A disabled member of the House of Lords says she “fears” disabled people could end up living in care homes if a “severe” shortage in personal assistants is not addressed.
Baroness Jane Campbell, a cross-party peer, and others have been struggling to recruit PAs in recent years.
Baroness Jane Campbell in conversation with Martyn Sibley
Personal assistants, known as PAs, help with care and general tasks to enable individuals to live independently. The government said £500m will be used to “develop the existing workforce”.
Veteran disability campaigner Baroness Campbell contacted the BBC’s Access All podcast to say: “The situation is so bad I fear disabled people will be forced back into living in instructional settings.
“Most of us escaped from them in the 1970s to live independent lives. We don’t want to go back.”
The Baroness is a wheelchair user with the muscle wasting condition spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).
According to the Local Government Association (LGA) about 70,000 people in England use PAs. It described the current lack of workers as “severe” in a recent report.
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Personal Assistant Survey – The Forgotten Workforce
Around 70,000 people in England employ a personal assistant (PA), usually through taking a direct payment or personal health budget. What was the experience of people who employ a PA of recruiting and retaining them between March 2020 and January 2022?
This report is the result of an online survey with people supported by a personal assistant to explore the issues they faced. Nearly 1,000 people participated – a very good response. People told us that PA recruitment has got harder, both in terms of a shortage of applicants and their suitability for the work. Low pay, poor terms and conditions, and restrictions on what people can pay are the primary drivers for this, alongside the challenges of the Covid pandemic. Download a two page summary