A Personal Assistant helps those who have difficulty carrying out everyday activities and tasks. This may be due to health problems, a learning or physical disability, or simply impaired hearing or sight. A personal assistant can also make life easier as people get older and find daily activities more challenging such as getting out and about, getting washed and dressed, seeing friends, going out to a social club or even just down to a local park or friends.
Such people may need to use the Council’s support services. In the context of this scheme, a Personal Assistant is someone who is paid to help those people looking for support with any aspect of their daily life. A Personal Assistant has an agreement with, and is paid by, the person who is using their support or care. The terms and conditions of work such as start and finish times; hours of work; charges etc are agreed with the person paying for their support at the start of the agreement.