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Furlough Scheme Update

The U.K. Government has announced further changes to the Furlough Scheme and whilst you may already be aware of these, we just want to make sure you are prepared:

The Furlough Scheme has now been extended until 31st October 2020 with the current scheme continuing to pay up to 80% or a maximum of £2,500.00 (claims can include National Insurance paid and the minimum auto-enrolment pension contribution) until 31st July 2020.

From 1st August 2020, it is intended that workers can return to their employment on a part time basis and employers will be asked to pay a contribution toward the salary/wage of the furloughed worker. The amount expected of the employer has not yet been decided or disclosed.

As soon as this becomes available, we will update you but at present any PA employer with staff on “furlough” should start to plan how they will return their workers, either on their original hours/contract or some form of staged return and/or meet any contributions to the payments to keep them employed.

We are aware this might present difficulties where employers and employees may disagree over the safety of returning to work, so we’re here to assist with anyone who might come to you with such a concern. Just call us on 01698 250280 or email us at info@spaen.co.uk and we will be happy to help.

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PPE for PAs and Carers

If you are struggling to get PPE, then please contact the Social Care PPE Support Centre on 0300 303 3020 and they can provide you with information about where to access PPE locally. This will usually be through a Community Hub that has been set up in your area.

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Claiming wages for Furloughed Employees

Hello everyone,

If you are seeking to claim wages for furloughed employees then please follow this link: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wages-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme which has all the details on how to do this. Unfortunately, SPAEN cannot do this on behalf of our members, so be sure to make your claim as soon as possible.

If you have any questions then please get in touch with us. We hope you are keeping safe.

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Welcome assurance received in relation to PPE

SPAEN’s CEO, Colin Millar, has welcomed the Cabinet Secretary for Health & Sport’s written assurance that the ongoing issue of Personal Assistants and their employers are struggling to access Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

Speaking in the Scottish Parliament yesterday, Jeane Freeman MSP told the Chamber, “I need to apologise for the fact that we have not resolved this up until now.  This is a really important group of people, the individuals that they are caring for are very important individuals and there is no reason, at this point, why they cannot access PPE.  So my apology goes alongside my assurance that before I leave to go home tonight, we will have resolved this.”

She went on to state, “These Personal Assistants have my assurance that we will have resolved this by the end of today.”

The Cabinet Secretary subsequently followed up this Parliamentary statement with a letter to Colin repeating the apology for the delay and re-affirming her commitment to have this matter resolved, outlining the steps the Scottish Government are taking to ensure this is done swiftly.  You can view the full letter here.

Welcoming the commitment and renewed assurance, Colin said, “We are very grateful to the Cabinet Secretary and all MSP’s who’ve supported SPAEN in their calls to have this matter given the attention it deserves from the Scottish Government.  The delays have caused considerable distress and anger amongst many PA employers and their workers, who have continued to provide support and services despite the personal risk to them and their employers.”

“A quick resolution will ensure that people get the equipment they need to remain protected and SPAEN stands ready to work with the Scottish Government, CoSLA and any other partners to ensure this is achieved.  I would like to thank the Cabinet Secretary for her consideration and leadership in bringing this delay to an end.”

As soon as full details are available on the practical steps PA’s and employers can take to access PPE, we will update our News section, social media channels and will write direct to all our members.

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Charity chief calls for fundamental “review” of how PA employers are supported.

SPAEN’s CEO, Colin Millar, today issued an open letter to the Cabinet Secretary for Health & Sport, the Convenor of the Health & Sport Committee, the Convenor of the Cross Party Group on Disability and all MSP’s with the Health brief in the Scottish Parliament calling for a “fundamental review into how Direct Payment recipients in Scotland are represented and supported at national and regional level at the earliest opportunity.”

His call comes on the back of repeated requests for access to Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for Personal Assistant Employers and their PA’s, stating, “the cracks in Scotland’s social care system have been exposed and the lack of any kind of planning or cognisance of how Direct Payment recipients would be supported in such instances has clearly not been considered, leaving them exposed and vulnerable.”

Scottish Government estimates there are currently around 2,200 active PA employers in Scotland today, giving a potential PA workforce of between 4,400 and 6,600 individuals.

SPAEN has been calling on the Scottish Government to ensure these people are given equal priority and access to essential PPE, ensuring they can fully follow the Scottish Government’s own guidelines on safe working in social care settings.  The Scottish Government issued an e-mail address and telephone number for people wishing to report issues accessing PPE but SPAEN members are advising their calls are not being taken as they are not “Care Inspectorate” registered and e-mails continue to go “unanswered”.

Some PA employers are being told by their local authority that they will need to source their own PPE.

Colin draws parallels to the urgent care and attention given to other social care workers represented by unions or membership organisations and questions why PA employers are not being afforded the same support and consideration especially given that their right to choose a Direct Payment as a means of meeting their assessed social care needs is protected in law and should have equivalent affect as any of the other Self-directed Support Options.

“We’ve already had to write to the Cabinet Secretary requesting that Personal Assistants be explicitly included in the list of “social care key workers” as initial guidance omitted this, preventing many PA’s from accessing essential childcare or being questioned whether their journey to work was “essential.  It seems as though PA employers in particular are being forgotten at each and every turn.”

You can read the full open letter here.

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CEO Statement

Keeping our members and staff safe whilst continuing to be available to provide advice, guidance, support and assistance as and when required is SPAEN’s key priority and it is with this in mind that we have taken the decision to follow and implement, fully, the Scottish and UK Governments’ advice issued last evening and have taken a number of steps which will change how we do this.

From today (17.03.20), SPAEN’s office in Bellshill will remain closed. This will be constantly reviewed and we will continue to follow Government advice on when to re-open. As a consequence, all office and home visits scheduled will also be cancelled or re-scheduled for a later date. This is done primarily to ensure we do not put any of the people we work with at risk of transmission of Corona virus.

We are conscious that some people may be asymptomatic (have no symptoms) but may still be affected by and therefore pass on Corona virus so simply checking with our staff that they have no symptoms was not sufficiently reliable in seeking to keep you safe.

SPAEN has a very detailed and well-rehearsed Business Continuity Plan and this is now being implemented. This should ensure that you continue to receive the supports and services that you want and need throughout the period that the office is closed, with the exception of face-to-face visits.

For people wishing face-to-face support, we can facilitate video calling using our telephone system and this is available to every SPAEN member at all times. We’re glad we implemented this well in advance and hope that it eases some of the difficulty of not being able to provide home or office visits.

You should continue to phone the SPAEN telephone number (01698 250280) or e-mail info@spaen.co.uk (or the individual or service if you have their direct e-mail address) and we will continue to respond to all your enquiries. When phoning the SPAEN office, you will still be asked to select from 1 for Membership Services; 2 for Payroll services etc. Please continue to use these options as this will direct your enquiry to the right person.

Payroll and Managed Account customers should continue to submit timesheets or other requests to payroll@spaen.co.uk and these will be processed in the usual timescales. The deadlines for submitting payroll information remains the same, so please ensure you help us by having this information to us on time. If you normally post your timesheets, we will be collecting mail from the office so these will continue to be processed to.

I would re-iterate our advice to all PA employers – PLAN ahead. If you can, have casual contracts in place for emergency care and support if your PA is unable to attend work at short-notice. We are working with PA Network Scotland to develop an “emergency list” of available PA’s from all across Scotland.

If you require emergency cover, please get in touch and we’ll do what we can to link you with PA’s in your area however we strongly recommend having other informal supports in place too.

It may take us a few hours to get our remote systems up and running but after this period, you should see business as normal. We recognise these are not normal times and I would encourage you to get in touch if there’s anything at all that we can do to assist – PA employment related or not. We will do all we can.

Like everyone else, we hope the guidance to “socially distance” is not in place for too long and that you all remain safe and well during these challenging times. We will be working on other ideas to help people stay connected and supported and will hopefully have more to follow on this in due course.

Our first priority is ensuring the core services are still available and that we do everything we can to keep each of us safe and supported.

Colin Millar
Chief Executive Officer