If you work in care...

[Goostacean]

... AIBU to ask what makes your workplace or job a great place to be? (Or alternatively, what makes it terrible and could easily be solved if management listened to you!)

I’ve just started running a small Supported Living provision and am trying to both be a good boss and guide my relatively inexperienced manager with how to run a team effectively. I don’t have experience working in care myself. We have a small number of clients so only ever 1 or 2 staff on shift simultaneously.

I would love input on how to make them feel part of a team, supported, and valued, based on the experience of wise MNers please!

Training

Lots of training. Make sure you have back up for when shit inevitably hits the fan (always will happen the day you have no back up or the day you think it wont happen). Listen to your staff, they are doing the job, they know the needs of the clients etc better than any bit of paper can tell you.
And don't take the piss with shifts and hours finishing late to go.in early is not fun and is one of the fastest ways to.piss your staff off.

Avoid a blame culture at all costs. Everyone needs to feel safe to flag and to own errors without personal blame (obviously with the exception of abuse or really dangerous mistakes which need disciplinary action). No "Why are you helping M with her hearing aid now? Did you forget earlier? Unacceptable!" But general ownership of everything and everyone having their eyes open and being quick to notice and correct mistakes without having to defend themselves for putting things right or forgetting something small and easily rectified.

Open culture, flat structure, individual responsibility for some things requiring oversight (ordering medication, hygiene supplies, petty cash) general responsibility for day to day running.

Thanks folks! Training in what areas, specifically? Appreciate it will depend on client needs. Is there anything in particular that has been really valuable?

Thanks for your comments re blame culture, that’s good to know. Do you have a practical suggestion for how to achieve it, please? As in, I understand what not to do from your post, but what specifically gives you a sense of individual responsibility, for example?

Goostacean do a competence matrix at the first team meeting - one aspect of the job you're good at, one general skill you bring to the table, one area in which you need support or training - everyone has to offer one of each. Give warning of this in the agenda issued at least 24 hours before.
Based on answers allocate interim responsibility for specific details of day to day running to individual team members. Where competencies are complimentary allocate skill mentors (one person might mentor a team mate in one area and be mentored by the same person in another area depending on prior experience - for example one person has never needed to do lifting before and another has no experience with using a specific assisted communication device). Obviously book training too based on the answer you get. Recognise that every team member brings skills - even someone new to the job and unqualified might be a great cook and able to teach independent living skills or might be able to help colleagues with Excel or something.

*obviously you need proper training for lifting, but a mentor for the weeks following training is invaluable because it's not so easy to be sure you're continuing to put what you've learnt in training into practice if nobody watches you a week later etc.

Also obviously you need to support staff to train towards qualifications if they wish to (and require them to reach a minimum qualification if they have no relevant qualifications or experience).

Thanks so much @UntilYourNextHairBrainedScheme you’re clearly very experienced! We’re having our first full team meeting in about 10 days actually, and I’m about to plan the agenda, so that’s great advice.

Don’t over work your staff. For example try to be accommodating with nightshift workers. If they have requested a night between shifts, don’t schedule them for 4 in a row. They may not be able to sleep in between shifts (I couldn’t when I had a toddler at home in the day).

Beloved people when they call in sick. Don't assume they are lying because they can’t be bothered to come in (because few do with no sick pay).

Make sure that your payment runs and time sheets are correctly calculated - I’ve never worked at a place that managed to get my pay right.

Work some shifts yourself alongside your staff. I’ve worked for some terrible managers who have never done the job themselves and have no idea what it’s like to do a difficult job such as care work on low pay, long hours and no respect. The truth is, Unless you’ve experienced being puked on, changing other people’s pads and possibly assaulted yourself for 12 hours for a pittance, you have no idea what it’s like to do the job.

Pay your staff as much as you can and not just the minimum.

Actually appreciate what they do.

Appreciate that it’s not a great job and a lot of people are doing it because they have to.

