This page is aimed at direct payments users. The information may also be helpful for people who pay for their own support (self-funders). You should be able to receive help to find the right service or recruit staff. Some councils may help you or this help might come from the local direct payments support service.

There are several ways to receive support:

• You can employ staff directly yourself
• You can use self-employed staff
• You can use an agency or organisation
• You can use a combination of these options

There may also be a possibility of using relatives or people that live with you when this is the best way to meet your needs.

How can you make sure staff are going to meet your needs?

Before you start to look for staff, it is important to think about what it is you want staff to do. You may have already had an assessment from social services so you will have an idea of what areas of support your direct payments are for. If you haven't had an assessment yet, this might help you to make sure your assessment takes account of your needs.

For more information on assessments, see our pages on deafblind people's rights and entitlements. Here are some suggested areas to think about:

Tasks and activities

The tasks and activities that you would like support with will need to fit within your assessed needs. Here are some examples of areas that you may be able to spend your direct payments on:

What tasks do you need staff to do?

• Support with personal care
• Support with household tasks such as cleaning, cooking, gardening
• Support with tasks outside the home, such as shopping, going to the bank
• Support with leisure or social activities
• Support with learning skills or accessing information

If you're not sure about what tasks you might need support with, you could keep a diary for a few weeks and record all the tasks where you think you might need support. It's important to remember that social services will only meet eligible needs.

Different kinds of staff

Deafblind people are supported by staff with different job titles depending on the nature of the work they do and the skills or qualification they may have. Below are the staff roles that most commonly support deafblind people.

Support Worker or Personal Assistant (PA)

These kinds of workers may not have specific qualifications in working with deafblind people. They will normally provide practical help with daily activities.

Communicator-guide (comm. guide)

Communicator-guides assist people with acquired deafblindness in daily living. They enable two-way communication with other people, access to information and support people to travel and move about in different locations. They may visit a deafblind person at home, read correspondence, assist with bills, forms and telephone calls.

They may also accompany the deafblind person as a guide and provide communication support on activities including shopping, visits to friends, clubs and a range of other recreational and leisure activities. Communicator-guides should have specific communication and guiding skills that allow them to offer specialist support to deafblind people.

Intervenor

An intervenor is a specialist learning support assistant who works on a one-to-one basis with a deafblind child or young person to enable effective communication, the receipt of clear information and to enable the child to gain greater access to the environment around them.

Interpreter

An interpreter facilitates communication by translating what is being said into relevant languages. Interpreters will generally support people in this role only and may not want to take on other roles such as guiding.

Skills, qualifications and training, experience, knowledge and personal qualities of staff

There may be a wide range of skills and qualities that you would like the staff who support you to have. The information below includes lists of a broad range of skills and qualities. It may be useful to think about which qualities are the most important to you. This may help you to choose between applicants or services you are offered.

What skills would you like your staff to have?

• Knowledge of large print and different print formats including braille, Moon
• Clear speech
• British Sign Language
• Sign Supported English
• Visual frame signing or hands-on signing
• Deafblind Manual
• Block
• Makaton
• Total Communication
• Intensive interaction
• Wheelchair skills
• Guiding skills
• Telephone skills, computer skills
• Money, organisational or time planning skills
• Ability to drive a car or van

What qualifications or training would you like your staff to have?

• Guiding
• Communication, such as BSL, Deafblind Manual Alphabet or Makaton
• Deafblind awareness
• Intervenor training
• MSI teaching, teacher
• First aid, fire safety, food hygiene, infection control
• Moving and handling
• Medication
• Disability equality training
• Person-centred planning

For a list of the qualifications available for people who work with deaf and deafblind people contact Signature (formerly CACDP)

What experience would you like your staff to have?

What experience would you like your staff to have?

• Experience of working with other deafblind people before
• Experience of working with children, adults, older people
• Experience of working with people with additional disabilities, such as physical or learning disabilities
• Experience of working with people who are losing their vision and / or hearing and who need to develop new communication skills
• Knowledge of supporting people to re-adjust to daily living
• Experience of providing emotional support or working with people with mental health needs
• Experience of working with individuals with challenging behaviour
• Experience of support with individuals' health needs

What additional knowledge would you like your staff to have?

• Knowledge of the social model of disability
• Knowledge of community care legislation

What personal qualities would you like your staff to have?

