Emma

My Requirements

We are looking for a Personal Assistant for our 9 year old severely autistic daughter.
Initially we’re looking for help for 3 to 6 hours, every weekend on Saturday and/or
Sunday afternoon to suit the applicant. If the relationship between the applicant and
our daughter works well we would look to extend this to 10 hours per week in the
school holidays spread over 2-3 days a week. There may also be flexibility for extra
hours on bank holidays and/or rare evenings.
Person Specification
An awareness of autism would be helpful, however a willingness to learn about and
fully understanding our daughters’ specific autistic traits and needs and how to
respond to her effectively, is more important to us.
Due to our daughter’s rigid need for structure it is especially important that
unplanned absences are kept as minimal as possible and that the person who takes
on this role sees it as a long term role and not a stop gap or short term role. The
person our daughter warms to would look to become a trusted friend of hers.
You will need to be fit and energetic to meet her constant high energy needs and
have a fun friendly attitude. A great imagination, playfulness, silly voices, making up
games, songs and dances would be an added bonus!
Please note this is not a ‘babysitting’ role, a genuine caring attitude towards our
daughter’s happiness and development is key.
You’ll need to be able to travel to Bishops Tachbrook and to arrive for the agreed
time.
If you don’t already have a current DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service), this will
need to be applied for. This may take up to 6 weeks, however, if successful following
interview, there would be a possibility of starting the role if references were available
and verified.
Job Description
This role is mainly to provide company, play and to entertain our daughter and meet
any needs required while doing so. This would include toileting and requests for food
(non-cooked). The role will be undertaken in our child’s own home environment.
In school holidays the role would be as our daughter’s 1:1 when attending holiday
activities at organised venues with other children, your responsibility would be to
monitor her as she interacts at the venue, being on hand for her needs and ensuring
she is happy and safe in the environment.