For more information on what a PA or companion is, please read our guide below.
It is important to choose a personal assistant who you can trust to provide you with all the assistance you need:
- A good listener.
- Empathetic and knowledgeable about your needs.
- Calm in a crisis.
- Willing to take responsibility.
- Practical.
- Someone you trust.
- Someone you are happy to spend your time with.
Can my PA or companion be another disabled person?
Yes. It is absolutely fine for your personal assistant to be another disabled person, as long as they are someone who can provide the support that you need. However, because the purpose of a PA or companion is to help meet your needs under the Equality Act, a venue or festival would not be able to provide a PA ticket to someone who could not provide the assistance that you need.
How to make sure you have the right personal assistant
Communication is key to ensure that you have the right person to support you. Your PA should feel that they know and understand what they will need to do before agreeing to accompany you to the event. We’d recommend that you:
- Talk to your chosen personal assistant before the event about your access needs and what you think you will need support with.
- Make a list of agreed tasks.
- Explain that if there are some things outside of your list that you may need additional support with, these will be situational but still necessary.
- Work through scenarios with your personal assistant.
- Give your personal assistant an opportunity to ask follow up questions.
- Consider how your personal assistant can enjoy the event with you, or outside of their agreed tasks, and where appropriate, agree a process with them, to let them know when they are off duty (for example, during a multi-day festival a PA will need considered breaks).
If you do not feel comfortable talking to them about your access needs, that may be a sign that they are not the ideal personal assistant for you.
We would also recommend never referring to their ticket as a “free” ticket. They may not be paying for the ticket, but it is being offered to them in exchange for carrying out the tasks that you need support with.
Even with a friend or family member, we’d recommend asking your PA or companion to sign a written agreement beforehand. This might sound formal, but it ensures expectations are clear on all sides.
We’ve provided a template for a written agreement below.
What if it goes wrong?
However well prepared you are, situations can arise where you find that your personal assistant or companion doesn’t support you in the way you would hope.
Sometimes this can be resolved with an open conversation to:
- Understand what roles they may be struggling with.
- Clarify their tasks and role.
- Explain why their role is
If that doesn’t work, two important questions to ask are:
- Can you manage until the end of the event with the PA that you currently have?
- Is your PA making you feel unsafe?
If you think you can’t manage until the end of the event
It is beneficial to have conversations with the right staff at the event, this may be:
- Access Officer/ Manager
- Access Customer Service Team
- Welfare Officer
- First Aider
They may not be able to provide the support you need, but they can make sure you are safe.
If you do not feel safe with your PA or companion
Talk to the access officer or one of the security team. Your PA or companion’s ticket to the event is solely for the purpose of them being able to support you. The venue or security team have the right to remove any PA or companion if that support is not being provided.
Reflect after the event about:
- Why hasn’t it worked?
- What do you need
- What can you do differently next time?
Think very carefully before asking that person to be your PA or companion again.
The difference a PA can make
Personal assistants can give you confidence, independence and freedom to enjoy a venue or festival in a way that works well for you. Having someone on site who understands what you need and can help you transforms the experience of going to venues or festivals.
“Having a personal assistant has made an incredible difference for me, I’m not someone who is usually confident asking for help so having someone who knows me and can spot when I need it really helps keep me safe and well when I work at events. It took a long time for me to admit I needed a PA at festivals and it has made a world of difference!” – Attitude is Everything staff member