Adult social care

What a personal assistant is

If you’re finding it difficult to care for yourself, you may want to get some support from a personal assistant (PA). This could be because of your age, a physical or learning disability, or poor general health.

A personal assistant, sometimes called a support worker, can support you in your own home so you can stay independent. Many people choose to employ a PA because they need the consistent, ongoing support that their own PA can provide.

Visit the Skills to Care website to find more information about PAs.

How a PA can help you

Depending on your support plan, PAs can offer support such as:

  • personal care - help with feeding, bathing and toileting
  • healthcare - giving medication, catheter management
  • help to live independently - making meals, cooking, health and safety, cleaning and shopping
  • helping you take part in social and leisure activities - taking you on holiday or to appointments, providing interest and activities
  • helping to look after children

Finding and employing a PA

When you hire a personal assistant, you become their employer.

Find out how we can help you find and employ a PA, and what you'll need to have in place.

Find a PA

Become a PA

Find out if becoming a PA is the right career for you, and how you can register to become one of our approved PAs.

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.

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
  • I'm looking forward to becoming an approved PA. I was invited for an interview straight away, and I was given lots of information.
    Sharon

Contact us

If you'd like more information about employing a personal assistant, you can: