Domiciliary Care Worker / Care at Home Worker

Purpose of position

To provide personal care and support to people in their own homes for whom Link Direct Care Limited has agreed to provide a service in line with an agreed care and support plan.

To care for service users in non-discriminatory ways, respecting each user’s dignity, individuality, cultural and social background and independence.

To work with other staff employed by Link Direct Care Limited and when involved with staff from other services in order to provide an integrated approach to people’s health and care.

To work in partnership with users’ family members and friends who are involved in their care and support. To contribute to individual wellbeing.

Principal responsibilities

In line with an individuals’ plan of care and support:

• Help with their activities of daily living, eg getting up in the morning, going to bed at nights, dressing, undressing, washing, bathing and toilet arrangements.
• Help service users overcome any mobility problems and other physical disabilities, including helping in the use and care of aids and personal equipment.
• Help make a person physically comfortable by, e.g. making and changing beds, tidying rooms, doing light cleaning, laundry and emptying commodes where used.
• Help with their eating and drinking by, e.g. preparing meals, snacks and drinks and helping service users to eat and drink if they cannot or have difficulty in doing this by themselves.
• Contribute to specialised care plans, e.g. for people with dementia, re-enablement or people with continence difficulties.
• help service users take their prescribed medication (as specified on their care plans)
• contribute to the care of service users who are temporarily sick and needing, e.g. minor dressings, bed nursing, help with feeding, etc.
• Contribute as needed to a person’s end-of-life care.
• Promote users’ mental and physical activity by, e.g. talking to them, helping them do things for themselves, prompting, taking them to shopping, sharing with them in activities such as reading, writing, hobbies and recreations.
• Read and write reports and take part in staff and service users’ meetings and in training activities as directed.
• Always comply with Link Direct Care Limited’s guidelines and policies, e.g. in respect of dress code, wearing of identity badges, travelling and security and safeguarding of service users.
• Report any significant changes in the health or circumstances of a service user.
• Encourage and enable service users to remain as independent as possible.
• Perform such other duties as may reasonably be required.

Person specification – essential criteria

The following personal attributes are considered essential to the post of care worker.

The job holder must be:

• self-motivated
• organised
• flexible
• caring
• sensitive to the needs of others and to the needs of vulnerable people
• an active team player, but also able to work on own initiative.
• a good communicator
• able to follow care planning requirements and instructions

Person specification – desirable criteria

The job holder must:

• Be flexible in terms of availability, working hours, and adaptability.
• Have previous experience of care work.
• Have their own transport.
• have knowledge of local neighbourhoods
• All staff are required to respect the confidentiality of all matters that they might learn in the course of their employment. All staff are expected to respect the requirements under the Data Protection Act 1998.
• All staff must ensure that they are aware of their responsibilities under the Health and Safety at Work, etc Act 1974