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Working in the social care industry

Find out what skills you need, opportunities available and how to get help in finding a job in the social care industry.

• About jobs in the social care industry

Text version

Lee Flint, Operations Manager: "Care is not just a job that you can come 9.00 am to 5.00 pm, it's a 24 hour service and it can be very emotional and very draining because these people need a high dependency of support, physically and emotionally."

Katherine Thomson, Care Assistant Aigburth House: "A lot of people out there that need caring for, you know, support workers and caring for young people. Children or, you know, autistic people. The blind, you know, there's all sorts of people out there that you know, need caring for."

Lee Flint: "It does take a special kind of person to actually work within this kind of environment."

Gary Fuller, Carer Exemplar Health Care: "Before I actually came to Long Grove as a care assistant I was a single parent. I had been on benefits for about eight or nine years."

Emily Barnes, Support Worker Adams House: "Generally assisting in pizza stores or supermarkets, it was just a job basically, not a career."

Katherine Thomson: "I was unemployed."

Gary Fuller: "What happened next, I did actually go down to the Jobcentre, see what options I had got open to me. It were my claimant adviser, who were Debbie Rogers, she actually suggested Exemplar Course which she put my name through and then I was accepted."

Katherine Thomson: "I'd got a new adviser at the Jobcentre and he saw me every week like he said he would and he rang me up even when it was out of hours, and you know, he really helped me feel that I could get a job."

Emily Barnes: "They put me on a work trial to make sure that I was happy with the job."

Marcus Foster, Recruitment Manager Anchor Homes: "If you are an employee and you think to yourself 'right, it sounds like a good job to me but I'm not quite sure about it' and I could go and try it unchallenged for a couple of days, so you are out of work, you're receiving benefits - a lot of people don't want to go out and progress that because they are concerned about their benefits. If there is a chance of coming to work on a couple of shifts, perhaps two or three in a week, see what the job's really like. It's a try out and there's no commitment. If it's for you, it's for you - that's brilliant. If it's not, they just at the end say 'that's okay, you've tried it'. It's not the place for you if it hadn't worked - there's carers for everybody."

Katherine Thomson: "On the first day when you get here you do like the first part of your induction. You kind of get introduced to a few people and shown where all the rooms are, where all the fire exits are."

Fran Shaw, Assistant Manager Aigburth House: "When someone starts and they've been out of work for a long time, they tend not to have a lot of confidence. They tend to have low self esteem. First of all we bring them in, we give them basic moving and handling training, basic induction, then we'll buddy them up with somebody for a few shifts and after that you can see their confidence grow."

Emily Barnes: "My job is a support worker and I help people in day to day life with different problems that arise."

Gary Fuller: "The job I'm actually doing now is just helping and assisting service users. It could be help from making them a cup of tea, taking them shopping. They are so appreciative of everything that you do. That's like a reward in itself, you get a little smile you know you've been paid for the day."

Fran Shaw Assistant Manager Aigburth House: "Local Employment Partnerships tend to find people with natural skills. We don't care if people have got experience but if they're kind and considerate and they know how to respect people and they've got a sympathetic nature."

Emily Barnes: "They are all individuals so you have to be very understanding to be able to be aware of what kind of people they are."

Katherine Thomson: "I cared for my mum and dad like before they passed away, you know. Perhaps if you've done a bit of care at home I would think anybody that's a parent is already pretty qualified, you know, because that is care isn't it basically."

Marcus Foster: "We look for them to demonstrate when they apply to us their ability and understanding of what care is all about. And it is very detailed. This is about talking to residents, making friends of residents. It's about giving them personal care. It's about making sure they are clean, they're happy, they're comfortable. It's about talking to them on a one to one basis doing activities with them. You are working in their home with them, so having a real big kindly attitude is really important to us."

Emily Barnes: "Good communication skills and just day to day people skills."

Katherine Thomson: "I think you’ve got to actually care about people, I mean it is a care job isn't it?"

Marcus Foster: "I think if you asked people who've worked for us right now to say 'why do you work in care?' They will say it's because there's a job and at the end of the day they walk home and they've helped improve the lives of all the people."

Gary Fuller: "It's surprising what job satisfaction you do get out of it actually."

Katherine Thomson: "I find it very rewarding. Especially like, you know, when they go on day trips and - or if they are sitting in the lounge watching a movie or if there is a singer coming and you know, you just see them happy."

Gary Fuller: "I don't actually class it as a job. I actually class it as coming home from home because when you are actually in Long Grove it is a small contained unit. Everybody - it's all self sufficient and like I say, you get a smile from one service user it sets you up for the day."

Susan Cunningham, Health Care Director: "The beauty of working within our industry is the flexibility of the hours. Care work has always been seen as unsocial hours but in actual fact for people with children, they can work two 12 hour shift patterns with five days off and they can work night duty and it works fine with a family to and from school."

Emily Barnes: "It's not a nine to five job where you're sat and you're doing something. Every day is different. Some days you're very busy and you are doing five things at once or other days you're sat and you're relaxed and talking and either is rewarding because you know that you are making a difference."

Katherine Thomson: "I feel, I don't know, more positive about everything. You know. I've got money to spend."

Gary Fuller: "It's definitely been a positive experience for me. I even go home and everybody can see a difference."

Emily Barnes: "I have got a lot more self esteem and confidence. I feel like I've got a purpose in life because I come here and I enjoy what I do and I'm also helping others."

Katherine Thomson: "Anybody can do it if they want to because you receive your training from day one so you can have never done care in your life."

Marcus Foster: "The opportunity to progress and a career if you want it. We don't insist upon it. If you want to progress yourself to end up to be head manager level you can do that over a number of years. You're trained and reach your level. You can vary your job from care to catering, to housekeeping, to activities, working with the residents themselves."

Emily Barnes: "It's a fantastic opportunity you know and it's not just here and now."

Gary Fuller: "It is a career, yes because through Exemplar I'm going to get all different NVQs. I'm actually going to go on to a course understanding mental health issues. So it's all building up for me."

Fran Shaw: "Once you've got a qualification you can expand on that. You can move on, you can go into a different field."

Gary Fuller: "I would definitely advise get back into work. Get back - go to a Jobcentre, see what options you have got. You gain in every which way you go."

Working in the social care industry

Find out what skills you need, opportunities available and how to get help in finding a job in the social care industry.

• About jobs in the social care industry