Banking work (care assistants on bank) how reliable?

[RawDEal]

I'm soon to be a single parent, full time student. I REALLY do not want to sign on to job seekers allowance but it's hard to find a job that will fit around college/uni. I'm registering for bank work and need around 16 hours a week.

Anyone know how reliable bank work is in securing 15/16 hours a week? I just want to earn enough to make me independant from benefits.

I haven't got a clue about the answer to your question [unhelpful emoticon] but I hope you won't think I'm being patronising if I say I am really impressed with your attitude.

Hello, RawDEal - I'm a care manager running a home care service ( but my organization also has a care home) We look for bank staff to vcover holidays and sickness mainly, and to tide us over when we need to recruit again. Your employers will be putting quite a lot of time and expenditure into training you so must have a firm idea they will need to use your skills. Perhaps if you start on this basis you could move onto a small number of contracted hours with some bank work on top which might offer you greater security.

If you can get childcare at weekends, you would be better off asking for 2 8 hour shifts over the weekend. Saturday evning and Sunday morning being the ones that get phones in sick for.

You can register with more than one bank or agency at once, which immediately increases your chances of work. In my experience the NHS trust nurse banks (which also take care assistants) tend to offer the most reliability. If you have (or can develop) specific skills (eg dementia, burns, children etc) you'll be able to develop more continuity, too. Good luck!