You may have seen the recent report (published 30 June 2023) from the National Direct Payments Forum on Personal Assistant Employment status. We agree with some of the statements and recommendations made in the report and really welcome a public discussion on self-directed support and around care providers who are defined as self-employed.

However, having worked in this space for over 16 years with the same aim as the authors to support choice and control while also ensuring provision is legal, safe and compliant, and having worked with HMRC, CQC and PwC to explore the same contextual parameters, we have reached different conclusions and therefore strongly challenge some of the conclusions made in this report.

While supporting our model, the National Direct Payment Forum did not involve or engage with us before citing us in their report and have made public some statements that are incorrect and misrepresent our work.

We have raised these issues with the Forum. While the Forum has decided not to make any changes to the report at this stage, even to correct inaccuracies, they recognise that we have different perspectives to bring and see this report as the beginning of a conversation on this complex area.  As a leading expert in this area, they have invited us to be part of a wider discussion to find solutions to the points raised in the report and by ourselves. We have accepted this invitation and look forward to bringing our perspective and experience to the conversations.