Care & support · England
Writing the job for my support staff
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Your support should help you live the life you choose.
You can ask someone to help you write these documents.
Start with your life
Think about the things you want to do.
Say what help you want and what you do yourself.
The job description
This explains what the worker will do.
Write clear tasks, such as helping with shopping or communication.
Respect for your home
Explain how you want people to support you.
Your privacy, choices and relationships matter.
Hours and arrangements
Write the agreed days, hours and work area.
Say who employs and supervises the worker.
Pay and training
Check pay, expenses and training costs before advertising.
Ask for help checking the budget and employment rules.
The person specification
This explains the skills and qualities the worker needs.
Link each one to the job.
Essential or desirable
Essential means needed for the job.
Desirable means helpful but not required.
Say which skills can be learnt with training.
Choose useful skills
Listening, reliability and respecting your choices can be important.
Ask how applicants would support you.
Be fair to applicants
Use requirements that the job really needs.
Disabled applicants may need changes to the application or interview.
Get advice about restrictions on who can apply.
Safe support
Workers need suitable training before doing specialist tasks.
They must know when to ask for help.
Keep private information safe
Do not put your home address in a public advert.
Share only the support information that is needed.
Write and check your draft
Use the worksheet to draft both documents.
Ask your employer-support service to check them.
You will also need the proper employment paperwork.
What you can do next
Acas has templates you can change.
The worksheet on this page helps you plan both documents.
Open job description templates Web pageThis link opens another website.
It may use harder words.
More useful links
- Acas: editable job description templates Web page
Download a Word or OpenDocument template and adapt its headings to your support role.
- Skills for Care: PA recruitment templates Web page
Includes a job description and person specification. The toolkit flags pending legal updates; check legal terms with current Acas and GOV.UK advice.
- Acas: fair recruitment and disability adjustments Web page
Check recruitment criteria, questions and reasonable adjustments.
- GOV.UK: written employment particulars Web page
Check the required employment information separately from your role description.
- Skills for Care: individual employer factsheets Web page
Further help with individual-employer responsibilities and working arrangements.
These links open other websites.
They may use harder words.
Writing a job description and person specification for my support staff
Describe the support you want, the worker’s duties and the skills that matter. Use examples and a worksheet to draft both documents.
Adults arranging their own support, families and supporters · England
Two documents with different jobs
A job description says what the worker will do and the practical arrangements. A person specification says what the worker needs to do the job well. For example, the duty might be supporting you to use a communication board. The matching requirement might be listening carefully and learning to use your board. You can write both with someone you choose, using your own words.
Start with your life and who employs the worker
Describe what you want support to make possible: your home life, relationships, work, interests and community activities. Say what you want to do yourself and how someone should help. Record the employer and who supervises the worker. If a provider employs the staff, use your draft to agree the support and staff qualities you need with that provider; it remains responsible for its employment arrangements. A funder or payroll service is not automatically the employer.
Write the practical job details
Include the job title, general work area, reporting arrangements, usual days and hours, and whether the post is permanent, temporary or another arrangement. Explain any evenings, weekends, overnight duties, travel or agreed changes to shifts. State the actual proposed pay and expenses after checking the budget and current minimum-pay rules. Include required training and how it is funded. Do not describe unlimited availability as flexibility. Get advice about sleep-ins, working time and cover where relevant.
List clear duties linked to your choices
Choose only the tasks that apply. These might include communication, meals, shopping, personal care, household tasks, work or appointments, travel, hobbies and relationships. Explain how support should happen: ask before helping, give processing time, respect privacy and let you make everyday choices. Include accurate, respectful records and how to report a concern. Avoid vague instructions to control behaviour or do anything requested. Agree reasonable boundaries and discuss changes rather than using a broad clause to add unrelated work.
Set training and safety boundaries
Identify tasks needing individual training, equipment, competence checks or professional oversight. A job description does not itself authorise a clinical procedure. Delegated healthcare tasks need an appropriate practitioner’s decision, a clear plan, training, assessment of competence and ongoing support. Explain when the worker must stop and ask for help. Plan induction around your communication, consent, routines and support needs, and record who arranges and pays for it.
Build the person specification
For each duty, ask what ability is actually needed and how an applicant could show it. Essential means necessary for the job. Desirable means useful but not required. State which skills are needed at appointment and which can be learnt before a particular task begins. Reliability, respectful communication and willingness to learn may matter more than years in a similar job. Only require qualifications, a driving licence or a car where there is a genuine role-related need, considering reasonable adjustments and other ways to meet the need.
