For Direct Employers: DE stuff
Welcome DEs! This is your page
This is where you’ll find information about becoming a DE, links to important documents and interesting articles and all sorts of other stuff relevant to your role.
Who is a Direct Employer or DE?
If you receive a direct payment from your local authority, a personal health budget or use your own money (known as self funding) to employ your own care and support staff (they’re known as PAs), then you’re a DE.
Direct Payments: how do they work?
Don’t have a DP yet? Thinking about it? If you have wondered how DPs actually work, who can have them and how you get one, this is for you. We’ve written a pocket guide to getting a DP so that people thinking about a DP can understand the process that DEs go through. It’s good as a refresher too! Click on the link here to go to the page, or click the button.
PA, Carer, Care Worker: what’s the difference?
A Personal Assistant (PA) role is often mistaken as being the same as a care worker; the roles are not the same.
The key difference is that a care worker is employed by an agency, or local authority, while a PA is employed by the person they are supporting (or family or spouse).
A carer is usually unpaid and often a friend or family member.
A PA is responsible to the person they support who has (usually) directly employed them.
PADE UP PA Code of Conduct
This was a piece of work we did with a group of DEs, right at the start, before any modules were decided. It’s an important document and all the modules were written with it at their core. Click on the link here to go to the page, or click the button.
Who is PADE UP for?
PADE UP’s immediate audience is PA’s and direct employers who have budgets from local authorities, health or are self funding and was designed specifically for this group of people. However, the content is highly relevant to related professionals too. There is something here for you if you are:
thinking about becoming a PA
considering a direct payment for all or some of your support needs
a health or social care professional
an existing PA
an existing DE
a relative or friend
Why use it?
Because it was written, bespoke, for you! We at PADE UP noticed a gap in training for lone working PAs in the community, and for DEs, many of whom have never been employers before, and we talked to North East London local authorities. They agreed with us.
We got together with existing PAs, DEs and subject experts and from this emerged what was needed and wanted. And so we have core modules and tailorable knowledge based learning that you can make into your own package, just for you. It’s been designed from the ground up by the people who will use it, written by people who really know their stuff.
The end result is a training tool that can encourage you to enhance your skill base, with certificates to acknowledge your hard work, studying at your own pace, in an online format that suits you. We know that the content is relevant because the people that asked for it have told us it is. That’s why co-production and design has been so important for us. This is your site.
This is just the start; more modules will follow as we achieve further funding. If you have a module that you really want to see, let us know.
What format is the e-learning?
PADE UP is modules of e-learning that has been tailor made for this website. Everything has been specially written. The modules contain text, graphics, voice over, closed captions, audio clips and films of real life PAs and DEs. It’s designed to be engaging and accessible to as many people as possible:
people who don’t have English as their first language
people who would rather use an alternative to traditional learning in a classroom setting
people who prefer listening, talking and thinking over reading and writing
people with visual impairments
people with learning disabilities
people who don’t have access to a computer and will use a tablet or smart phone
people who want to listen on public transport on headphones rather than read the text
BSL interpretation of the modules will follow, funding permitting
versions of modules can be created with audio content in other languages, funding permitting
…but I don’t have access to a PC. How can I access the e-learning?
You definitely can! The e-learning modules are designed to work on desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones. Different browsers work best, depending on what tech you’re using.
For an iPhone or iPad, use Safari.
For an Android phone or tablet, use Chrome.
For a Mac or MacBook, use Safari.
For a PC use Chrome.
PADE UP’s mission and values
Not everyone is interested in the nitty gritty, but everything we do is co-produced and we like to be transparent. We’ve put our mission statement and values on a separate page called ‘small print’. Click on the link here to go to the page.
Want to know more?
We’re glad to hear it! Have a browse around the site, look at the resources by clicking the tabs on the menu bar at the top and following buttons and hyperlinks, check out the latest course titles, and who have financially supported the PADE UP project by clicking on the logos at the bottom of the page.
If you would like to permanently deactivate your profile (this removes all your content and is irreversible) please send an email to padeup@real.org.uk and we will do it for you.
