Home Support worker?

passatrider

Hi..
Iam looking at applying for a job as a 'home support worker' in my area and was looking to see if anyone could offer me some advice. What is involved and do you enjoy it?

ruby_eskimo

I have a friend that does that. It's general care duties: helping people clean and feed themselves where needed. She also does some cleaning around the house, gets food shopping for people etc. She seems to enjoy it. Some advice I would give is be careful what agency you work for. She does enjoy it but sometimes the hours are a bit erratic: spend an hour at one place then go to another then back tot he first again for example. The cost in petrol is sometimes equal to the amount of money she gets for an hour, which means she essentially works for nothing sometimes. If you have any other questions then PM me and i'll see if I can get her to answer them.

jacklink

you can claim back on mileage however im unsure how much or how to go about it, sometimes the company pays part mileage too.

becky2011

I was a support worker while I was at university a few years back. I absolutely loved the job and the people that I worked with. The job was not very well paid but I did really enjoy it. There are some down sides however, for example it's not really the kind of job that you can be guaranteed to finish on time always, and also as mentioned by ruby the hours are not 9-5 unless you are very lucky! When I was doing the job my petrol expenses were covered by the company and then claimed back from the service users. Worth checking out.

passatrider

Thanks for your responses..really appreciated.
I guess being male won't go against me either will it, even though I know the're not supposed to discriminate nowadays?

Pauper_Princess

You might find it works in your favour passatrider - my brother and sister live in a residential home and there's only one male care assistant, they're desperate for more but not too many blokes apply! Good luck

passatrider

Pauper_Princess wrote: »

You might find it works in your favour passatrider - my brother and sister live in a residential home and there's only one male care assistant, they're desperate for more but not too many blokes apply! Good luck

Hey thanks..I will let you know how it goes!

ruby_eskimo

I agree that being a male might actually help you. There have been some problems for my friend where she's been sent to a house that the person is of a certain religion and doesn't want a female helping them. Good luck with the job!