Make the criteria fair
Avoid blanket requirements such as young, fit and healthy or a particular nationality. Describe the task or communication ability instead. Disabled applicants may need reasonable adjustments during recruitment or at work. A restriction linked to a protected characteristic, such as sex, needs a lawful justification for the specific job. Intimate personal care may be relevant to an occupational requirement, but it does not make every restriction lawful. Get employment advice before using such wording. Keep questions about health or disability within the legal exceptions during recruitment.
Example job description wording to adapt
Purpose: Support me to live my chosen everyday life and do more of the things that matter to me. Duties: Help me plan meals and shop, communicate in the way I use, and attend activities I choose. Ask before helping and let me do the parts I can do myself. Respect my home, privacy and relationships. Follow agreed plans, work within training and report concerns promptly. Add only the personal-care or health tasks that apply, then complete the employer, hours, pay, location, supervision and training details.
Example essential criteria to adapt
Can communicate respectfully, listen and allow time for my response. Can keep agreed working arrangements and tell the agreed contact promptly about problems. Can protect private information, maintain professional boundaries and follow agreed support plans. Can recognise when to ask for help. Is willing and able to complete the training needed for the role, with reasonable adjustments where required. Check that each criterion describes an actual need rather than a preference unrelated to the work.
Example desirable criteria to adapt
Previous experience supporting someone to make their own choices may be useful. Familiarity with my communication method, local accessible activities or an interest important to me may also help. These are examples, not requirements for every job. Someone may have relevant skills from other paid work, volunteering or life experience. State where training is available instead of excluding someone who could learn the skill.
Use the documents for interviews and checks
Compare applicants against the same role criteria and agree how you will take part. You could ask: What would you do if I needed more time to choose? How would you support an activity you do not enjoy yourself? How would you respond if asked to do something outside your training? Invite reasonable-adjustment requests. Explain references, right-to-work checks and the role-appropriate DBS process. A DBS check does not replace the other checks or show that someone will always provide good support.
Check, share and review the draft
Keep your home address, detailed medical history and other unnecessary private information out of a public advert. Share necessary support information securely at the appropriate stage. Ask your employer-support service to check the role, budget and recruitment wording. The job description and person specification do not replace the contract or required written employment particulars; the main written statement is due on day one. Review duties and training with the worker as needs change, following the proper process for any contractual change. The Skills for Care toolkit currently flags legal updates as pending, so check legal details against current Acas and GOV.UK guidance.
Words you could use
“Please help me describe the support I want, write clear duties and decide which skills are essential. Keep my choices central and check that the recruitment wording and employment arrangements are fair.”
More useful links
- Acas: editable job description templates Web page
Download a Word or OpenDocument template and adapt its headings to your support role.
- Skills for Care: PA recruitment templates Web page
Includes a job description and person specification. The toolkit flags pending legal updates; check legal terms with current Acas and GOV.UK advice.
- Acas: fair recruitment and disability adjustments Web page
Check recruitment criteria, questions and reasonable adjustments.
- GOV.UK: written employment particulars Web page
Check the required employment information separately from your role description.
- Skills for Care: individual employer factsheets Web page
Further help with individual-employer responsibilities and working arrangements.
These links open other websites.
They may use harder words.
Where the information comes from
Links checked 9 November 2026.
These links open other websites.
They may use harder words.
- GOV.UK: inclusive job descriptions Web page
Clear, relevant criteria based on abilities and actions rather than stereotypes.
- GOV.UK: disabled applicants and job specifications Web page
Genuine essential requirements, travel alternatives and reasonable adjustments.
- Skills for Care: recruiting a PA Web page
Person-led recruitment and the two documents’ purposes. Legal sections carry an update warning.
- Skills for Care: who can be a PA? Web page
Values, professional relationships and relevant skills beyond formal experience.
- Acas: job description templates Web page
Role headings, duties and reporting arrangements.
- Acas: advertising a job Web page
Role-related requirements, inclusive wording and applicant information.
- Acas: following discrimination law Web page
Disability adjustments and limits on health questions during recruitment.
- Acas: occupational requirements Web page
A requirement must be essential to the particular role and objectively justified.
- Acas: interviewing applicants Web page
Consistent questions, adjustments and assessment against job criteria.
- GOV.UK: written employment particulars Web page
Required main statement on day one and the separate wider statement.
- GOV.UK: employing someone at home Web page
Responsibilities when directly employing a care worker and agency distinctions.
- GOV.UK: getting ready to employ someone Web page
Checking pay, employment status, working arrangements and employer duties.
- NHS England: delegating healthcare tasks to PAs Web page
Individual delegation, task limits, training, competence and supervision.
- GOV.UK: DBS checks for personal employees Web page
Current role-based eligibility and application arrangements.
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