Writing A Job Description

On Friday, Brett came round and we wrote the job description for Cherry's Personal Assistant. I had already worked on the qualities I did and did not want, based on experience of how Cherry responds to people working with her. Brett wanted me to put them into the form they usually use and, as usual, that triggered some strong discussion about 'fitting into boxes'. Actually, most of what I wanted went in and Brett understood my thinking, even though he advised keeping the parameters of the ad open to attract more people. I feel that to attract the right people the ad has to repel the wrong ones. But I agree that you can't limit the field too much as people come in complicated combinations and who knows which combination is going to turn out to be a winner!

We discussed whether to insist on a CRB and he gave me the wording that covers it without going to the expense and palaver for a dubious result. We wouldn't be able to see the results anyway and there are other safety mechanisms that can be employed which are more effective. 

Brett has sent me the Trust Paperwork and I have read it. It's not as scary as I thought it would be. My personal nightmare is paperwork, Official Forms and Legal Documents. But these are relatively simple to understand and, as A4E will be doing the payroll, I don't think there is going to be anything for me to manage that I don't already have to do. Negotiating changes in shift, keeping and signing a work log, dealing with unreliability or sudden illness; all these things are headaches already. Hopefully, by being the ones who choose the employee, we will improve things in these troublesome areas.

Running the Trust is more about getting the trustees involved appropriately for their abilities. I have chosen to have 9 - 10 Trustees as I want there to be a circle of people involved in helping Cherry plan her life. Then it is not just me and I will be able to step back from the dominant role and trust that others can continue without me. If this sounds too ambitious for most people, then you will be pleased to learn that a minimum of 3 Trustees is all that is required; one to be independent of the family.

I also discovered that Holly will only be able to do PA work with Cherry if she doesn't live with us. Awkward, but understandable. As it was only a thought for later in the year, should she come back from Vancouver, I will leave it for now. It does make me wonder how Cherry would get round-the-clock support if she wasn't living at home. 

The final note I want to make is about the weird way this thing is coming together. Until we have an employee, we can't activate the trust cos we can't have money going into the account, building up unused. So getting the PA is the first step!! Then everything will happen at once! I've given Brett a deadline of end of April. He laughed, but said he's try. 

Already this process is evolving the way I think about Cherry's future. It's not trouble free, but it is creative and exciting and it has Cherry firmly at the centre. She doesn't have to become service shaped to fit into what's available, and she doesn't have to make life easier for Managers who think person centred  means putting themselves in the middle and having everyone dance around their needs!