Risk Assessments for PAs

Your employer is responsible for protecting your health and safety in the workplace (which will usually be the home of the person you are providing assistance to).

By law, a risk assessment should be carried out to identify any risks to your health and wellbeing and how these will be managed. Your employer may ask you to contribute to completing a risk assessment. You may be asked to:

• Highlight any hazards noticed around the home
• Make the employer aware of anything that may impact your work, e.g. pregnancy, injury, long-term health conditions
• Identify training needs and ensure that training is kept up to date (e.g. moving and assisting, use of specialist equipment)
• Consider what can be done to reduce or remove identified risks
• Be involved in regularly reviewing the risk assessment to identify any new health and safety risks in the workplace, for example, new equipment
• Your employer should keep an accident/incident book to keep a record of any accidents.

Other times that risk assessments might be carried out

Risk Assessments could occur when:

• A PA is returning to work after a period of absence
• When there has been a change to the employers’ health and well-being
• When a new piece of equipment is required to be used
• When new medication is prescribed
• When a new procedure needs to be introduced, say relating to COVID-19

Next steps

Take a look at the risk assessment tool for PAs returning to work to guide you in more detail.