Employ Staff or Use Self Employed People

[claretfan]

Not a question for me but my daughter - but I'm sure someone on here can guide us.

She recently went self employed providing care services to elderly / terminally ill people. However, although she thought it would be a job just for her, she has become extremely busy and needs other people to help her meet the demands of the business - which, by there very nature are volatile and fluctuate.

It's a new venture and at this stage she does not want to commit to taking anyone on to her books until she can determine demand moving forward.

Is she OK to take people on initially on a casual or self employed basis and any tips / requirements to fulfil / pitfalls

Thanks in advance

[Lance]

Not a question for me but my daughter - but I'm sure someone on here can guide us.

She recently went self employed providing care services to elderly / terminally ill people. However, although she thought it would be a job just for her, she has become extremely busy and needs other people to help her meet the demands of the business - which, by there very nature are volatile and fluctuate.

It's a new venture and at this stage she does not want to commit to taking anyone on to her books until she can determine demand moving forward.

Is she OK to take people on initially on a casual or self employed basis and any tips / requirements to fulfil / pitfalls

Thanks in advance

This forum is mostly IT contractors. Very few employ people so I'd suggest you continue searching no matter what answers you get here.
There are loads of regulations you'll need to follow whether you use employees or self-employed people. Different sectors will have different regulations as well.
Talk to an accountant who knows the sector.
Get in touch with any local business networking events.
Possibly even try the job centre.

But you're going to need to understand how to pay people and how to pay their PAYE tax. If they're self-employed that might be easier, but the burden may well be on you.
You'll need contracts drafted (legal costs).
You'll need to understand that you are responsible for validating eligibility to work in the UK.

What you will find is that running a business is nothing to do with the business you know. And that is why most businesses fail.

Good luck.

[Lance]

have a shufty at this

https://www.gov.uk/employing-staff

and this

https://www.gov.uk/paye-for-employers

[northernladuk]

Shufty... lol. Not heard that in years...

Anyway, I thought in the care world you are more likely to use the agencies that provide temps? Something like the one below..

Care Staff | Carestaff Solutions | Temporary Support Workers North West

You could specify what you want for a shortish duration to fulfil your needs and as it grows you can then drop them and go for a perm.

It's going to take a lot of learning about contracts and the way agency staff work and it's probably going to cost you a lot more than you expect.

Once you go down perm land you have a whole world of learning to do as you will be an employer and need to understand all the laws that go with it. I'd go down the temp line first and see how it works.

[SueEllen]

The problem your daughter has and one of the biggest hassles is that they all need advanced DBS checking plus full referencing so they can work with vulnerable people.

As a lot of care work is done by immigrants checking people abroad is an even bigger hassle.

So involving an agency while looking more expensive will actually not cost her loads more initially.

[Lance]

As a lot of care work is done by immigrants checking people abroad is an even bigger hassle.

So involving an agency while looking more expensive will actually not cost her loads more initially.

This is a good point and probably the reason why you (your daughter) sees such demand as it's hard to get good people in the first place.

[malvolio]

Not a question for me but my daughter - but I'm sure someone on here can guide us.

She recently went self employed providing care services to elderly / terminally ill people. However, although she thought it would be a job just for her, she has become extremely busy and needs other people to help her meet the demands of the business - which, by there very nature are volatile and fluctuate.

It's a new venture and at this stage she does not want to commit to taking anyone on to her books until she can determine demand moving forward.

Is she OK to take people on initially on a casual or self employed basis and any tips / requirements to fulfil / pitfalls

Thanks in advance

You an IPSE member? If so, drop me a PM and I'll pass on a couple of names that may be able to help.

[ASB]

Think a cqc certificate is required. Including for your daughter.

The normal, or at least common model, is a zero hours contract.

Self employed is an issue due to the required monitoring etc.