The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has been commissioned by the government to undertake a review of adult social care and the impact the ending of ‘freedom of movement’ has had because of Brexit. As a result, the MAC would like to hear from anyone who has relevant knowledge, experience or expertise to help inform its [...]

Prevention is obviously better than a cure, but however prepared we endeavour to be, it can still be a constant worry at the back of our minds. PA Pool operates a report system where members can alert us if such a situation happens and based on this, I can thankfully say PA’s ‘walking out’ on [...]

No upfront fees Access member profiles of over 14,000 PAs and 4,500 PA Users Search specific criteria based on your needs Communicate securely via the messaging system to protect your privacy “When it’s good it’s fantastic, when it’s bad it’s horrid” – for Katy Etherington, the mastermind behind the interactive personal care assistant recruitment and [...]

The rise in assistive technology over the global lockdowns has left a positive legacy for those who are disabled and housebound… It’s not often you’d think that something good could come out of a global pandemic, but for disabled and housebound people, the developments made in assistive technology to help businesses as their staff worked [...]

This year, the theme for Mental Health Awareness week is ‘Nature’. Hosted by the Mental Health Foundation, it is now in its 21st year and runs from 10-16 May, and people from across the country will be celebrating the mental health benefits of being around nature in their local community in a range of digital [...]

Katy Etherington, founder of the not-for-profit website for disabled people and personal care assistants, PA Pool, has won the London & South East England Prestige Awards – Private Care Specialists of the Year 2020/21. The PA Pool website, www.papool.co.uk, is for disabled or elderly people looking to employ a Personal Care Assistant (PA) or carer, [...]

PA Pool founder and director, Katy Etherington, was honoured to be invited to be a panellist in an online seminar for Discover! Creative Careers Week as part of National Careers Week between 1-5 March 2021. The live Q&A panels ran throughout the week, to allow young people to submit questions and have them answered by [...]

You only have one chance to make the right impression with a photo online – so make sure it’s the right one! Not many of us are lucky enough to have a professional photographer to hand when we need a headshot for an online profile. But there are some simple rules we can follow that [...]

Many disabled people have for as long as 30 years used PAs and Care Workers from the EU and EEA countries as well as from countries further afield. This has increased their choice and control over the care they receive and for many has been invaluable. One of the many negative outcomes of taking back [...]

Many of the personal care assistants looking after our members are originally from Europe – how will Brexit affect their employment rights? As the UK heads towards Brexit, the right to free movement ends at the end of 2020. This means that EU citizens will no longer be able to come to the UK to [...]

It seems so simple…to find a PA to carry out personal tasks and to pay them by the day to be there doing it all. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement – work in exchange for money – or it should be… However, in a complex society such as ours, there are all sorts of regulations [...]

Lots of our Carers/PA’s (Personal Care Assistants) are upgrading to become Premium PA’s on our website now so that they can really stand out from the crowd. Registering as a PA and looking for work on PA Pool still remains free of charge; however, PA/Carers can pay a small fee and upgrade to become a [...]

Here at PA Pool we love inspirational stories and this one on the Metro website caught our eye! A young woman – Natasha Lambert – with cerebral palsy is set to sail 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean by using only her mouth to control a specially adapted 46ft catamaran. How on earth can she [...]

So it’s been a few months since we added some new functions to our website, and we would be really interested to hear your opinions! Are you finding the Shift Calendar useful? Did you know that you can now also Search for someone’s availability for work by date? You can find this in the Search [...]

Have you seen the official trailer for the new Paralympics documentary yet? Click on the link below to take a look. Having grown to become the world’s third largest sporting event, the documentary – entitled Rising Phoenix – will look both at the history and current standing of the Games. Rising Phoenix will be launching [...]

Good Care Month runs from 1 to 31 July and is intended to celebrate the hard work of our PAs and Carers. We have seen evidence of this throughout the Coronavirus pandemic with #ClapForOurCarers and #ClapforNHS. In Hertfordshire alone – where PA Pool HQ is based – around 4,000 paid carers are recruited each year, [...]