Paying for CRB checks

spadoosh

Anacrusis wrote: »

It is a care assistant job I'm going for too - can you give me any tips about how I might be able to tell if the company's any good to work for?

Thanks for all the replies everyone

Not trying to put you off but being a carer is quite a hard job for very little money. Its definately an undervalued job and youll often be taken for granted. Hours will be eratic and youll get calls constantly asking you to fill gaps in rotas. Staff in care work tend to either not last very long or they stick around forever. Work with a lot of carers (actually employed at care agency doing the books) and the best staff (the ones who have been here the longest and enjoy the job the most) are the ones who often don't need the money and seem more content with the fact they are doing a job that not many would do and are helping vulnerable people in the comunity.

Its a shame care work gets paid so little (often minimum wage)

Carers dont generally get paid for travelling time per se but are normally alloted an amount of time to get between calls which will be included in your hourly rate.

There are good tax allowances and as said you can claim relief on your fuel and also on washing your uniform. Some comapnies doe pay mileage some dont however this wil have very little effect on your personal wealth as it is to do with how much tax you pay. and wether you collect it in your pay and then pay it or your company offers to pay it before they pay you makes no difference.

The best way to find out about the company and if there a good company to work for is checking out there ratings with local authority and see who are the preferred providers in your area.

Savvy_Sue

Shapeshifter wrote: »

Some companies pay mileage, & some don't if they don't then you have to claim from government. As for traveling times you will be lucky if they give you 5mins between calls, if like the company I currently work for, then no time is given . It's so the co-ordinators can fit more calls in between allotted times. And you will not be paid for traveling time.

But some companies DO pay for travelling time, and DO allow for travelling time between calls. That is why the OP should ask the question, and note the answer!

Shapeshifter wrote: »

Not sure what you mean , by notice for each day's calls?

does the company give you details of the calls you are to make, say, a week in advance, or do they call you the day before or even on the day and give you an unworkable schedule with next to no notice? That's what I mean ...

I know things can change and emergencies can happen, but if you're expected to be on the end of a phone and unable to do anything for too many hours a day, it must be quite difficult.

maginot

This is the problem with CRBs, they are only valid for the organisation. Therefore you need a new one each time you have a different job. As a teacher, I did some supply work before getting my permanent position and it us common for each individual agency to charge you the CRB fee. You would then be refunded after you had done approx 10 hours with them, as they have then had the chance to make their money back. This is because lots of people join up but never work for the organisation and so they are losing £44 each time.

However, for a permanent position I would not be expecting to pay for the CRB.

I doubt it is a scam and you will be sent a copy of the CRB to your home address also.

Anacrusis

Thanks everyone for all your help

ferien_uk2011

If the money will be refunded I wouldn't have a problem doing this as long as I already had a definite offer. However, I certainly wouldn't pay the employer the money, I'd want to pay it straight to the CRB people.

Valli

as has been said they will offer the job subject to satisfactory CRB check. So if they don't pick you they won't request the CRB check. Fail the CRB check you lose the job and the £44.

sapphireeye

Anacrusis wrote: »

It is a care assistant job I'm going for too - can you give me any tips about how I might be able to tell if the company's any good to work for?

Thanks for all the replies everyone

I've been away on holiday and SavvySue and Spadoosh have pretty much covered it. One thing I will say though is that I asked the questions SavvySue recommended at interview and the answers I got didn't correlate with what actually happened on the job.

'Will I get travel time between calls?' - Yes you will. (In practice, no I didn't, only on a very rare lucky occasion!)
'It says I have to work alternate weekends, does that mean I'll work 7 days in a row on those weeks?' - No you'll get days off in the week. (In practice - No you will work 7 days in a row and on any days off you do get you'll be called and asked to come into work)

I would say that the signs of a good company would be one that gives you time to get between service user's houses (and if they pay you for that time, even better) and a company where the rounds are in the same rough area so you're not driving all over the place. It also helps if they employ co-ordinators who know the area that you're working in!

My main gripes were:
1. Not having any travel time. Some service users visits are a real struggle as it is to get everything done in the amount of time you're given and no allowance is made for anything out of the ordinary happening so when you have no travel time it means that when you start running late it just accumulates over the shift. So say your first person has a 30 minute call but it takes 35 and then it takes 10 minutes to get to the next person but you have no travel time by the time you get there you were meant to be there 15 minutes ago, then you have no travel time again and it takes 5 minutes to get there, you're then running 20 minutes late and so on.
2. Not getting paid for travel time or gaps. Sometimes the schedule has a gap of an hour in it and in that time you have to be available to take extra calls at a moment's notice so you can't do anything except sit in your car not being paid because you're only paid for the time you're with a service user.
3. Being hassled constantly to take extra visits, work every day of the week etc - This drove me berserk! My phone never stopped ringing and when you're already stressed and running late being called constantly and asked to take extra visits just slows you down even more. Then when you eventually have a day off your phone is ringing at 8am because they want you to work, or if you have a weekend off they ring you asking to work, and my company wouldn't take no for an answer. They also almost always changed my schedule either the night before or on the day and I wasn't given a choice, I was just expected to do it.

What did it for me was that I found it really hard to provide what I thought was good quality care because I was so restricted by time and I found that a lot of the other carers seemed to think it was ok to cut corners and cut visits short - for example only staying 10 minutes when the person was paying for 30 (ok if you've done everything and they are happy for you to go but not if you're missing things out to save time). I was so stressed and pressured all the time that I felt like it was only a matter of time before I did something stupid or forgot to do something important and I refuse to give shoddy care to try and make up time where if schedules were better organised it wouldn't be an issue. The long and short of it was that the company were taking on more and more contracts for service users (which means more money) but didn't have enough staff to do all the work so they were just squeezing them in here there and everywhere and making the rounds virtually impossible.

This has turned into a bit of a rant but I want you to know what you need to look out for. I'm sure there are great companies out there and I'm told that it's better if you work for the council directly, I've only experienced one company (rated good by the CQC) but I felt the need to explain why I left!

white_van_lady

I have just had to pay £54 for a CRB check for a company, even though I had one done for a Charity the week before. As I only get £58 JSA this leaves me with £4.00 to live on for a week!

nimbo

vax2002 wrote: »

With some vacancies attracting 5000 applicants, thats £220,000 !
life changing money and as you are not allowed to share the information with those checked then they have no way of knowing you have done it AND the job may never exist, who would ever know.
Its an immaculate scam.

the person having the CRAB check done gets a copy sent to them also....

nimbo

white_van_lady wrote: »

I have just had to pay £54 for a CRB check for a company, even though I had one done for a Charity the week before. As I only get £58 JSA this leaves me with £4.00 to live on for a week!

such a rip off, it's not just the CRB's it's all the admin costs they add on top. (it's truly shocking that photocopying a passport, and signing to say that i look like the picture could possible cost that much)