Meet Anne, who has been a Personal Assistant for T for the last 2 years. Before becoming a PA, Anne worked in the hospitality industry for around 15 years.
After helping to care and nurse her mother through terminal illness, Anne decided to find out more about working in Social Care and spoke to a friend who was working for the council’s home care team and for a charity supporting people at home. Her friend explained about this new thing called Self Directed Support (SDS) which was about people directing their own support and employing their own workers called “Personal Assistants” or PAs.
Anne applied for some work through an agency, and one of her jobs was to assist as part of a team of PA’s supporting T – a man with a physical impairment at home. When one of the PAs left – Anne applied for the job, was successful and started working part time.
Anne said the difference between working directly and for an organisation was stark. As a PA there is more time to get to know the person you work for – their likes and dislikes, hobbies and their favourite TV shows. The hours were better as they suited the person not the service and Anne enjoys working with a small team of the same people every day.
Anne feels fortunate there are a small team of PAs working for T and they regularly have team meetings where they can discuss issues as they arise. Although they do support each other – Anne thinks the network will be a great opportunity to learning some new skills like brushing up on her computer skills and meet other PAs.
