Health and Social Care

How to Become A Care Worker? Skills, Responsibilities & Salary

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Do you have any idea about care workers’ responsibilities? They are experienced Professionals in private residences, care homes, hospitals, and communities who know how to take care. Care workers deal with children, the elderly and people with physical and learning disabilities. Available at their weekends along with regular shifts, a care worker is a person who does more than his payment.

To further know what are the responsibilities of a care worker, important qualities, job opportunities and salaries, give this blog a read, as we have covered every aspect in detail.

A smiling doctor with a patient in the background

What Does A Care Worker Do?

A care worker is a person who provides direct care or assistance in offering essential services to patients. To give the patients the required assistance, they also have to become their friends so as to provide them with a helping hand beyond their responsibilities. In addition, the care worker also shares mental strength with his patients.

The care workers provide personal care to people of all ages by servicing –

  • support for disability or health concerns
  • support services in the home of patients
  • assisting with daily living

Above all are the basic daily requirements of a care worker. These three support overall responsibilities.

Doctor assisting senior man to get up from the chair at nursing home

What are the Responsibilities of a Care Worker?

A Care Worker’s primary responsibility is to provide physical care and support to their patient. Their daily duties can include:

  • Assist patients in bathing, grooming, getting dressed
  • Maintaining hygiene
  • Observing, and monitoring patients’ situation
  • Recording patients’ conditions taking temperatures, pulse, respirations and weight
  • Handling household tasks
  • Preparing and serving meals
  • Administering medication under the supervision of medical personnel
  • Providing mental and emotional support
  • Communicating with family members and healthcare personnel
  • Organising suitable creational activities for the patient
  • Mobility assistance
  • Consult with other health and social care professionals

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How to Become A Care Worker?

As health and social care is such a competitive field, possessing relevant professional certifications has become essential for becoming a care worker. Taking a course related to your chosen field is an excellent way to start your career with.

To become a care worker, you have to get-

  • A College Course: The following courses will help you become a qualified care worker.
    • Level 1 Certificate in Health and Social Care
    • Level 2 Diploma in Care
    • T Level in Health

However, to get into these courses, the entry requirements would be-

    • For a level 1 course: 2 or lesser GCSEs at grades 3 to 1 (D to G) or equivalent
    • For a level 2 course: 2 or more GCSEs at grades 9 to 3 (A* to D) or equivalent
    • for a T level: 4 or 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C) or equivalent along with English and maths
  • Apprenticeship: To become a care worker, you can do a lead adult care worker advanced apprenticeship or an adult care worker intermediate apprenticeship.
  • Volunteering: So as to become a volunteer, you can do voluntary work at hospitals, care homes, charities and hospices supporting the vulnerable.
  • Online Course: By getting yourself registered with the online courses, you can gain knowledge at your own pace and learn all the fundamental aspects of care.

Health & Safety in a Care Setting

Equip yourself with the skills required to become a certified Carer

What Skills Do Care Workers Need?

A care worker’s responsibilities depend on customers’ individual needs and typically include qualifications, excellent communication skills, empathy, and a strong desire to help people. You do not necessarily need any degree or qualifications to become a care worker. So important is that you have the correct values and behaviours to work in social care.

Care workers have:

  • Empathy and sensitivity
  • Paying specific attention to physical and social needs.
  • Ensure the well-being of the client
  • Excellent communication skill
  • Share company and emotional support.
  • Customer service
  • Attention to detail
  • Good team spirit
  • Doing creative or visiting somewhere
  • To keep calm in stressful situations
  • Ability to take the initiative
  • Observant

What Are the Three Most Important Qualities of a Good Carer?klccollege.ca/3-qualities-necessary-to-become

According to the KLC college, the three most essential qualities of a good carer-

  1. Flexibility, Changes and Challenges
    A care worker has to face a different situation with each client, hence providing support that differs from client to client. For example, a dementia client has very different needs and here, the support from the care worker depends on a client’s mood and the situation. The best way to prepare for this is to embrace flexibility and be ready for any challenge.
  2. Patience With Clients and Yourself
    A care worker has to keep calm in any situation. Holding patience makes you sensitive to the client’s requirements. For example, for a patient who has memory loss, you must be able to remind them of whatever they are forgetting.
  3. Compassion: An Unofficial Requirement
    Empathy, kindness, feeling one’s pain etc., are the essential unofficial qualities of a care worker. If you want to help and care for people in need, you are the perfect one as a care worker.

