Care and Support Worker Recruitment Open Day: 10.30 am, 21 November 2017, Yarrow Hotel, Broadstairs

Join Us at Our Care and Support Worker Recruitment Open Day

Caremark Thanet is a domiciliary care company that provides care throughout Thanet. On 21 November we will be holding one of our Care and Support Worker Open Days at the Yarrow Hotel in Broadstairs. The event will start at 10.30 am and should be finished by about 12.00 noon. 

These events have proved incredibly popular with people looking to work in domiciliary care. The main purpose of the event is to provide potential care and support workers with information about working in care generally, and working for Caremark Thanet more specifically.

Working in domiciliary care presents challenges and brings enormous rewards. It is a career that is not for everyone. If you have never worked in care and want to get some idea about what is involved; this event is just right for you. Experience is useful but not essential. What we look for is people who are caring, reliable, hardworking and flexible.

If you have care experience and are looking for new opportunities, you will probably be more concerned about finding out what it is like working for Caremark Thanet. Working for us will not suit everyone. We have high expectations; in turn; you rightly should have high expectations of us. We are a company that is prepared to invest in the right people. If you feel you have something to offer; come along and see what we can offer you.

Whatever your level of experience, why not come along and see how we are transforming domiciliary care.

The format of the session will probably go something like this:

First, there will be an introduction session led by our Business Development Manager, Jemma Clayton.

Second, there will be a presentation from the managing director of Caremark Thanet, Garry Costain. This presentation: gives the audience a little bit of information about our history; emphasises the company’s ethos based on an uncompromising approach to the quality of care delivery and valuing of our carers; outlines the benefits of working for us and the wider opportunities available, and rounds off with a glimpse of the plans for how our success story will continue.

Third, there will be an opportunity to ask Garry any questions that the audience might have.

Finally, we always try to invite along one or more of our carers so that the audience can ask questions directly to someone who is, in fact, doing the job.

The feedback from our previous open days has been extra-ordinarily positive. Most people go away with one of our application packs and we subsequently interview several candidates and offer jobs to some.

Spaces are limited so you are strongly advised to book a place. To guarantee your place, please contact Jemma Clayton on 01843 235910 or email jemma.clayton@caremark.co.uk.

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 on01843 235910or email garry.costain@caremark.co.uk. You can also visit Caremark Thanet's website at www.caremark.co.uk/thanet.

Caremark Thanet's Coffee Morning: Get Back into Work

Would You Like to Work in Domiciliary Care?

Have you finished work but feel you are not ready to retire completely? Like many people who retire, you may still be very active and would like to do some work again. If so, have you thought about working in domiciliary care?

What Is Domiciliary Care?

Domiciliary care, or home care, is care provided in people's homes. It is an immeasurably important service delivered to some of the most frail and vulnerable members of our society. With a little help from home care providers like us, these important members of our society maintain their independence and remain living in the homes they love. It is difficult to over-exaggerate just how important this service is. Many of our customers have lived in their home for decades so it's little wonder that they choose to stay there.

What Makes a Good Care and Support Worker?

The one thing we do not look for is experience. The most important qualities we seek cannot be taught. It is our considered view that people who have the advantage of years on their side often make very good carers. The quality of patience and the ability to empathise with others - key to successful care work - are usually highly developed in people of maturity. 

It pretty much goes without saying that you have to be caring. It is not, however, a given that people who work in care are always caring. You need only look at some of the horrendous abuse cases that have happened in the last few years to be disturbingly reminded of this.

Perhaps the single most important quality for any care and support worker to possess is reliability. When you work in care, many people rely upon you. Your customers rely upon you; their families rely upon you; your colleagues rely upon you, and often other health professionals rely upon you.

You will have to be absolutely comfortable delivering personal care. We provide a wide range of services to our customers including preparing meals, shopping, medication support and domestic help. Rarely are people uncomfortable with these activities. However, personal care - the service that we most commonly provide - is something that some people are a little awkward with. You MUST be completely comfortable, competent and confident in delivering personal care. The people you are caring for are already placed in a position where their dignity is threatened. Your discomfort will only exacerbate matters.

What Should You Do Next?

If you are interested in what you have read and would like to find out more, why not come along to our coffee morning. it is being held at on Monday 6 November 2017 at Smith's Court Hotel - Eastern Esplanade, Cliftonville, CT9 2HL,  between 10.00 am - 12.00. 

The world of domiciliary care is changing, and working for Caremark Thanet over the next few years is going to open up enormous opportunities for you. Finding out more by attending our coffee morning may be one of the best things you do.

If you want to book a place contact Jemma Clayton on 01843 235910, or email Jemma at jemma.clayton@caremark.co.uk.

We are aiming the event at people who are retired; however, we have vacancies for care and support workers from the age of 18 upwards. So if you know someone who hasn't quite reached retirement age, bring them along with you. You and they will be very welcome, indeed.

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.

Are You Retired and Looking to Return to Work?

Introduction
We are a domiciliary care company (Caremark Thanet) providing care to the residents of Thanet in their homes. We have been doing this highly successfully for almost five years. If you are retired and looking to return to work, we have opportunities for you to come and work for us as a care and support worker. You do not need experience; you do need to be caring, reliable, flexible and hardworking.

If you think this is an opportunity that might interest you, read on. If, after reading this article, you find that you are still interested in working in home care, then we should like to invite you to our coffee morning on Monday 6th November 2017 at Smith's Court Hotel, between 10.00 am - 12.00 noon. We will be able to answer all your questions at this event. In the meantime, what follows is a little bit about domiciliary care, a bit about us and a little about how we view working in domiciliary care.

