Home care workers for domiciliary care providers
Home care workers visit people in their own homes to help them get up, wash, dress, eat, take their medicines and get to bed. Most of the job is done alone, with the care plan in the folder and a phone for back-up, so judgement matters as much as skill.
We recruit home care workers for domiciliary care providers, for temporary cover and permanent posts, and tell you plainly who drives.
What a home care service does and who regulates it
A home care provider sends care workers into people’s own homes. In England, the Care Quality Commission registers this as personal care, the regulated activity that covers care given in the place where someone lives.
In Northern Ireland, an agency that supplies care workers to work in people’s own homes counts as a domiciliary care agency and must itself register with RQIA. Ask us what we can offer for home care cover there before you book. Permanent recruitment for Northern Ireland providers is open.
Each nation has its own name for the same service:
- England
- Care Quality Commission, for personal care.
- Scotland
- Care Inspectorate, as a support service providing care at home.
- Wales
- Care Inspectorate Wales, as a domiciliary support service.
- Northern Ireland
- RQIA, as a domiciliary care agency.
Home care cover at a glance
What we usually agree with a home care provider before the first run.
- Duties
- Personal care, meals and drinks, medicines support, light domestic tasks, company, and reporting changes to the office.
- Shifts
- Runs of visits across the morning, lunchtime, teatime and evening, and some waking nights or sleep-ins.
- Checks
- The adults’ criminal record check for the nation, references, and for driving runs a driving licence and insurance that covers driving for work.
- Pay basis
- Hourly. Travel time between visits counts as working time for the minimum wage.
- Qualifications
- In England, the Care Certificate standards for new starters and a care qualification for experienced workers. Registration with the SSSC in Scotland, with Social Care Wales for domiciliary care workers in Wales, and with NISCC in Northern Ireland.
Roles a home care service usually needs
Home care runs on home care workers, with seniors or supervisors who carry out spot checks and cover the harder calls.
- Home care worker Works on runs of home visits, helping people keep living in their own homes.
- Care assistant Personal care and everyday support in care homes, nursing homes and respite services.
- Senior care assistant Leads the care team on shift, gives medicines and keeps care plans up to date.
- Support worker Helps people live independently in supported living, and learning disability and mental health services.
- Registered manager Runs a care service and is registered with the regulator as the manager responsible for it.
Checks for home care workers
Home care workers are alone in someone’s home, often with access to their money and their keys. On top of our standard checks we confirm:
- the right criminal record check for work with adults, including the adults’ barred list in England and Wales
- for drivers, a full driving licence and car insurance that covers driving between visits
- medicines support training, where the calls include prompting or giving medicines
- that the worker understands your policies on keys, key safes, money and lone working before the first run
Home care shift patterns
A home care day is a run of timed visits. Most runs cluster around mornings, lunchtimes, teatimes and bedtimes, so a worker’s day often looks like an early and a late with a gap in the middle.
- Early to or
- Late to
- Waking night or to or
- Sleep-in to A worker sleeps at the service and gets up if someone needs help. The service sets the hours and says what happens if the night is disturbed.
Temporary cover and permanent hiring for home care
Temporary cover
Send us the run, the postcodes and the call times, and say whether a driver is needed. Where we can, the same worker covers the same run each week, because a new face at the door is harder for someone at home than in a care home.
Permanent hiring
For permanent home care posts we look for people who are organised, reliable and calm on their own. We check driving details early, and we are clear with candidates about travel between calls before they apply.
Questions from home care managers
Do your home care workers drive?
Some do and some don’t. Tell us whether the run needs a car. For driving work we check the worker’s licence and their insurance that covers driving for work before we offer them.
Who pays for travel time between calls?
For temporary workers we supply, we pay the worker, and travel between visits counts as working time for the minimum wage. How that time is charged to you is set out in our terms before the first run.
Can the same worker cover the same run each week?
Where they are available, yes. We plan for the same workers on the same runs, and we tell you in advance if that has to change.
Home care workers for your service
Call with the runs and call times, or send the vacancy in writing.