Moving from care agency to PAs….

[JamesW]

So this summer, after much unhappiness with my appointed care agency, I have now completed a transition to using my own Personal Assistants to help look after me. I realise that such a transition would not be for everybody but in my case it was the perfect solution for me and my family, it has given me a whole new lease of life and I have been able to plan my care with much more flexibility and variation.

Rather me posting a rambling monologue about what I’ve done if any of you have questions or comments about using PAs or the transition that I have been through then please post some questions below and I will do my very best to answer them……..

James x

[Ellie]

That's really good to hear James - I hope your experience gives others the confidence to go the same route if they're having issues with a Care Agency. xx

[Banned]

Yes James, I too am on DP... much better than agencies at the expense of complexity.

But I am developing a comprehensive care app to deal with complexity.

[Jo jo]

Hi James, my partner has just been awarded CHC and we were wondering how all this works. We currently have a care agency that was put in place by the local council but they have sent out 20 different carers over the past 29 days. I’ve made a complaint but not holding out much hope. We only have carers come in in the mornings at the moment.

[JamesW]

Yes James, I too am on DP... much better than agencies at the expense of complexity.

But I am developing a comprehensive care app to deal with complexity.

hi Graham, I did see this in another thread and I’m looking forward to seeing the results. The complexity is definitely an issue but, as you say, if you are prepared to deal with this then the rewards are well worth it 😀

[matthew55]

I too would like an explanation of how this works in reality please

[denise]

And me

[JamesW]

Hi James, my partner has just been awarded CHC and we were wondering how all this works. We currently have a care agency that was put in place by the local council but they have sent out 20 different carers over the past 29 days. I’ve made a complaint but not holding out much hope. We only have carers come in in the mornings at the moment.

Hi Jo,
I am sorry to hear that you are struggling with your local care agency. It seems to be a big theme with them changing carers frequently and this is one of the reasons I moved away. I would raise a complaint back to your CHC Practitioner as having too many carers is counter-productive to the needs of the client. You need stability and trust with the people looking after your partner and this can only be established over a period of time. It’s also not fair on the carers as they can work much more easily with people that they know.

So how this works…….. have a meeting with your nurse practitioner (or whoever it is managing your CHC at the NHS, if you were not on a CHC this would be your social worker) to discuss the feasibility of you moving across to using personal assistants. This is not for everybody as you effectively are the employer of your own people, although you will receive support from an external agency to help you with tax, payroll, recruitment and contracts, you also will have somebody to help you manage the cash account. Your practitioner will want to hear some good reasoning as to why you would move away and also have some confidence that the continuity of care would still be in place….. what I mean by this is that although care agencies have many faults they will however turn up to every scheduled visit (in theory at least).

The major upside (and this is huge) is that you can decide who you employ and agree what hours they work (within the scope of the budget you are given). Because MND is progressive the budget is always up for review as your partners care needs will change. You can also decide what the PA does to help, in our case we are a fairly young family (I am 51 and we have a 15-year-old daughter at home), My wife works full time so as well as attending to all my personal needs my PAs also help me out with tasks around the home such as cleaning, cooking, shopping and laundry. They are also insured to drive my wheelchair vehicle so we can get out and about to the shops or go for lunch or something like that. I now have 4 PAs covering 50 hours a week with 2 in reserve on casual contracts to help with holidays or sickness.

I hope this helps?

James x

[matthew55]

Sounds too expensive for my pocket. Society is going backwards 😄x

[shrew]

Matthew I think you would get direct payments to cover the cost of your Personal Assistant. They would be responsible for paying tax and having insurance etc. You would be given so many hours per day. I think that this is whats being discussed?

[JamesW]

Sounds too expensive for my pocket. Society is going backwards 😄x

The cost of a personal assistant hour is significantly less than that of a care agency hour. If you already get funding for care agency hours then these can be moved to a direct payment via your social worker team. If you are on a CHC than you already have care funding in place.

[JamesW]

Matthew I think you would get direct payments to cover the cost of your Personal Assistant. They would be responsible for paying tax and having insurance etc. You would be given so many hours per day. I think that this is whats being discussed?

Hi Shrew,

Pretty much except you are the employer and you are responsible (through your payroll provider) for paying tax and having insurance. There are some self-employed PAs out there but in my case the local council didn’t really want to use self-employed PAs and preferred me to employ my own.

[LindaB]

Sounds too expensive for my pocket. Society is going backwards 😄x

Adult Social care is financially assessed however a lot of people are assessed as nil contributors. Free.
If people are awarded full Continuing NHS care then again it's free to the person.

Ps like the new avatar

[Jo jo]

Hi James,
Thanks for your reply. I will be getting in touch with them and the social care and find out how I would go about doing this. Where would you look for a PA ? we have two carers come in the morning and get him up, showered and dressed. I care for him for the rest of the day. I know I will have to return to work very soon and that’s a scary thought but needs must and bills still to pay. Unfortunately he cannot move his arms or legs anymore so needs everything doing for him. Do your carers stay all day?

[Banned]

Hi James,

Can you please briefly explain what you have done so far to set up with your PAs?

I want to make sure that the comprehensive care covers your setup.

I want to be in a position, hopefully later this year where you can test it out.