Also have an agency in place that you can use if staff are sick. There is nothing more irritating that being guilt tripped by a manager to cover a shift if someone else calls in sick. I’ve been threatened by mangers in the past when I couldn’t drop everything to cover at the last min and I’ve worked 20 hour shifts before when I’ve been made to stay on after a night shift.

Could’ve been avoided had management not been too tight to have agency workers on hand for emergencies.

If you are expecting carers to move between properties pay them dor their time to do so, pay their travel expenses between customers and allow travel time that is not time to be taken off someone elses call.

Definitely shadow for a day sometimes. Or just work a shift. Most places I’ve worked have been so out of touch with the day to day experience. Eg, I have small hands and there were never small gloves. Only medium. It’s almost impossible to effectively carry out personal care without the right sized gloves. And they never seemed to be ordered. Such a seemingly small thing but so annoying. Working the odd shift will really help you see these things and make a huge difference to staff.

@ThickFast

Definitely shadow for a day sometimes. Or just work a shift. Most places I’ve worked have been so out of touch with the day to day experience. Eg, I have small hands and there were never small gloves. Only medium. It’s almost impossible to effectively carry out personal care without the right sized gloves. And they never seemed to be ordered. Such a seemingly small thing but so annoying. Working the odd shift will really help you see these things and make a huge difference to staff.

@ThickFast I walked out of a job once where we had run out of gloves (After she neglected to order more despite being told we were running low for weeks) and the manager handed me two sandwich bags when I asked her how I was supposed to change a pad full of loose stools.

As said above, provide good training which is relevant to your setting.
Listen to your staff, they are the ones doing the job first hand.
But also, provide positive feedback where necessary. So often, you only hear the negative and it makes you feel even less appreciated and provides low staff morale.
Good regular supervisions, team meetings etc to allow the staff to raise any concerns, share their thoughts etc and feel listened to on a one to one basis as well as as a staff team.
Ensure a good rapport between staff and a happy staff team in general regarding shifts etc as this means the whole place will run much smoother.

Will your staff be directly involved in patient care. They will need training and there is Legislation you need to follow.

@ODFOkaren fucking hell that’s awful. Luckily I never had it that bad. But having to try to change a pad with gloves that fall off is a total nightmare.

Make sure you have enough staff. And I don't mean enough to meet the legal safe level. I mean enough to do the job properly. One of the things i hated the most was not being able to spend time chatting to a resident, or having a cup of tea with them because I was always needed elsewhere.

We did some excellent training where I worked. We were given a pad to wet with warm water which we had to wear for a while to know how that feels. Left in an empty bedroom for an unspecified amount of time. We weren't allowed phones or watches. This was particularly interesting as we got very bored very quickly, yet management still refused to get enough staff for this not to happen to residents. We were fed a yogurt and had our faces washed. It all really made you think about how you interact with the residents.

We also did some great training around feeding. So we tasted thickened fluids and ensure drinks. Then we made our own high calorie milkshake drinks. They are nicer and the same in terms of calorie and nutrition as ensure. Then we worked in pairs on feeding technique. So one of us had to feed the other, but we all had different behaviours to act out. So my partner who was feeding me had to not actually pay attention and just 'shovel the food in as quickly as possible. I had to just sit with my mouth open and not swallow. The behaviours were randomly assigned but we had such a funny combo that the whole room was in stitches laughing at me while I sat there with yogurt dripping out my open mouth

Definitely spend some time learning what the carers do, and jump in and help out if you're needed too. We had a manager that did that and it was brilliant. Instead of leaving me to stress about how I was meant to shower one man (mental health setting and his behaviour that day was awful, id been with him for 2 hours already) when the taxi taking me and another patient to the dentist was outside, he took his suit jacket off, rolled up his sleeves and showered him.

I love care work. But the consistent understaffing led to some kind of mh breakdown and I'm now too ill to work

Oh and if you are having a uniform please consider how hot it is! We had the traditional tops worn in nursing, which in the summer we could swap for polo tops. It was still so hot it felt like we would pass out. The residents, who were mostly immobile, liked the heating up as high a possible. I don't do well in the heat so regularly felt sick and had migraines as a result.
I missed my previous job where we didn't have uniform a lot that summer!

