Adult social care

What is a personal assistant?

A personal assistant (PA) can support you in your own home, so that you can remain independent. This means you're the individual employer of the PA.

PAs can be paid for using a direct payment from a local authority, a personal health budget from the NHS, or your own money. With this arrangement the council isn't the employer - it's the person who's managing the personal budget who is the PA's employer.  

Find out about what you need to do before deciding if a PA is the right choice for you. You can read more in our guide to employing a PA.

About personal assistants

Finding and employing a PA

There are different ways you can get help from a personal assistant.

Read about how we can help you find and employ a PA, or how to make your own arrangements.

Find a PA

What our service users say

  • I've recruited a personal assistant and the process was very easy. It was nice to be able to find out a little about the PA and I could see that they had similar interests to myself.
    Janet
  • There's lots of information on the website to help you. I'm glad the scheme is available.
    Doreen
  • The site is brilliant. It's easy to apply, I was invited for an interview straight away, and I was given lots of information. I'm looking forward to becoming an approved PA.
    Sharon

Become a PA

To help you decide whether becoming a PA is the right career path for you, read more about what the role involves.

You can also find out how to register to become one of our approved PAs.

Register to become a PA

Training and support for PAs

Once you become a PA you'll have access to training covering all aspects of your role. Read about our training programme and the benefits of registering with us as a PA.

PA code of conduct

Our code of conduct makes sure that all PAs deliver high quality services to the people they support.