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Practicalities

If you recruit a personal assistant who is self-employed, you will not have the
responsibility of being an employer in terms of having to make deductions from
pay for tax and National Insurance contributions and so on. However someone
recruiting a care worker who is self-employed may still need to consider their
employment law status (as discussed on page 12) and will need advice on things
that are relevant to taking on any person – e.g. references, Criminal Record
Bureau (CRB) checks and insurance.

Insurance – no matter whether your personal
assistant is employed or self-employed, you will
need to purchase some insurance to cover you for
things like injuries caused to the PA while at work or by
your PA to someone else. There are various insurance
companies which sell the different types of insurance
you might need, e.g. public liability insurance or legal
costs insurance that covers you if a dispute arises with
your PA. For more information, get in touch with the
British Insurance Brokers Association:

www.biba.org.uk

DBS (previously CRB) checks – whether your personal assistant is an
employee or self-employed it will be important to verify that they are who they
say they are and that they have the skills and personal qualities that mean they
are suitable to be your personal assistant. You may wish to carry out a Disclosure
and Barring Service (DBS) check, which is to check for any listed previous
convictions for a criminal offence:

www.gov.uk/disclosure-barring-service-check

References – you will most certainly want to check their references,
and you can find a template letter on the Skills for Care website:

www.employingpersonalassistants.co.uk

page 17 Taking on a personal assistant – a basic guide • Practicalities