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Recruitment Hub

Becoming a Personal Assistant

This section is all about Personal Assistants (PAs).  Whether for an employer looking for the right PA or someone wanting a career as a PA, this is the section with the answers. In this section, everyone can access our PA Recruitment Hub (our online register of PAs who are looking for work in your area) and our PA vacancies that are currently open.

If you are a PA, see below for some useful links and information to help you in your job role, such as where to access more training or how to get help if you have an issue with employment.

Thinking about becoming a PA? If you are a caring person with a real empathy for others, this may be the career choice for you. We always have employers who are looking for the right person to meet their care and support needs - this could be you! Whilst caring experience is always useful, you don't necessarily need to have worked in care to be a great PA, the right attitude and a person-centred approach is more important. 

A Personal Assistant (also known as a PA for short), is employed directly by the client that is receiving a Direct Payment due to their disability or illness and needs assistance to continue living independently.

A PA is required to work closely with their employer in their home which will also been known as place of employment but on occasions, a PA is required to support their employer out with the home environment.

As each employer has different requirements to live independently, the role for each PA may differ. The recruitment advertisement will outline what is required for the employer and should give the PA a description of what to expect when caring for this employer.

Experience is not essential as PA’s can learn on the job. It may be helpful to have some knowledge and understanding of caring for an individual, either paid or not. What is important is having compassion, being reliable, caring and responsible.

The recruitment advertisement will specify if certain criteria should be met within the role.

The Disclosure and Barring Service helps employers make safer recruitment decisions. This prevents unsuitable individuals from working with vulnerable groups, including children. DBS checks replaces the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) & the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA). It is recommended that all employers conduct a DBS check on all potential employees. DBS checks are a legal requirement for any employee that will be working with children.

Yes. By law, the employer must give their employee (PA) a contract of employment on their first working day. The Employment Act 1996 still applies regardless of your working environment (i.e., working in the employers’ home).

BBPS can provide standard issue contracts for the employers to complete for their employee.

The majority of employers request the assistance of a payroll bureau, such as Barrie Bookkeeping & Payroll Solutions, to calculate the payroll and provide HMRC with the relevant information. The employee is required to fill out their timesheet with working hours, holiday hours, sick leave etc. This can be filled out on paper or electronically. The employer must then check this information is correct, sign and submit the timesheet by the date provided per pay period.

Once the payroll has been finalised, payslips will be provided by either post, email or both is requested.

An employee must be paid at least the National Minimum Wage.

As of 01.04.2023 the rates are for each age bracket.

Aged 23 and above£10.42 per hour
Aged 21-22£10.18 per hour
Aged 18-20£7.49 per hour
Aged 16-17£5.28 per hour
Apprenticeship£5.28 per hour

If the criteria set out is met (age and earning depending), by law, the Personal Assistant’s employer must offer a workplace pension (also known as auto-enrolment). If Barrie Bookkeeping & Payroll Solutions is supplying the employers payroll service, the employee will automatically included in our auto-enrolment scheme.

The employer will inform the employee if the criteria has been met and what their pension contributions will be and more information about the pension scheme.

Employees do have the right to opt out. However, we advise that the employee seeks advice beforehand. For general information on workplace pensions, please visit Workplace pensions: About workplace pensions - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

As with any form of employment, the employee is entitled to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP). This is paid when the employee has been sick for 4 days or more. The current SSP rate can be found at Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) : Overview - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). After 7 days of sickness, the employee is required to provide a ‘fit note’ from the doctor. The employee must give a copy of the fit note to their employer and keep the original for their own records.

The employer should have a cover plan in place for such situations arising. This may be something BBPS can help with. Most employers require the employee to phone them prior to their start time. We advise employers not to accept a text message as a form of sickness notice expect in exceptional circumstances.

Internal Vacancies

Vacancies within our business

Find Jobs at Barrie Bookkeeping

Our PA Register

Use the form here to register as a personal assistant.

Register as a PA

Recruitment

Find and advertise jobs here

Search for PA Vacancies
Advertise a Job Vacancy

DBS Checks

The Disclosure and Barring Service form

DBS Checks

Local authorities

List of the Local Authorities we are currently dealing with.
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Council users

Please click on the following link and complete the registration form.
Register

Personal Assistant

Please click on the following link to gain access to our active job vacancies.
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Jobs

Please click on the following link to gain access to our active job vacancies.
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Helping our clients succeed

5 stars

I just want to share how good Barrie Bookkeeping & Payroll Solutions are!

After months of not being able to make contact with the previous provider, I only made a referral to Barrie Bookkeeping & Payroll Solutions yesterday and within 24 hours, they have contacted me and discussed :):) Impressed.

Social Care Worker

Just had a Forest Team Meeting. Staff were really complimentary about the service they are now getting from BBPS. Especially when BBPS manage the account, there is much quicker response times.

Referrals being picked up in 24 hours.

Staff thought Sam & Kelly were great to respond ("always get back to me") and easy to discuss & resolve issues.

Area Manager Wyre Forest

I would like to thank you for making the transition from myself to being a managed account very easy, you have done the costing and explained any queries I have had and put my mind at ease. I promptly received all the necessary documents, data protection and GDPR form to check over and sign.

You also sent me a guide to direct payments using an agency which was very helpful.

Thank you once again for your professional service and knowledge.

Jane White

The service I received from Barrie Bookkeeping has been excellent overall. When we were granted funding for my moms direct payment it soon became clear there was very little help and guidance out there around how this would all work practically. Luckily we were put in touch with Barrie Bookkeeping who explained everything that was required from us and how the process will work. There was an issue originally around personal contributions but BBPS helped us to sort all of this out so my mum's PA could be paid.

Barrie Bookkeeping have been great ever since and always ensure our payslips are submitted in the time for the monthly deadline. They have been a great help throughout the whole process of setting up payments for my Mom's PA.

Many thanks

Jamie England

I am the sister of a client who is now in receipt of a direct payment. My brother is not able to organise the paperwork side of things for the direct payment and requires assistance with this, which is where I stepped in.

 

I have to praise Sue for her patience, understanding and knowledge on the topic of direct payments and the whole process. From start to finish Sue has been amazing and has made me feel reassured, understood and listened to. I sometimes struggle to understand things and I can say that Sue explained the process clearly and took time to help me when needed. I had a lot of questions to ask and I never once felt as if I were bothering Sue or made to feel silly for asking lots of questions.

 

I want to say thank you to Sue and for all of her support, she is an asset to the team.

Paizlee

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