Testing for personal assistants

Personal Assistants (PA’s) will move to twice weekly Rapid Lateral Flow Testing from Thursday 8 April 2021.

A Lateral Flow Device (LFD) test kit is an antigen test which enables rapid display of Covid-19 test results in 30 minutes and does not require a lab to process the test. 

The DHSC will be hosting 3 webinars to in April 2021 detailing the changes and new requirements – PA’s, their employers and interested parties from local authorities can register to attend directly. Please ensure you select the correct webinar to attend and not a previously recorded webinar.

For testing purposes, a ‘Personal Assistant’ is someone who is directly employed by an individual (or self-employed) to provide care and support to enable them to live as independently as possible. All PA’s who provide care that requires them to come within 2 metres of the person they support and who support adults over the age of 18 are eligible for testing. The service is for personal assistants (the employee) only and not for the people receiving care. In terms of process:

• PA’s will be responsible for ordering test kits for themselves via an online portal
• PA’s will need to order a box of 7 LFD every 21 days.
• If a PA test positive via an LFD, they will need to isolate immediately and order a confirmatory PCR and follow national guidance

For further information, please see the Government's webpage for Coronavirus (COVID-19) testing for personal assistants.