Say please and thank you to staff. Say hello to them.

Very small and free things to do - but omg they make such a difference.

Being seen to be able to do the jobs yourself. Nothing worse than being told to do a job, which you know either can’t be done that way or legally shouldn’t be done that way and the the manager clearly doesn’t know how it should be done. I’m not saying you need to clean loos everyday - but be seen to pitch in and help when staff are pushed. Paperwork can wait half an hour - a resident needing changing or hoisting can’t.

Definitely good training. There's nothing worse than going a new customer/client/service user and finding they have a piece of equipment or a stoma etc that you've never seen before. Training on relevant conditions is vital. I was recently sent into someone who has violent seizures which was really frightening when you've never witnessed seizures before.

Continuity of care workers is vital for both care worker and client. I work in domiciliary care and the one thing clients want is the same care worker/s at the same time each day. If you're having personal care you don't want lots of different people.

Making sure care workers are aware of being professional. It may sound obvious but it amazes me what some of the new care workers write in the care notes or post on social media! You have to spell out the obvious!

Make sure care workers feel supported and appreciated. A thank you goes a long way!

And yes, travel time, if going from house to house. Google maps may say you can do it in 5 minutes but factor in locking house, key back in key safe, into car, drive, next house, key safe etc. Nothing makes a care worker more stressed before they've even gone into a client than knowing they're going going to be late due to insufficient travel time!

Work some shifts yourself alongside your staff. I’ve worked for some terrible managers who have never done the job themselves and have no idea what it’s like to do a difficult job such as care work on low pay, long hours and no respect. The truth is, Unless you’ve experienced being puked on, changing other people’s pads and possibly assaulted yourself for 12 hours for a pittance, you have no idea what it’s like to do the job

^^^THIS!!!!

Nothing more soul destroying and demoralising than having managers making unrealistic, impractical or sometimes even unsafe demands when you know full well they don’t have a clue what they are talking about, no understanding of the actual job you are doing every day and no hands-on experience of providing actual support.

It’s the quickest way to lose the respect and trust of your workforce, in my opinion.

www.social-care.tv/courses/course-details
startups.co.uk/guides/how-to-start-a-care-agency/

I found this site, I have no experience of their work but it does have a list of the training available, some of it is really essential if people are going into clients homes.
Staff need to know that there is always someone they can talk to if they have any concerns, will there be a named person oncall at all times for any emergencies, to cover sickness and deal with any issues.
Staff need to know what shifts they are working in advance so it's important to have the rota in advance with any annual leave requests considered. Also need to feel that they have enough time to deliver the care the clients are paying for, it is frustrating having to travel and then only have 15 mins to help someone get ready for the day. Carers want to feel they have done a good job without having to rush around cutting corners.
If any clients need 2 staff then you need to be able to make sure they have that support available otherwise the carer and client are both at risk.
Equipment and PPE are essential, nothing worse than having to make do like the pp using sandwich bags or having to use a binbag instead of an apron.
Regular staff meetings and appraisals, ongoing training, staff supervision.

Thanks for all the comments! Reading with interest. Just to clarify, there is only one site and no personal care- only support. Our clients have low needs, which makes life easier in some ways! I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to work a shift as I have no experience and one of the clients is a relative of mine? The Manager does shadow shifts with staff during induction, however.

Are staff going into clients homes? if so they will need mandatory training, DBS checks, safeguarding knowledge. What sort of support are you going to be offering and what sort of clients are they.

It’s a Supported Living provision, so staff go into a home that our clients share as tenants. We have all the relevant legal parts covered and have been operating successfully for a short while.

The issue is more that, because there’s usually only one staff on shift at any one time, I think it’s hard to feel like a team and it currently feels more like a disparate group of people who happen to visit a property to provide support, IYSWIM? We have five staff, about to become six, plus me, so I’d like to develop the sense of “company identity” and teamwork going forward.