• Ability to take instruction and ask questions, willingness to learn
• Patience, open-mindedness, sensitivity, maturity
• Empathy, kindness, good listening skills, friendliness
• Honesty, reliability, punctuality, trustworthiness, ability to maintain confidentiality, tact
• Creativity, imagination, resourcefulness, flexibility, enthusiasm
• Independence, confidence, initiative, ability to remain calm under pressure
• Ability to promote independence
• Ability to challenge their own and others' assumptions

Cultural, religious or other needs related to:

• Your ethnic or cultural background (you may have specific language and / or cultural needs)
• Your religion or beliefs
• Your sexual orientation or personal relationships
• Your personal interests

These personal needs might not mean you want to employ someone who is identical to you. He or she should be happy to work with someone who has your specific needs and lifestyle and support you to live your life.

Making a checklist

Once you have identified items from the above lists, you can create a checklist. This checklist can then be used to create a job description for employing staff, as well as guide you during interviews or when contacting agencies. You can tell an agency about your list to help them find staff that you might want to use. You might think that some items on the list are essential, while others might just be desirable.

What time of day and for how many hours do you want support?

If you receive direct payments, your social services assessment will state how many hours your direct payments should fund. For more information see our page Direct payments: receiving the right amount. You may need to decide which days and what time of day you want support. You will need to tell staff when some timings are essential and when you can be flexible. Direct payments should allow you to change when you need support so you may want to find out how flexible staff can be.

Employing people, using self-employed staff, agencies or organisations

Your local council or direct payments support service may be able to advise you on the availability of staff or services in your local area. There may be a brokerage service in your area. Brokerage services help individuals understand what services are available in their local area and how to meet their assessed needs. Currently, it is not possible to recommend brokers who have knowledge of deafblindness or sensory impairments.

If you think you could benefit from a broker, ask social services. You may like to ask whether the broker is independent and how the broker will be paid for.

The Deafblind Directory is a database of providers of services for deafblind children and adults. Individual and organisational providers create their own profiles on the directory and you can search the directory for free through the Sense website.

Advertising and interviewing

If you already have someone in mind to support you, you may not need to advertise or interview for staff. Once you have written the job description and person specification you will be ready to advertise for staff. You might want to think about the best way to recruit local staff.

It can be hard to find people locally with the right skills to support deafblind people, so you may need to think about how to advertise more widely. Different places where you might want to advertise include:

• Your local direct payments support scheme
• Your local disabled people's organisation
• Volunteer organisations
• National and local online networks, forums or newsletters
• Local Job Centre (Job Centre Plus)
• Local colleges
• Local newspapers or journals
• Local supermarkets and shops

An advertisement for a worker should be brief and include information on:

• The type of work you would like them to do
• The hours per week you would like them to work
• The rate of pay (maybe dependent on the level of skills they have)
• How they can contact you.

It is better to just include your contact details (telephone, textphone, email or fax) and not your home address. You might prefer to use a P.O. Box number or you may be able to use the address of your local direct payment support service. An advertisement could say the general area you live in.

Job applications

You may decide that you would like job applications to be sent to an address that isn't your home address. This will mean that your home address does not need to be made public when you advertise for staff. You could ask your local direct payments support service if you are able to use their address.

Interviews

It is normal for some people to be nervous when interviewing for staff. Try to carry out interviews in a place that is comfortable. You may decide to hold interviews somewhere outside your home. Your direct payments support service might be able to provide a venue.

The idea behind interviews is to find out information about the applicant. Use your checklist to find out about interviewees. Have some questions prepared in advance. Record what individuals say. You might want applicants to support you with a simple (and safe) task as part of the interview. This will be a way to test their skills and find out how well they listen to you and / or take instruction.

Equal opportunities and your preferences

Laws exist to prevent people discriminating against others on the grounds of sex, race, disability, change of gender, sexual orientation and age (this includes both younger and older people). There are few exceptions to these laws; you would have to show a strong reason for making choices that go against these laws. This is not, for example, meant to stop you choosing a female or male worker if you want to or choosing someone who has the communication skills that you need.  You just need to be sure you are making this choice within the law.

Training

You may want to provide training for your staff. For ideas on how to train staff, see our page Purchasing your own support: managing and supervising staff.

Further information

Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS)
Post: (National office), Euston Tower, 286 Euston Road, London NW1 3JJ
Web: www.acas.org.uk
ACAS offer a free and confidential telephone service, which can give you information on employment rights and rules.
The Helpline is open from Monday to Friday 8am - 6pm
Tel: 08457 474 747
Textphone: 08456 061 600

Disability Rights UK
Post: 12 City Forum, 250 City Road, London EC1V 8AF
Tel: 0845 026 4748
Fax: 020 7247 8765
Email: independentliving@disabilityrightsuk.org
Web: www.disabilityrightsuk.org

Signature (formerly CACDP)
Post: Signature, Mersey House, Mandale Business Park, Belmont, Durham DH1 1TH
Tel: 0191 383 1155
Textphone: 0191 383 7915
Email: durham@signature.org.uk
Web: www.signature.org.uk