What a good induction as personal assistant looks like to me

Personal Assistant Andrew Meadows discusses the effective induction he was given for his role and his tips for onboarding new personal assistants.

My name is Andrew and I’m a full-time personal assistant (PA) based on the Wirral.

The majority of my time is spent working 1:1 with the individual I care for. I also take responsibility for managing the strategic side of things, updating the care plan, liaising with healthcare professionals, and managing our team of five support workers, as well as shaping what the day-to-day care and support looks like in order to best support the person we care for in a person-centred way.

I’d been a part-time support worker with the same individual I now support as a PA since 2004. When the option to become a PA came up, I knew I was in a position that could really make a difference, so I decided to leave my full-time role outside of care and give it a go. I’m so pleased I did as I love seeing the person we care for happy. Being the person to enable this brings me a sense of satisfaction and pride. I never regret becoming a PA.

Induction process for a personal assistant

Prior to becoming a PA, I’d been undertaking the role of a support worker. I therefore had knowledge of the individual; I didn’t however, have the knowledge I thought I needed to be an effective PA.

The difference between my role as a PA and when I was a support worker is that I work more regularly, I work 1:1 with the person I support, and I take a lead on organisation and management on behalf of the family of the person we look after.

The family of the person I support and the clinical commissioning group (CCG) examined my experience and skillset and then identified and organised bespoke training, tailored to the needs of the person we care for.

This included training around autism awareness, safeguarding, first aid, sensory awareness, record keeping, and food hygiene.

Once I’d received this training, I felt supported in my role and prepared to establish the necessary systems that needed to be introduced – such as care plan, protocols, and risk assessments.

The induction into the role was as much for the individual person I work for to determine whether I was suitable to be their PA as it was for me to decide whether the role was for me. I was issued with a contract following the successful induction period and have continued to grow and amend the PA role since.

What worked well during the induction process

In my own induction, I was lucky to begin from a position of experience, and to have local support and access to Skills for Care resources. I worked closely with healthcare professionals and the individual’s family to set things up and implement systems.

Following this, now that we are a larger team, we’re now in the position that our experienced PAs can share good practice and provide training to new PAs. We have a printed manual with policies, procedures, protocols, and risk assessments to share with new PAs so there’s no need to remember everything in a short space of time.

Why a good induction is important

Effective induction is critical for PAs.

We need to ensure safeguarding, health and safety, and quality of care. The new PA should feel they understand their role and are fully supported to get started. Effective induction will also ensure that the individual employer receives the standards of care and support that they expect.

Induction training outlines the roles and responsibilities of the caring role and forms the basis of on-going training and professional development.

Induction advice for individual employers

My number one piece of advice for individual employers looking to improve their induction process would be to share the risk assessments, protocols, and care plan immediately after the selection process. We’ve found that having up-to-date records to talk through and being transparent with new PAs is helpful in finding the right person.

Find more support for individual employers.

Find more recruitment support with our #BuildingYourWorkforce spotlight. 

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