Being an Employer

A Useful Toolkit
Table of Contents

Recruitment

Who to Employ

How to find the right person to employ?

Job Description/Person Specification

Where to find the right person?

What to say in the advert

Short-listing

Interview

Deciding who to employ

Offering the job

CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) Disclosures

References

Checking entitlement to work in the United Kingdom

Employing someone who is self-employed?

How to be a Good Employer

Legal Responsibilities as an Employer

What are my Legal Responsibilities as an Employer?

Contract

Probationary Period

Paying your Employees yourself

Tax and National insurance Contributions

Payroll

Personal Assistant’s Pay Rate

Insurance

Equality

Induction and Training

Holiday

Maternity, Paternity and Adoption Rights

Confidentiality

Disciplinary Procedures

Gross Misconduct

Grievance Procedure

Emergency Cover/Holiday Cover

What happens if you go into hospital?

What happens if your employee goes on Sick Leave?

Working Time

Record Keeping

Terminating Employment

Employer’s Liability Insurance

Health and Safety

Keeping Safe

Useful Contacts

Forms - Appendix 1

Sample Job Description

Sample Person Specification

Forms - Appendix 2

Sample Job Application Form

Forms - Appendix 3

Sample Letter Inviting Someone to Interview

Sample Letter – Not Invited to Interview

Sample Interview Checklist and Questions

Forms - Appendix 4

Sample Letter Offering Someone the Job

Sample Letter Turning Down a Candidate

Forms - Appendix 5

Sample Letter Asking for a Reference

Forms - Appendix 6

Sample Contract of Employment

Forms - Appendix 7

The Standard Disciplinary and Dismissal Procedure

Sample Grievance Procedure

Forms - Appendix 8

Sample Safety in the Home Checklist

Sample Risk Assessment

Important Information
Please note that the information contained in this document is correct at the time of printing.
The document is only intended to act as a guide giving hints and tips to help you get started.
It is your responsibility to check your legal position.
We have given you useful websites and telephone numbers to make this easier.

Being an Employer – a Useful Toolkit

This toolkit is filled with useful information and is split into 2 sections: Recruitment and How to be a Good Employer.

It outlines the things you need to consider if you decide to employ your own staff using your Personal Budget. A Personal Budget allows you to have a say about who provides you with your support and when you want it. You can choose who comes into your home and exactly what is best for you. If you want to employ your own staff this means that you may become an “employer”. Many individuals have found that this option gives them the most choice and control, but it comes with responsibility.

Recruitment

Who to Employ

A Personal Assistant is someone who is employed by you to help you. Because you employ them, you are in charge. You choose:

who you will have to work for you

what time of day they will help you

which tasks they will carry out and when

where the help will be given (at home or elsewhere)

The use of a Personal Budget to employ a person who lives with you is not encouraged, because of the potential for conflict within close personal/family relationships.

If you employ family and friends who are receiving state benefits then any earnings they receive may affect their welfare benefit entitlement.

There are organisations that are able to provide further advice and information. They can advise how payments made will affect the employed person’s benefit entitlement and provide an assessment of how the earnings paid will affect any benefits being received. . However, in order to undertake this assessment the person who will receive the earnings will be asked to provide information on the following areas:

  • the expected level of earnings they will receive from you
  • their living arrangements
  • allowances and benefits currently being received
  • their finances including any other income they may receive
  • savings

If the person lives in Lambeth they can contact the “Every Pound Counts’ service for advice on how their benefits would be affected if they were to receive earnings from you.

“Every Pound Counts” offers a free benefits check and advice to ensure Lambeth residents claim their full state benefit entitlement. The service can assist you or your carer providing both of you are Lambeth residents..

.

You can contact the Every Pound Counts team:

By phone and textphone
Telephone: 020 7926 5555

Mondays - Fridays 9am - 5pm

By email
For advice on tax credits, pensions, housing benefits, Council Tax and other benefits, you can email us at . When you email us please tell us as much as possible about your benefit query and where possible provide a contact number where we can call you.

In person

The service can arrange face-to-face appointments. For more information call the service or go to

How to find the right person to employ?

If you want to employ a Personal Assistant, the first step is to think about what kind of support you need and how employing your staff will help you meet these needs. This may have already been identified in your support plan. You should refer to your support plan to help you think about what you will need the staff to do.

Useful Hint
Write a list of tasks you want your Personal Assistant to do. This list could be used as a job description.

Job Description/Person Specification

Before you advertise for your new Personal Assistant, you will need to have a job description and a person specification. A job description tells people what the job is about. It will help to explain to people who want to apply for the job what it involves and whether they may be suitable for the job. The job description explains the tasks, the skills and abilities, how many hours you need your Personal Assistant to work and anything else you will need of your Personal Assistant.

A person specification is a list of the skills and qualities that you will want your Personal Assistant to have. For example, you might want them to have a first aid qualification, or to like the same activities that you do.

Why is a job description important?

  • It provides a clear description of the role for the candidate.
  • If there is a dispute between you and your employee once employed, it is useful to refer to.
  • If there is a disciplinary issue, it is useful to refer to.

Tips for writing a job description:

  • Be specific – if the job will include personal care then say so, otherwise you might find that your new Personal Assistant is unwilling to do certain tasks and you will need to recruit again.
  • Be realistic – if you need someone who is able to do very specific tasks, then you might limit the number of candidates you get.
  • Whilst it is sensible to use a template or a job description you have used before, ensure that all the tasks are the same – make sure it is specific to your needs.
  • Try to keep the list of tasks to no more than 12, as otherwise it can become too overwhelming. If you find that this is difficult, you may want to write a ‘manual’ which would have everything in it that your Personal Assistant would need to know.
  • Refer to your support plan as you may have identified a suitable person who is currently supporting you.

Why is a person specification important?

  • it gives you a clearer idea of the type of person you need
  • it can help when writing your advert
  • it will help you to be fair when comparing candidates
  • it can help you be more focussed when you are interviewing

Tips for writing a person specification:

  • Try not to keep it too narrow – if you are too specific, you may lose out on some good candidates, and may get fewer applications as a result.
  • Even though you may meet someone who is great but has not done this role before, you might decide to give them a chance because they show good potential.
  • When writing your person specification, decide what the ‘essential’ qualities are, and what the ‘desirable’ qualities are. This is important as it will help you to shortlist candidates for interview, and also make the decision after interview. Try and keep focused on what is ‘essential’ and what is ‘desirable’ – a driving licence would be essential if they will need to drive – an in depth knowledge of the local roads is desirable, as they can learn this.

Forms - Appendix 1

  1. Sample jobdescription
  2. Sample person specification

Where to find the right person?

You may know someone who can provide you with support or you may need to find someone else. In finding the right person, you can:

  • ask amongst your friends, family or neighbours
  • place a notice:

–in the local newspaper

–in the local shop window or at your Post Office

–on the notice board at, for example your community centre or church group, local college/university

–a user-led organisation that you are already involved with, for example Disability Advise Service Lambeth (DASL)

–in the local Job Centres

–online, for example using Gumtree ( or Friday-ad ( or Lambeth’s information and resource portal

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What to say in the advert

Your advert should be as short as possible, but should include the following:

  • the job title (e.g. Personal Assistant)
  • a brief description of the job
  • hours of work (and if it will include evenings or weekends)
  • rate of pay
  • if you want experience and/or qualifications
  • if they need to complete an application form or send a CV
  • how much it will pay
  • the location where the job will be based (e.g. Brixton)
  • whether you expect references and Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks. Asking for two references is usual
  • a contact number or email address for candidates to apply to
  • any other essential facts – do they have to be a non-smoker or a driver, for example.

Before you write the advert, another important point is to think about how you want the candidate to apply for the job – do you want them to send their CV, or do they need to fill in an application form? If it’s an application form how do they get one? Who will design the application form?

There are good points about both methods:

  • CVs are simpler to ask for, and save you time
  • Application forms can be designed so you can find out the exact information you want to know about someone before inviting them to interview.

