Are You a Care and Support Worker?

Working in Home Care

Working in home care can be very challenging yet extra-ordinarily rewarding. If you are working in home care you will, of course, be well aware of this. At Caremark Thanet, we have some fantastic opportunities for the right people. If you are working in home care, why not read on and see what we look for and what we can offer.

Caremark care and support workers

Caremark Thanet

We have been providing care for the residents of Thanet since 2012. In that time we have built up an enviable reputation for the exceptional quality of the care that we provide and the exceptional working opportunities that we offer. 

Caremark Thanet are part of a franchise network of over a hundred offices. The Caremark brand stands for excellence and up and down the country there are thousands of care and support workers just like you who everyday make excellent care a reality. for these people, every day excellence is the everyday.

We provide well over 2000 hours of care each week and, at the time of writing, we employ over 100 people. To put that into perspective, that is the equivalence of around 75 full time jobs. We are constantly growing; therefore, we are constantly recruiting. 

Anyone who joins us will have to buy into our ethos. Our ethos is very simple:

We believe that our customers are the most important people for our business; that our care and support workers are the most important people in our business; that a socially responsible business is most important for everyone.

Our ethos does not consist simply of words on the page. It is something that informs everything we do.

We care passionately about the Thanet community. Our approach to business is very much based upon the indivisible links that exist amongst everyone at Caremark Thanet, our customers and our community.

Thanet landscape

We live in an interconnected world. We provide outstanding care to our customers and this is one, exceptionally important, way that we contribute to the stock of community well-being. However, we do more than this.

We do more by being a community engaged organisation. We believe that supporting other community organisations and individuals also contributes to the stock of community well-being.  However, we go further.

We go further, by organising our own events. We and others engaged at those events further contribute to the stock of community well-being.

What We Look For in Care and Support Workers

There are a small number of qualities that we look for. Each of these qualities are things that cannot be taught. They will be part of your make up; part of what makes you the person that you are. These are all very much related to each other.

First, you must be caring. This may seem like stating the obvious; it is stating the obvious, but it has to be stated. Just because you are working in care it does not follow that you are caring. You have only to look at some of the horrendous abuse cases that have appeared in the media to appreciate that there are people working in care who should not be. We often talk about the mum test: would you let this person look after someone you love?

Second, you must be reliable. It is impossible to overstate how important this is. We care for some of the most vulnerable people in our society. These people come to rely upon you. They come to trust you. This places a heavy burden of responsibility upon you. You owe a duty to your customers not to let them down and harm that trust they have reposed in you.

Third, you must be trustworthy. When you work in care you become an important part of the lives of the people you care for. This is a position of trust. Abusing that trust is one of the worst things you can do.

Fourth, you must have the ability to get along with people. The people we look after come from all sections of society. Our duty, your duty, is to provide the same high quality of care to each of our customers. We are all different. We all have our beliefs, our opinions, our ways of life. To work in care you have to respect everyone, no matter what.

Fifth, you must be flexible. Things change constantly in home care. Responding to our customers ever changing needs is not an inconvenience; it's a privilege.

Sixth, you must be prepared for hard work.

What We Expect

We have the highest expectations of the people who come to work for us. You must buy into our ethos. We will never compromise on the high quality of care that we deliver to our customers: each time, every time. This places great demands on you. We offer no apology for insisting that everyone who works for us meets our exacting standards. 

We expect you to have high aspirations for yourself. And we expect you to have high expectations of us. We expect you to be self-reflective and always challenging yourself to do better. We expect you to be ambitious. We expect you to be motivated by the facts: that working for us is not just a job, it is a career; that you are never just a carer, you are one of the most important people in our business; that if you have the talent and drive to succeed, we will provide you with the opportunities for that success.

What We Offer

You should by now appreciate that working for us is not an easy option. We expect a great deal. For some we expect too much. However, for those of you who can meet our exacting standards we have a great deal to offer. 

First, we offer highly competitive rates of pay.

Second, when you join us you will undertake a full one week introductory training course - whatever your previous experience. We also use this as an extended selection process. It gives us time for a number of people to have a good look at you and decide whether you have what we are looking for. Equally, you have the chance to have a good look at us.

Care and support workers using a hoist

Third, once you have found your feet we have some of the best training opportunities that exist. The world of domiciliary care is changing. We will be at the forefront of these changes. To do this we need people with the talent and ambition to become experts at what they do. 

Fourth, we offer some fabulous progression opportunities for the right people. Most of our current management team are internal appointments. We are growing rapidly and will constantly need to expand this team. We are also opening an office in Dover, which will create more progression opportunities.

Fifth, we are a community engaged provider. We believe passionately that we have a duty to help increase the store of community well-being. And we want you to play a role in this. You will have opportunities to take part in our many community engagement events. When you work for us you are one of our ambassadors. We want you to feel that you have a connection with us and a connection with our community. Our community engagement events give you the opportunity to help us contribute to the store of community well-being.

Sixth, we are a very ambitious company. We have a very simple vision: we want to be the first choice domiciliary care provider for customers and carers. And you will play a significant part in helping us achieve this. We are a learning organisation. We always look for ways to improve. Therefore, we will constantly seek out your views. In fact, we go further than this. We believe that you have a duty to give feedback to us. If you feel that there is something we should know, it is your duty to tell us.

Seventh, the support we offer is second to none. We have an open door policy. You are welcome to speak with anyone in the organisation so long as he or she is free. We are very busy so we always suggest you telephone to make appointments; however, there is always someone available to speak with you. We will schedule in up to six one to one meetings for you. These are opportunities for you to tell us how things are going and for us to give feedback to you. It is very important that you receive feedback from us as well as you giving feedback to us.

Eighth, we will always seek to recognise your achievements. Indeed, we will go out of our way to find out what you have done that should be recognised. When you have a supervision, we will ask you to tell us about a moment of truth. A moment of truth occurs when you have an engagement with a customer - sometimes it can be a member of a customer's family or occasionally a member of the public. A moment of truth is your opportunity to delight or deflate a customer. Carers delight customers by doing something outstanding. 

In Conclusion

If we sound like the type of company you'd like to work for, why not get in touch. You can call us on: 01843 235910 or email us at thanet.recruitment@caremark.co.uk. If you want to find out more about us go to: 

Our website: www.caremark.co.uk/thanet

Our blog: http://thanetcare.blogspot.co.uk/

Our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/caremarkthanet

Our Twitter account: https://twitter.com/caremarkthanet

Garry Costain is the Managing Director of Caremark Thanet, a domiciliary care provider with offices in Margate, Kent. Caremark Thanet provides home care services throughout the Isle of Thanet. Garry can be contacted on 01843 235910 or email garry.costain@caremark.co.uk. You can also visit Caremark Thanet's website at www.caremark.co.uk/thanet.