR).