How Did We Get Here ?

In 2011, I started my journey in Care as a complete novice. My first position was working as a Personal Assistant within a single package of care which utilised the Direct Payments scheme to facilitate the Service User to employ their own team of staff to fulfil their requirements. After a year finding my feet and developing a genuine passion for delivering a high quality of person-centred care, I started to notice several discrepancies within the sector. My Employer and Service User at the time, was a wonderful mentor and was vastly experienced and well versed in the contemporary social care model due to his life experience within the care system, as well as his successful and insightful academic studies (multiple BA and Masters degrees) surrounding Disability Studies. The difficulties experienced, alongside their input and passion regarding the way the sector should operate, inspired me to question the options available to Service Users at the time and pressure local authorities to provide a response to how these options could be improved.

My argument was that the two options available came with far too many negatives; While direct employment and management of PA’s came with an element of personalisation and control over your staff team, it also came with a host of legal and employment responsibilities as well as operational issues that the Service User was expected to deal with. This often resulted in a large amount of the Service Users time being engaged with these matters and a considerable amount of undue stress and anxiety placed upon the Service User, simply to achieve the level of involvement desired, and naturally justified within their package of support. The second option available to Service Users at the time was to choose from one of the larger Domiciliary Care Agencies recommended by the local authority and while I cannot speak for all, the general feedback I received, was that these options often resulted in sporadic and inconsistent care that was not person centred or at all tailored to the individual Service User. Care was often delivered at inconsistent times and staff members were not consistent either, preventing any possibility of establishing professional relationships with staff to facilitate a linear delivery of high quality and consistent care and support.

When I challenged the local authorities on the above, I was met with a consistent response that they could not assist, as there was no service that offered a compromise between these two options. A service that could deliver Bespoke packages of support with dedicated staff teams. A service that involved the Service User in all aspects of their support whilst alleviating all the ‘nitty-gritty’, difficult and time-consuming employment, legal and operational obligations. Apparently, such services did not exist and if that was what we wanted, we would have to make our own….. Well………Challenge Accepted! I founded Caring Personal Assistants in 2014 and since have never looked back. We sought to change the game and offer Service Users the care and support they truly deserve to enable a full and satisfying life that adheres to their wishes and desires wherever possible.

A number of our current Service Users have been with us since inception and have been a massive support in the continued development of our company. We are also nothing without our dedicated staff team, and to them, I will always be eternally grateful for sharing my dream of a professional and effective care service that never loses sight of the smallest details, wants & needs of Service Users that are at the heart of our service. When love, compassion and understanding is coupled with ever-developing and dynamic management… Anything is possible! We look forward to hearing what we can do for you….

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Ross White-Hunt

Director and Registered Manager