employing P.A.s with health budget

pamr

not sure if you can help me with this, I hope so.   I am planning to change from a care provider to health budget for my daughter. she has 24/7 care and receives her funding from CHC.   I am wishing to keep the same P.A.s (or most of them) as she is familiar with them and they with her.   they are employed by care provider, but care provider use her funding to pay P.A.s   the care provider has threatened me with his legal team as says I cannot take P.A.s with us.   I have seen one of their contracts with care provider and cannot see anything regarding this in there.
it was mentioned on another discussion board on scope of the possibility of paying the care provider for taking them.   can we do that.   they all want to come with us.   or is there any other route I can take.  I feel that they are taking away our freedom to choose what suits my daughter.
thank you.

mossycow

Wow that's really interesting. And I'm completely useless as I know nothing.... But.... Useful people will be along soon! 

mossycow

The advice on Scope might need plumping out a bit as currently it is 

"If you’ve never hired a carer before, you can get advice on employing a carer or personal assistant."

But doesn't say where that advice could come from.... 

Does anyone know, is there a place that advisors folks on the enoloyement/law side of employing carers and PAs?

Also, hi there, hope you get some support and can do what your family needs. 

April2018mom

Hello @pamr. Welcome to Scope! 

There are several ways to hire a carer or PA. First of all call your local council social services team to ask for a needs assessment to be done. A carer can help with the following:

Washing and dressing
Transportation
Cleaning and household chores etc
Cooking
Shopping
Toilet assistance
Bathing
Making friends 
Accessing the community
Gardening
Learning new things
Finding work

Hope this is useful. For more information see this link 

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/social-care-and-support-guide/care-services-equipment-and-care-homes/homecare/

Tip- make sure you trust the carers. Always obtain a phone number in case and insist on a DBS check for any private carers as well. 

forgoodnesssake

It was me who said about the possible "fee" for taking staff on privately but if there is nothing in any contracts about this then they may not be able to enforce anything.  But you'd have to see all their small print including any HR documents they may keep centrally but which all their staff may have had to confirm that they had read and agreed to.  You could ask to see this, and evidence that the staff in question had been made aware of the conditions (like a signed form or something)

Adrian_Scope

Hi @pamr,

This isn't a situation I've come across before, so hopefully someone will be able to offer some expertise about this. In the meantime, have you checked out Contact? They have a helpline who might be able to offer some advice about this. You can call them on 0808 808 3555. Also, you can always try our helpline on 0808 800 3333.

Ails

Hi @pamr and welcome to the Community.  It is nice to meet you and thank you for sharing with us.  I have no knowledge of PA's myself and can't contribute further to what you have been already advised, but I'm sure someone else on the Community will be able to help.  I hope you get things sorted out anyway.  If there is anything else we can help you with meantime then please just let us know.  All the best. 

April2018mom

Check all of their paperwork carefully. Ask to see their contracts too. Do you use a care agency or not?
Call thomson helpline number (this number is provided on the website) and see what they say 
https://signon.thomsonreuters.com/?productid=PLCUK&viewproductid=UKPL&lr=0&culture=en-GB&returnto=https%3a%2f%2fuk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com%2fCosi%2fSignOn%3fredirectTo%3d%252f1-629-2370%253ftransitionType%253dDefault%2526contextData%253d(sc.Default)%2526firstPage%253dtrue&tracetoken=0913190731360PVCNPBCSy8JVTboFQHlIHCFX0za_qKr82a5wChEfvrBZ4EJ5QOVe0VPkSyWZZIAddZP9nz80McAEcwDYWmPmCYcbILnEqropxZU4QmvivLzPj_wVEh_s7XmQi7qrvHWZRDBQR_L8t7oaST4BpVRjnNhFp3w8RWEuGESKxnt7JzTJYVTkaSbqGHKx67Qgn2wRDBFSXPEM2TcrVFhodpSrV_JnvRlxkddZWsw8K6QQK_zF18ZGw1y0FJYX53iovQT7GaXeDNXVRXGI-1mFJQOVb7UozFw6HGFfBmvSS46-VDJZn6eSd2xV0VZyhGIxS-AWUgqL0nOfkfgzRJ8kgmE00FTB_6Smwv8ioH3GzcE7XuGIPRJQkJv7Ua3zYngAk7Zc
Hopefully you can sort out this issue quickly. 

buzzer

If you get legal advice is should always be a firm who specialise in community care CHC funding. 

A similar situation occurred with us, and the staff had signed a contract to the effect that they couldn’t work for former clients for a period of one year.

We overcame this, the PA's all left the care provider, and went self employed and we rehired them after the year. 

newborn

 You can see why agencies don't want their staff poached.   However,  it would  be interesting if there has been a legal  precedent case taken through court for enforcing  the banning  of ex employees from going self employed, especially for a year.   

It is a tangle, because if you are forced to recruit workers to do the job until a year from now, you  will  then need to sack the new workers in order to take back the current ones.   But by then, you might be closely attached to the new ones!

Is there a way to negotiate with the agency?  For example,  offer to buy off the restrictions.  But if they are currently taking a big  profit on every hour involved, they  won't  like losing it.