Community care workers in my area are offered £11.75 - £12.25…….

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A local Fb group advertised community care positions recently, hours to suit, 40ppm fuel allowance - £11.75 - £12.25 ph!

I have always worked in an office environment, aftersales, planning dept, lots of responsibility and not just a ‘paper shuffler’ for years!

I have a 40 mile round trip to get to work!

I’d love to know what community care work involves! I imagine it’s EXTREMELY hard but also fulfilling?

I enjoy what I do, it’s all I’ve ever known, but due to various reasons (new boss) my salary didn’t increase for 3 years! Finally had approx 3% increase this year, taking me up to almost £12ph! (I’m close to the Midlands).

Due to the ever increasing bills, I’m possibly looking for a change, positive being a job which is local to me, that will save me approx £200 + pm (small, shitty car, if I had a larger vehicle god knows what it would be).

Please share everything you know, good, bad and ugly.

meaning, community care workers, please share your work experiences and all I need to know.

I love the clients and most days are different, but it can be stressful. Its also undervalued for the responsibility you have
The hourly rate will often work out at minimum wage once you have factored in travel time.
I can be working from 3:00pm to 1030pm and only get paid for 6 hours, due to them not paying travel time. You will be lucky to break even on petrol and wear and tear on your car at that rate.
Care companies are often looking for weekend staff, if you are interested sign up for shifts around your current job to see of you will like it.

Yes, as other poster said, try it out working weekends.

There’s a reason why staff retention is so bad….

My friend does this. She often has 15 minute calls and at £10 per hour - that is £2.50 per call. And of course she then needs to travel to her next call unpaid. Also the responsibility is massive compared to the wage. She does like the work though.

Most agencies don't pay by shift but by hours delivered. So, you might do 7 - 10 in the morning, then do lunches from 12 - 2, and only get paid for 5 hours not 7 as you've had a 2 hour break.

Check the mileage rates. if you're paid 25p per mile then you won't break even once wear and tear is taken into account.

It can be amazingly rewarding but it can also be stressful.

It can be anything but fulfilling. People aren't allocated the time that they really need. Other workers don't do their job properly and sometimes if the clients don't have family etc checking up the company puts pressure on you to keep to the minimum to free up time. It's personal care, at home, so pad changes, washing etc. There can be a load of other issues as well. As said you don't get paid for the travelling or gaps in-between clients.

Thank you all.

Trying out during the weekend sounds like a great idea! Would this be an option if I contacted the agency? Is this something they’d be able to offer me though?

@EmmaGrundyForPM They’re offering 40ppm

My biggest concern would be the time with each client, I would want to give them more of my time and I imagine this is hard!

I’ve just done it for nearly two years, gave my notice in because I was knackered! And so is my car! I was salaried and did 5 shifts a week of 7-3 or 3-10, so I knew what I was getting paid every month and then I’d get mileage on top of 25p a mile which was too low. I wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t salaried in case you don’t get enough hours you might not have enough to pay the bills. I actually did about 5-6 hours of care in each shift the rest was travelling but was paid for all of the shift. The work is hard, relentless, rushing around but still trying to give each client the time and care they deserve. Lots of manual handling, and you need to be careful so you don’t hurt yourself. Lots of responsibility for very low wages, I don’t know how people do it for any length of time really.

Ask if you get paid travel time if you don't that hourly 11.75-12 will be cut down to minimum wage.

It's the worst industry I've ever had the misfortune to at one time work within. Staff are overworked, underpaid, undervalued and treated appallingly. You have a lot to do in one shift, could be doing someone's shopping, cooking for them, changing them, doing personal care, administering medication, cleaning. You're constantly chasing your tail, you have no time to complete everything. It's a hell of a lot of responsibility and even if a call is scheduled 30mins/1 hour you find you still won't have the time. If you're working within a home it's marginally better but the atmosphere can often be toxic. If you're out in the community you're rarely paid for travel and might have to do a lot of travelling, also digital key safes which can be dodgy delaying you, at times wondering if you should call an ambulance because your call doesn't seem themselves but the ambulance will give you a 10 hour wait time. You'll work extremely hard for not very much money considering the physical/mental effort. Other than that if you can control it so that you're bank you might be better off as you have more control but then again it means less money.

