GoodOaks News, Homecare News | 8 November 2022

Myth busting care professionals

What does it take to make a career in the care sector?

New East Dorset care company started at height of pandemic praised in ‘Good’ CQC inspection.

At GoodOaks Homecare, we pride ourselves on our PRIDE values of care: Professionalism, respect, integrity, dedication and empathy. We have noticed that many people feel they can’t be a care professional if they don’t have previous experience, or they are worried about certain aspects of the work and that is putting them off trying care as a career. So, we wanted to create the ultimate guide to myth busting the care sector, so that those looking at care as a career can really understand what it’s like, understand the work it involves and what support you will get from us. Care is an incredibly rewarding career, in fact, it’s probably one of the most rewarding, because every day your work and your actions help to change someone’s life for the better.

Yes and no. At GoodOaks we believe that yes, anyone can get the skills and experience to be a care professional, but that actually what’s more important than having experience is having the right attitude. When we hire, we look to find people that are passionate and enthusiastic about helping to change the lives of our clients and someone that shares our PRIDE values. We can teach you everything you need to get started, or retrain as a carer, and we can help you progress that career as well, but we cannot teach a caring nature and passion. We believe that learning and training is a life-long process and that’s why our team support has lots of additional courses you can do to ensure that you always feel confident and supported.

We can’t speak for every care provider in terms of their rates of pay, but at GoodOaks Homecare we believe that the best way to get and keep the best care professionals, is to look after our team. This includes excellent rates of pay and a host of benefits, including a Long Stay Bonus for team members who have been with us for a while. We are one of the only care providers to publish our pay rates publicly, because we believe that transparency is important.

At GoodOaks we offer:

  • Paid volunteer days
  • Match funding for courses to help you develop your skills and interests.
  • The one million step challenge
  • Breakdown cover
  • Market leading wages, starting from £10.65/hour for care assistants
  • 28 days paid holiday pro rata
  • Mileage paid £0.35/mile
  • Long stay bonuses and paid training
  • Employment perks and benefits
  • Career progression opportunities
  • Friendly management
  • The only Carbon Neutral care role in the area (*we plant trees to offset the carbon we produce!)

This is a subject that seems to put a lot of people off care – the personal care side of the job. Possibly because we are all worried about getting things wrong or not doing things the right way or just being embarrassed. The truth is that being a care professional involves helping people with personal care, this could mean helping them to shower or use the toilet. It can involve applying creams and dressings and helping someone get dressed or undressed. This is something that many of us, unless we have cared for a family member, child or partner, will probably not have experienced before, so it’s natural to want to make sure you are doing it right and in a respectful way.

At GoodOaks Homecare, we will provide you with all the training that you will need so that you will know exactly what to do across all aspects of the caring role. Feeling confident in your skills and experience is one key way to overcome concerns or embarrassment you may feel. It’s also important to remember that our clients need help with these personal care situations, and they are used to receiving help. Most importantly, you will receive support and you will shadow other experienced care professionals when you start, they will help walk you through the job and they are a great resource of knowledge. This means when you start with clients, you will have met them before and will have been through their routines with other carers by your side.

We find empathy and respect are hugely appreciated by our clients in these situations – at the end of the day you are helping them to lead their lives to their fullest.

We think it’s important that all our care professionals and clients have things in common and shared interests, that’s why we do an in-depth interview with both our new clients and our care professionals so we know your interests to match you up with clients. That way you will always have something to talk about and bond over.

At GoodOaks Homecare, we provide full training in all parts of the job, so that you always feel confident. We use an online system that updates in real time so that you can see at the start of your shift if anything has happened with your clients that you should be aware of – for example a change in medication or if they haven’t been feeling well. You also have support from your team and other care professionals available at your finger tips with our online system and over the phone. Meaning that advice and help is only ever a click or call away.

No, not at all. Following your initial training period, you will shadow an experienced care professional, which will help you learn the routines, meet your clients and ask any questions. You will never feel on your own at GoodOaks, with a team always on call to assist or ask any questions.

We believe in taking on and developing our talented care professionals. We want you to be able to grow your skills and to continue to learn, we provide ongoing training to ensure you are always up to date with the latest information. We also offer money towards training courses to help you develop your interests. There will be opportunities to work up through the care levels should you wish, and you may even want to become a Good Oaks Care Home Franchisee yourself one day – we have had care professionals join us who have gone on to open their own GoodOaks business, so the sky is the limit.

If you’d like to find out more about becoming joining our team, or even a franchise your own GoodOaks branch, then we’d love to hear from you. We really do believe that our talented care professionals make a huge difference to the lives of our clients and so we believe that excellent pay rates and a marketing-leading employment package are essential to find the very best care professionals. Click here: goodoakshomecare.co.uk or why not call our team on 01202 757787.