Here are some tips for writing a good advert:

  • When writing a job advert you will need to think about what job title you are going to advertise. Personal Assistant might not be clear enough – think about other titles such Support Worker or Care Assistant
  • Make your job eye catching – you want to make sure you get enough people answering the advert to give you a good range to choose from. You want to make sure people notice your advert
  • If possible, do not put your personal address or phone number on the advert – if you have access to the internet then set up an email address
  • Keep it simple and easy to read – bullet points may help with this
  • Try and say what is great about the job, or what is unique about the job as this will generate interest
  • Where you advertise is important – if you want someone local, consider placing the advert in a newsagent’s window, or, if you have one, your local sports club/gym
  • REMEMBER: YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DISCRIMINATE IN YOUR JOB ADVERT, JOB DESCRIPTION, OR PERSON SPECIFICATION – you can specify male or female, but it has to be explained why (often this will relate to personal care). Discrimination can include race, religion, age, disability, ethnicity or gender

Forms - Appendix 2

  1. Sample job application form

Short-listing

This is where you look at all the candidates that have applied, and decide who you will invite for interview. There is no set number that you should interview; it will depend on how many applications you think are good enough. However, it is advisable to interview at least 3 people, so that you are able to compare.

After the closing date, look through the application forms or CVs and decide who you want to interview. You could use the job description and the person specification to rate the applications and decide which ones most closely fit the job and the type of person you want.

Interview

When you have decided who you would like to interview, you can invite them to meet with you for an interview.

Where you conduct the interviews is important. It should be quiet so that you won’t be disturbed and can hear and understand the other person clearly. It is not advisable to conduct the interviews in your home if possible, as this could potentially be unsafe. The local Job Centre should have interview rooms you can use, or organisations such as DASL/user-led organisations should be able to help.

It is advisable that you have someone you trust with you to help with the interviews, as it is useful to have another opinion, perhaps from someone identified within your support plan – i.e. someone from your circle of support.

You can make the interview as formal or informal as you like. The most important thing when employing a Personal Assistant is that you feel comfortable with them and that they can do the job.

If you have conducted all the interviews and do not feel that any of the candidates are suitable, then it may be better not to employ any of the candidates and to advertise again. If this is the case, do look at your criteria again and ensure that you have not set the standard too high, as it may be that no one will be able to do the job.

Tips for interviewing:

  • Make a note of the questions that you intend to ask, as well as the answers that each individual candidate gives – it might be best to have different answer sheets for each candidate
  • Decide what is most important to you in an employee, and ask questions based on that
  • Decide before the interview how long the interview will be, and stick to that – otherwise candidates will continue trying to sell themselves for hours!
  • If you are recruiting on behalf of someone, for example your son or daughter, then perhaps have them in the interview, even just for the first 5 minutes if they do not want to stay – you can tell a lot by how candidates interact with them
  • Begin by explaining a little bit about yourself and the role, but be careful not to talk too much in the interview – the candidates should do most of the talking
  • Ask all the candidates the same questions, otherwise you will find it difficult to compare them. However, if there is something on the CV or application form that you want further explanation on, then you can ask that at the interview as well
  • Make sure you give the candidate the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the interview
  • Always tell the candidate when they will hear if they have got the job.

Forms - Appendix 3

  1. Sample letter inviting someone to interview
  2. Sample letter – not invited to interview
  3. Sample interview checklist and questions

Deciding who to employ

There is no perfect way of deciding who to employ, but one of the easiest ways is to give each of the candidate’s answers a score of between 1 and 5, and then add them up and compare the scores.

It is advised that you try and be as objective about the decision making process as possible. Whilst you may really like someone at the interview, you want to employ someone who can do the job, as well as someone you like and get on well with.

If you employ someone who is in receipt of benefit please make them aware that they should be speaking to their Benefit Adviser about how being employed will affect their benefits.

Offering the job

Once you have decided who you want to employ, contact them and offer them the job. Tell them that you will need firstly to check their references and carry out a CRB check (if you are going to). Send a letter to unsuccessful applicants (you do not need to phone them). You should be ready to tell people why they did not get the job, if they ask.

Forms - Appendix 4

  1. Sample letter offering someone the job
  2. Sample letter turning down a candidate

CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) Disclosures

A Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check will tell you if someone has any criminal convictions. It is strongly advised that you CRB check anyone who works for you. Please note that there are occasions where a CRB check may take up to 4-6 weeks to be processed. For more information on CRB disclosures click here If you employ a Personal Assistant that you know has been barred from working with service users you could be committing an offence under the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006[1]