LiveYou

LiveYou was founded by Dan, who has quadriplegic cerebral palsy, and his PA Sam, who supported Dan through university and beyond.

Dan's university experience was a pivotal moment in his life, and the right PA support was at its core. Sam was not simply a carer. The two formed a bond over maximising every opportunity in life, not only academically and career-wise but also socially. This led to Dan achieving a first class degree, friendships for life, and an incredible amount of confidence and purpose going into the future. LiveYou was created to give other disabled people the same opportunities to live life to the fullest, just as Dan had with PA support that was designed around him.

In contrast, Dan spent much of secondary school isolated and struggled to make friends, because the way he was supported by teaching assistants meant classmates could not easily connect with him without worrying about what they might say with a teacher around. This taught Dan that even when support ticks all of the right boxes on paper, it can have a devastating impact on wellbeing, confidence and independence if it is not tailored perfectly to the person's needs.

Person-centred care is at the heart of LiveYou. We do not have a pool of carers who are simply matched to clients as they come on board. We do things differently to the rest of the care industry. We collaborate closely with clients to plan what a successful, independent life looks like to them. From there, we use our expertise and experience to create a PA team that will enable the client to achieve their desired milestones in life. The client has full control and significant input over this whole process, which includes: creating the initial independence plan, approving our custom job adverts, being an active part of the recruitment process, and managing their PA team overall with LiveYou by their side. For example, during the recruitment process, all candidate screening interviews with LiveYou are recorded and sent to the client. From there, the client can truly see who the candidates are, get a feel for them, and decide who they want to progress to the next stage of the recruitment process. For our clients, this collaborative approach combines safeguarding with the ease of creating and managing a PA team, without giving up any control over who supports them and how this support is delivered.

This best-of-both-worlds approach means clients can focus on achieving the next personal goals in their own lives, rather than spending time and energy dealing with the additional challenges arising from their disability, such as effectively running a team. To do this, LiveYou has created its own team of specialists in recruitment, HR and budgeting. Our team also includes people with disabilities, to ensure we are genuinely user-led and can bring lived experience to our work with clients.

LiveYou clients include students at the University of Cambridge, social media influencers with millions of followers, Britain's Got Talent Golden Buzzer winners, Special Olympics medallists and successful business owners, to name a few. We pride ourselves on removing barriers for disabled people, treating them as equals and enabling each client to reach their full potential.

Discover more at: https://liveyou.co.uk