Domiciliary Care
We are a home care company, which means that we go out to care for people in their homes. Working in care is very demanding but very rewarding. Our customers are amongst some of Thanet's most frail and vulnerable residents. When you work for us your, customers will depend upon you. They come to rely upon you. And it is not just customers who rely upon you; your colleagues rely upon you - as you will rely upon them; the families of your customers rely upon you, and often other health professionals rely upon you. This is a heavy responsibility, indeed. We know from experience; however, that people with a little maturity on their side are eminently suitable for shouldering this burden.

By far the most common service we provide to our customers is personal care. You have to be completely comfortable with this if you are going to become one of our care and support workers. You have to be comfortable with it because it is a service that all our carers are required to carry out. And you have to be comfortable with it because if you are not; your discomfort will be transmitted to your customer. You are already carrying out a task that, by its very nature, threatens your customer's dignity: your discomfort will simply exacerbate things.

A Little about Us
We have a very simple, yet profoundly important business ethos. 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 all of us. We have an equally simple yet important vision: To be Thanet’s first choice private domiciliary care provider for customers and carers. You can find out more about our ethos, vision and values in this article.

Our View of Working in Domiciliary Care
We have extra-ordinary high expectations. We believe passionately that working in care is a career. When you work for us, you are never "just a carer".  Caring is not just a job; it is a vocation; caring is not the the last resort for the aimless; it should be the first choice for the ambitious; it is not a job without prospects; it is a position with opportunities; a chance to develop, not a place to rest.

Of course, we can only offer opportunities. It is down to individuals to seize them. Opportunities are not for everyone.

If you have liked what you have read, why not come along on Monday 6th November 2017. Just a reminder it is being held at Smith's Court Hotel - Eastern Esplanade, Cliftonville, CT9 2HL - between 10.00 am - 12.00. We'd love to see you there, and who knows where it might lead you.

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.

Funding Social Care in England: What the Main Political Parties Propose: UPDATE

At the time of writing this article, political parties have published their manifestos and are actively campaigning throughout the country for our votes. Predictably, there is little agreement amongst the parties on most things. There is one point, however, upon which all parties agree, and with which few people in the country would take issue: that point of agreement is that our social care system needs reforming. There is no agreement, though, about how this reform will be funded. This article very briefly looks at what the main parties propose for funding social care in England.

The week just gone, week beginning Monday 15 May 2017, saw the Conservatives publish their manifesto. The proposals contained in that manifesto for funding social care have received quite an amount of media attention. At the moment, financial help with social care fees is provided to people with savings less than £23,250. With regard to domiciliary care, the equity in your home is not taken into account (it is for residential care fees).

The Conservative's proposal is that help with social care fees will no be available for people with savings up to £100, 000. However, the equity in your home will be included in the calculation for qualifying for help with both residential and domiciliary care fees. You will not have to sell your property during your lifetime nor whilst a surviving partner is living in your home. You will, though, have to take some form of loan to pay for your care fees until your savings drop below £100,000.

The thing that occurs to me is that the long term consequence of this may be to discourage home ownership and saving and in a generation or two's time we will be back to a social care funding crisis. To prevent this occurring there may need to be penalties incurred by those who dispose of assets in their lifetime and/or some kind of social care tax or insurance. Which brings me to the Liberal Democrat's proposals.

The proposals from the Liberal Democrats include an immediate one penny rise in the basic, higher and additional rates of income tax. This will raise, it is claimed, £6 billion that will be used to fund the NHS and social care. At some future point, this one penny increase will be replaced by a health and care tax, which may involve a reform of our national insurance system. Eventually, the aim is for one health and social care budget.

Labour's proposals include developing a National Care Service for England. Social care will receive an extra £8 billion during the first Parliament of a Labour government, with an additional £1 billion in the first year. The National Health Service and the new National Care Service will require £3 billion extra in the "first years". A limit will be placed on an individual's lifetime contribution to care fees. To pay for these proposals the Labour manifesto suggests options including wealth taxes, employer contributions and/or a social care levy.

The inescapable fact is that the money to fund social care has to come from somewhere. To give more money to social care either some other area of Government spending receives less, or more money is raised. And the ways of raising more money are fairly limited.

Update

As you are undoubtedly aware, Teresa May announced last week (week beginning 22 May 2017) that, should the government be re-elected, there would be a cap on the amount that you are expected to pay for your social care; notwithstanding that this commitment was not present in the Conservatives' manifesto.

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.

Do You Work in Domiciliary Care?

Are you looking for something new?

We are Caremark Thanet: Providers of Outstanding Domiciliary Care to the Residents of Thanet.

We are looking to recruit a small number of experienced care and support workers to supplement our existing team. We are looking for people to cover: Margate, Ramsgate, Broadstairs, Westgate, Birchington and Sandwich.

We currently have a particular demand for people who are available to work weekends and/or evenings

If you would like to find out more about the opportunities that are available with us please telephone me on 01843 235910. However, before you do that, please read the following article:

http://thanetcare.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/what-do-we-look-for-in-potential.html

This article tells you a great deal about the type of company we are and what we look for in care and support workers.

You can also visit our website: www.caremark.co.uk

and Facebook page: facebook.com/caremarkthanet

If you feel that we are the type of company that you would like to work for: telephone me now.