It's a rewarding job, and one of my most enjoyable. I only work part time and am actually hoping to go back to doing it one day a week but only on bank. it's hard to do it as a full time job. I used to do split shifts most days, a typical day would be 7-12 then 3-8/9. Maybe a break between the evening shift too. doing this I would get around 7-8 hours of payed work a day. It gets tiring though working both mornings and evenings.

If I was you I would have a look at being an agency carer, the pay is excellent and pay fuel. Have you ever thought of working in a care home?

Trying out during the weekend sounds like a great idea! Would this be an option if I contacted the agency? Is this something they’d be able to offer me though?
Just phone them and ask, they're usually desperate for weekend staff.
If they don't I'm sure you will find one that will.
Some agencies are better than others.

I hope you like cleaning. That was my biggest surprise about community care work. Having to clean people's toilets and do their ironing.

I was desperate for a job and got roped into doing care work, I was surprised by how rewarding I found it, I loved the people I cared for. There's a lot of training involved (health and safety, manual handling, caring for patients with dementia etc etc). I did a stint with an agency then started working for the council where I was paid for the full hours I worked plus a good rate for petrol.

This led eventually to getting a job at the local hospital as a HCA and I've now trained to be a theatre nurse. So you never know where it might lead you!

I'm a care worker in a care home and whilst I'm on £10.50 rather than the £12+ community carers are paid, I earn more for the time I put in. As others have said, you get paid per job whilst you're there in the client's address. Travel time between is on you and in our area you may have a client in one town, then an appointment in the next town, then back again to the other town. You can possibly, drive around unpaid for almost as much time as you're doing the actual work some days.

I don't know about community carers but there's also significant training required involved in my job. Unpaid. SSSC membership cost, SVQ requirement (Or whatever English/Welsh equivalents are), PVG disclosure cost, uniform cost plus the tonnes of unpaid courses to do like moving and handling or infection prevention and control. As the jobs are pretty much the same but in different environments, I would think a lot of that would be needed?

A lot of home carers I know also hate the fact that as a driver, they're expected to ferry around their non-driving working partner (often being expected to pick them up and drop them off home too). Your car insurance needs upping to business if you're driving for work. Wear and tear, extra mileage and just having to bloody well chauffeur someone around means I wouldn't even consider community work.

Yep Agency carer for a care home is the way to go.

The way they pay for Care in community should be illegal (paying only for the visit - say 15 minutes or 30 minutes; visits too short and you overstay so someone isn’t left on the loo with their pants down, don’t get paid for staying or anything in between. When you factor it all in I think it’s probably less than minimum wage by a long shot!).

Agency Care home work is the way to go. You can get £300 per 12 hour shift in some places!

I haven’t worked as a care worker but manage a parent’s care. From my perspective it’s a job where you can make a real difference to someone’s life; not just by the activities you do but by you being there and talking and making someone’s world bigger and brighter.

Home Instead and some other providers have a minimum visit time of one hour. Worth checking on how the pay is structured Re: travel time. There may be some antisocial hours and again, I’m
not sure if that attracts a supplement. It should - it’s not an easy job and my parent pays an hourly rate more than double what the carer receives. I hope that takes
care of pensions, holidays, training for the workers. It’s not all personal care, many people like my parent need light cleaning, a trip out, ironing, a phone call or admin and just the reassurance of a familiar face.

Oh yes, buy a time machine because you'll be expected to be at the next address at the same time as you finish the previous one, even though it's 30 mins away, and then the client after that will in the same street as that first one.

I did it for a year. Hard on your back, awkward clients are hard work and if you're paired with someone who is lazy or you don't get on it's a long shift
Our 30 min calls were realistically 20 mins as travel time meant you can't be in two places at once

In a 30 min call as a double we would
Hoist from chair to bed
Into night clothes
Change pads and wash or toilet/commode
Wash up dishes
Sort drinks/snacks
Medication
Catheter
Make comfortable
Lock everything up for the night
Document it all

In a 30 min call as a single
Let myself in
Make a drink
Cook a meal and serve meal
Wash up
Medication
Close curtains/empty washing machine/light housework
Document it all

And try to have some conversation!

Can you try to progress upwards in the office environment?