Employer guide12 min read
Employing a PA with a Direct Payment: the complete employer checklist
A step-by-step guide to what needs to happen before a personal assistant starts, every pay period and throughout the employment.
Read the guideDirect Payment employer support
Practical guidance for the work behind employing a PA.
Clear explanations of employment administration, record keeping and council review evidence. Written for individual employers, PAs and the teams that support them.
Plain English
Focused guidance without padding or unexplained jargon.
Operational
Built around the tasks employers and support teams actually complete.
Clear boundaries
Council policy, payroll calculations and legal advice stay with the right specialists.
Record keeping12 min read
Direct Payment reviews: the records to prepare and how to organise them
A practical evidence-pack checklist for council monitoring, with a clear explanation of which requirements are standard and which are set locally.
Read the guideEmployer guide11 min read
PA timesheets: fields, approval steps and a worked example
A complete timesheet structure for Direct Payment employers, including breaks, sleep-ins, expenses, corrections and payroll sign-off.
Read the guideRecord keeping12 min read
PA holiday: entitlement, requests, records and payroll hand-off
A practical leave-year process for recording entitlement, approving dates, arranging cover and giving payroll the right information.
Read the guideEmployer guide11 min read
Direct Payment payroll hand-off: inputs, deadlines and checks
Exactly what to send a PA payroll provider, when to send it and how to deal with corrections without creating duplicate versions.
Read the guideRecord keeping12 min read
PA working hours, breaks and sickness: what to record
A practical record-keeping guide covering actual hours, rest, sleep-ins, sickness notification, self-certification and fit notes.
Read the guideEmployer guide14 min read
Recruiting a PA: right-to-work documents and onboarding checklist
A detailed route from defining the personal assistant role to completing right-to-work, safeguarding, payroll and day-one records.
Read the guideRecord keeping13 min read
PA employment records: a retention schedule that uses the right periods
A record-by-record retention guide for payroll, pensions, right-to-work checks, holiday, working time, DBS information and general employee data.
Read the guideEmployer guide12 min read
When a PA leaves: notice, final payroll and access checklist
A complete offboarding process for resignation and other endings, including final source information, P45 handling and record retention.
Read the guideCouncil practice14 min read
Reducing Direct Payment employer burden: a practical council model
Ten service-design actions councils can use to reduce avoidable administration while preserving choice, control and proportionate oversight.
Read the guideChecked, sourced and written to be used.
Every guide gives you a process, record fields or a checklist and links to the official source behind time-sensitive rules. Where a process is genuinely different across the UK, the guide identifies the difference in the section where it matters.