Yesterday our summer playscheme kicked off at work, and for the next five weeks our projects will be open all day every day, Monday to Friday. I’ve been adjusting my schedule a bit too, so my support workers are now doing different days as well.

For a while I’ve had a pretty regular routine, with a team of workers each doing a particular day of the week. But with these changes, my sense of where we are in the week has been thrown off kilter – I can no longer tell which day it is by who’s supporting me.

I’ve got some even bigger changes coming up in the autumn. Will, who’s been supporting me for the last few years, is going to start a PHD and won’t be able to support me after October. And Leftwing Idiot, who’s done every Wednesday for over five years, is going to managing a new arts project at work.

I’ll be sad to lose them as regular support workers, but I’m excited about they’re going to be doing instead. I know, too, that the friendships we’ve all built up will continue. I don’t mind change but the uncertainty of who’ll support me is nerve-racking.

So I’ve decided to try something new, something I’ve been thinking about for a while. Rather than receive support from a team of workers, I’m going to recruit one person to work with me pretty much full-time. I’m excited and nervous about this prospect. My relationship with the person supporting me is incredibly important for them, for me and for my independence and my wellbeing.

Today the search for a new PA has begun with a formal advert on job-search websites. If you know someone who might be interested do share it with them.

I can’t wait to meet my potential new PAs and to them to you through this blog.