Start a career in care

Independent Lives is a user-led charity and social enterprise working to change the lives of disabled people, people with support needs and carers.

Our vision is a fair society where everyone can participate and has the opportunity to fulfil their potential. You can find out more about us here: https://www.independentlives.org/about-us/

We support a wide range of people from all kinds of backgrounds and all kinds of life experiences. The one thing that they have in common in that the need some support to stay independent.

The people we support have a range of disability and health care conditions. A lots of those conditions are long-term.

We also support people who have been discharged from hospital and need some extra care to help them recover in their own homes.

Following a successful interview, your start date will be in line with one of our induction/training weeks. We run these every two weeks which means you don't have to wait long to get started in your new role.

As a health care support worker you will be supporting people to be able to live independently in their own home. Your job is to help them maintain choice and control in their lives.

You will support people in their own homes with day to day tasks like:

• helping people to wash and get dressed
• making sure people take their medication
• helping with their nutritional needs
• ensuring that people are comfortable and have everything they need
• providing social support to help people at risk of isolation

You can learn more about the daily life of a health care support worker here: https://www.independentlives.org/careers/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-care-worker/

You don't need any experience to become a health care support worker.

You will be provided with all the training you need across our two-week induction period. This will include practical training sessions in our training suite as well as opportunity to conduct shadow training shifts with experienced members of staff.

You will be fully paid for all of your training time and if you ever need any support once you're in the role there is always someone available at the end of a phone.

We have a range of shifts available and we can discuss what works best for you. Our shifts are made up of morning and lunch calls, starting at 7am and tea and bed calls, running until midnight.

You can work just one shift (early or late start) or do a full day with a break in the middle.

Your week will be broken up into full days and half days, depending on your contracted hours and availability to work.

There's lots of opportunities to work overtime if you are looking to earn extra money.

We never want our health care support workers to feel alone. As well as your induction period and the training you will receive there is always someone available to support you if you need it.

You can always call the office for advice and guidance. We also have a great team of experienced field care supervisors who are available to support you.

We operate an out of hours phone line for anyone working in the evening or weekend so you can also ring if you have questions.

All of our staff have regular time with their managers where they can review their work and discuss anything they would like help with.