Career Progression Working In Care: Things To Know

Career progression with Helping Hands

As well as superlative standards of care, Helping Hands are well-known for supporting our carers to realise their ambitions and progress their careers. Many of our existing private carers have gone on to become branch managers, area managers, and trainers, responsible for ensuring that the next generation of carers also have the right attitude and passion for maintaining the highest standards of care, and below you can learn more about just some of the roles we offer.

Care Manager

Whether you’ve been working in care for a long time or you’re new to the sector, you may well have the skills that will make you an amazing care manager with Helping Hands. We’re looking for people who are adept at building and leading your team of office and care staff, taking on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) or Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) registration for your branch, will be responsible for driving business development and growth in line with the business plan, and maintaining compliance with CQC/CIW. It’s also important to ensure that your carers receive the training that they should and most importantly, that your customers have the care they require.

In return we’ll offer benefits including:

A competitive salary and bonus scheme
Support with your career development – including nationally recognised qualifications
23 days annual leave plus bank holidays
Access to a Benefits Portal with a wide range of retail discounts and vouchers
An employee assistance programme

April Briggs

“I have been in the social care sector for 10 years, but I joined the Helping Hands care team in September 2020 as a care assistant in the Chigwell branch. I worked my way up and became Care and Training Practitioner, then I helped the company with recruitment for multiple branches. In December 2021 I moved over to the Harlow branch and became the Branch Care Manager. I chose Helping Hands because I wanted to make a difference and I like the values the company identify with. I have a good team that all have the same goal in mind and they’re all in the role for the right reason. They are all hard working and go above and beyond.”

April Briggs

Branch Care Manager, Harlow

Area Care Manager

If you are an experienced care manager or have the transferable skills necessary to manage high-quality care delivery throughout your entire region, then you may have a bright future as an area care manager with Helping Hands. You will need to be able to provide superb leadership to your team of branch managers, and key to your success will be your familiarity with CQC frameworks and Key Lines of Enquiry, plus your ability to work strategically, supporting your branches in quality, compliance and business growth. You will develop your knowledge in line with your branch managers to ensure that our service remains consistent, and quality driven in your region, while providing expert leadership, guidance and direction to branches.

As an area care manager your responsibilities will be vast and include:

Delivering and promoting the highest quality of care
Providing direction and vision to a highly motivated and passionate team of branch managers
Delivering consistent leadership that allow your branch managers to successfully manage their branches
Achieving KPIs and targets and make decisions that impact on the growth, profitability, and development of the region
Identifying areas of opportunity to improve the development and profitability of the branches
Ensuring “Best Practice” is shared throughout the region
Ensuring the compliance and quality of the branches is met in line with CQC standards and legislation
Making sure all policies and procedures are communicated and implemented effectively within the branches and be responsible for the recruitment of staff within the region.

Carer Trainer

Helping carers to develop and enhance the skills they’ll need to fully support their customers at home is a very rewarding role, and at Helping Hands we have trainers and assessors who work with both our visiting and live-in care services.

Care and Training Practitioner (CTP)

A carer trainer

Care and Training Practitioners are senior carers who work as part of our local branch teams. They work closely with new visiting carers for their branch, ensuring that they are supported throughout their journey from new recruit to achieving their Care Certificate, and beyond. CTPs are involved from the moment a carer comes in for their first interview, right the way through their journey with Helping Hands. They offer coaching and support to new carers while assisting the office team with recruitment, compliance and customer reviews. They also ensure carers are trained to the highest standards, support the branch team with auditing and compliance, carry out spot checks and supervisions with care assistants, meet with customers to review care plans, and conduct risk assessments. CTPs usually have a blended role – spending time supporting customers in their homes and also undertaking branch responsibilities.

Regional Live-in Assessor

As the name suggests, regional assessors work across England and Wales, supporting our live-in service with a steady supply of highly skilled live-in carers. They assess the capabilities of all new candidates and are tasked with equipping new live-in carers with the knowledge needed to support someone in their own home. The regional assessor is required to assess someone’s suitability to our values, and make sure the carers we provide meet not just the expectations of basic competency but that they show true compassion and dedication to the role of a carer. Often the progression doesn’t stop there; some assessors are set to go on to be fantastic care managers and potentially beyond. Regional assessors are also involved in recruitment; often being a candidate’s contact from the minute they apply to Helping Hands, until the day they finish assessment and are ready to go out to a customers’ home.

A career that you can make a difference in

At Helping Hands, you don’t just have a job, you have an opportunity to make a difference to the lives of every one of our customers, and that type of role satisfaction is something that can’t be measured in monetary terms. We understand that financial reward is important too though, so you’ll be pleased to hear that we pay some of the most generous salaries in the industry, as well as offering a package of benefits and incentives to our employees that eclipse other care companies. These include:

Guaranteed pay contracts
Early pay app
Generous mileage allowance,
Hybrid working for office staff
Free Blue Light Card, which offers more than 15,000 discounts from national retailers and local businesses

It’s no surprise then that Helping Hands were named one of employee review platform Glassdoor’s ’50 best places to work’ two years in a row. Above all, at Helping Hands we value kindness. We expect everyone to work hard but always with the wellbeing of our customers and fellow employees in mind, developing skills and promoting from within whenever possible.

Start Your Care Career With Helping Hands

Whether you’re new to care or you’ve been working in the industry for years, if you share our ethos for delivering exceptional care with a core foundation of kindness and patience, then we want to hear from you! For opportunities local to you, talk to your nearest branch by using our branch finder here, or if you’re outside the UK then find out more about life as a live-in carer here. We’ll support you through every aspect of your Helping Hands journey and make sure you get the opportunity to fulfil your potential, and so much more.