What training and employment advice is provided to direct payments employers before they employ a support worker?
Our first duty has to be to protect the individual experiencing abuse. Any individual who has concerns that someone is at risk of abuse or neglect must report their concerns to their local authority social services department or the police. Contact information is available on local authorities’ websites and on DEWIS Cymru (https://www.dewis.wales/home).
Equally, any employee who is subject to attack or inappropriate behaviour should report those to the police. Employers are responsible for complying with employment law, including protecting their staff from all forms of abuse and harm and ensuring staff know how and to whom they can report their concerns.
Where the concerns relate to the individual’s ability to manage their responsibilities through a direct payment, the local authority should also be informed so that they can satisfy themselves that the individual is capable of managing the direct payments arrangements and that their needs and outcomes are being met.
Anyone who has eligible care and support needs and chooses to manage those needs through a direct payment can do so. This can be wholly alternative to, or alongside, services commissioned by a local authority. Where someone lacks capacity, a suitable person can be appointed to manage the arrangements on their behalf.
These rights and entitlements are set out in the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 and the associated regulations and codes of practice and available in every local authority in Wales. The specific code of practice on meeting needs requires local authorities to support direct payment recipients to address risks and to be compliant with health and safety requirements.
There are a number of direct payment support services and organisations in Wales which provide a range of employment-related functions to help individuals manage their direct payments. These can range from simple management of the funding, risk and staff management to the discharge of more detailed and complex employer responsibilities. A number of local authorities provide support services through in-house arrangements but individuals can also choose to engage one of the external agencies or manage the arrangements entirely on their own. The level of choice and control is a matter for the individual themselves.
A dedicated employer toolkit for employers of personal assistants is available on the Social Care Wales website which covers a wide variety of core responsibilities of employers and employees including the responsibilities of the Arbitration, Conciliation and Advisory Service: http://www.paemployertoolkit.wales/.