As you’re thinking about becoming a care worker, it’s essential to understand health and social care policies and procedures. These guidelines are like condensed rulebooks that guide how services are provided. If you’re already familiar with these policies, employers would think you’re a perfect match for their social or care worker position. It shows you’re ready to hit the ground running and understand how things work in the field.

Male doctor holding folder and documents

 

Care Worker Experience Requirements

One or two years of experience is required for the care workers to grab good job opportunities. For example, previous experience in working in-home care, hospital, or charity care. Similarly, apprenticeships and volunteer work also provide good opportunities for acquiring knowledge. Along with this, it is essential to have working experience with individuals with disabilities.

Mid-level Care requires three to five years of experience, while Senior Care Workers should have over five years of experience.

To get the best job opportunities, a care worker should also be familiar with-

  • Health and safety best practices
  • First aid
  • Patient moving and handling
  • End-of-life care

A senior doctor giving training to juniors

 

Care Worker Education and Training Requirements

For a care worker, the minimum educational requirement is General Certificates of Secondary Education (GCSEs). However, it is not required to have a university degree. At the University level, the helpful courses such as –

  • A Level 1 certificate
  • A Level 2 diploma

Adult care workers do training on-

  • An intermediate apprenticeship.
  • An advanced apprenticeship is also a possible training requirement.
  • The hiring company determines other training requirements, such as
  • safeguarding adults and children,
  • food hygiene and handling
  • infection prevention and control
  • fire safety
  • human rights

For anyone considering a career as a care worker, it’s crucial to grasp the key points of the field. That’s where the Health and Social Care Worker Training comes in. This comprehensive course not only equips you with essential knowledge and skills but also hones your ability to provide effective care and support across various healthcare settings.

Job Opportunities for a Care worker

There are many opportunities to work as an Assistant Practitioner and towards an appropriate foundation degree. For example, experienced healthcare assistants working at a senior level (usually as an assistant practitioner or similar status) may be able to obtain a secondment from their current employer onto an appropriate pre-registration programme at university.

Nursing or Midwifery, HCAs are considered the formal route. For further study, the Allied Healthcare professions could be worth exploring as there are working in many fields, such as- ranging from Art Therapy, Dietician, Radiographer, Speech and Language Therapist, etc.

The NHS provides vast and diverse support for healthcare workers’ roles. Along with 30 different positions, you could choose from within seven areas of the NHS, including mental health, primary care, maternity and children’s services.

You can find several jobs for care assistants across the UK. Search and contact any suitable opportunities through hospitals, care homes, and charities. You can also browse the internet as many care-offering organisations post job opportunities online. Additionally, care workers can be hired directly by the individual who needs them or outsourced from a home care agency.

Some job descriptions for similar positions are-

  • Care Assistant
  • Caregiver
  • Care Home Assistant
  • Complex Care Assistant

Among various job prospects, working in community care as a social worker holds great promise. But to excel, you need to grasp the basic concepts of how it’s done. That’s where the Social Work and Community Care Training comes in. This training is all about understanding social work and community care, so you can effectively support vulnerable individuals and communities. This type of training will help you learn how to create a positive impact in people’s lives and contribute to the overall well-being of the community.

A female doctor sitting on her desk, working on a laptop gets her salary

Salary

Care Worker’s salary expectations vary based on their-

  • Education and qualification,
  • Geographical location
  • Employer.

Here is a synopsis of the present salary range –

As per the information on skill force –According to the Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set (ASC-WDS) data, care workers employed in England’s independent sector 2020/21 use pay data from the 2020/21 period, where the National Living Wage (NLW) was £8.72. Care workers are paid a median hourly rate of £9.01 in the independent sector.

In 2010, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated the median annual wage for home healthcare aides to be $20,560. The lowest 10 per cent earned a median salary of $16,300 a year, while the highest 10 per cent earned $29,390.

Conclusion

Daily Care assistants work on the frontline of care delivery, helping individuals. They carefully assist the disabled, elderly with long-term illnesses, and individuals with learning difficulties.

The job revolves around helping clients with their immediate needs, such as washing, dressing and maintaining their hygiene, and helping them with essential day-to-day or administrative tasks like paying bills.

However, the care assistant role also includes getting to know clients personally and providing them with emotional support and company, which contributes positively to their wellbeing.

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