Some care workers see their roles as part of a vocational career path rather than one with pathways to progression, formal qualifications, and sought-after skills—something we have worked hard to challenge over the last 12 years!
However, we also regularly speak with candidates, from junior support worker applicants through to highly experienced managers and coordinators who are wary when applying for new roles due to previously poor experiences. Many have been undervalued, unsupported, or felt that their incredible work in the community was not properly rewarded.
With that in mind, we have created this guide for home care job applicants and care professionals searching for vacancies. The guide clarifies the factors that might influence your decisions, the signs that an agency is an excellent employer, and the indications that a home care job might be the ideal fit for you.
Criteria When Deciding Which Home Care Jobs to Apply For
When we compare job vacancies or recruitment advertisements, our eyes are often drawn immediately to the rate of pay. This is natural because job satisfaction, funded training, generous holiday entitlements, and properly remunerated workday travel don’t, after all, pay the bills.
That said, we’d suggest that all of the following aspects are equally important.
By conducting a little research to find out how a home care agency operates—and how it is perceived by its workforce and care recipients as well as the regulator—you’ll have a far better idea about whether a home care company is one that you’ll be a part of for years to come.
Working Hours and Structure
The first area to look at is the hours because, as all home care professionals know, our roles don’t typically follow the conventional 9-5 pattern. This can be one of the key benefits for many carers who need a role that slots around school runs, familial caring responsibilities, other part-time work or education, or the times they feel most productive and energetic.
We mention structure, too, because if a home care job looks great but is vague about the hours or mentions a zero-hour contract, this could be a red flag.
Guardian Angel Carers regularly recruits carers to work evenings, mornings, early-bird shifts, and weekends. If the hours are flexible, we’ll make this transparent, along with information about the minimum guaranteed hours, so you know whether the job meets your requirements.
Pay Rates and Rewards
Onto pay rates, which can be a topic home care recruiters shy away from or are reluctant to state because of concerns about paying the basic minimum wage or putting off talented candidates who know they can earn a higher salary in another role or sector.
Our focus is always on clarity. While we are proud to offer leading pay rates, bonuses, and reward schemes, we also think it is crucial to know whether a job aligns with your earning expectations!
Within our current vacancies, you’ll find home care positions with exact stated rates of pay per hour, differentiating between peak and off-peak rates without dancing around the salary associated with the role or leaving you to assume the pay meets the legal minimum.
Vacancies that are live now within our careers section pay as much as 35% above the National Living Wage. These are real careers that recognise and reward commitment and talent and mean working as a home carer is never a second choice from a financial perspective.
Alongside pay rates, you’ll find details of our added perks, including complimentary AA breakdown cover and a Blue Light Card, six-monthly bonuses, full pay during your induction, added Vitality healthcare coverage, and full pay when covering shadow shifts.
Holiday Pay and Flexibility
Time off is essential, especially when you spend the majority of the working week providing compassionate, practical and hands-on support, helping individuals within your local area feel safe, comfortable and well looked after in the comfort of their own homes.
We publicise holiday entitlements within our job posts, clarifying where travel pay is included—a standard element of pay for visiting home care roles—and ensuring you can apply with confidence that you’ll have breaks and time off to spend time with your loved ones.
Workforce Satisfaction and Staff Turnover
Home care agencies often have high staff turnover rates, which illustrates that at least a proportion of staff are unhappy. While some turnover is a natural part of any business, it’s far better to apply for home care jobs due to increasing demand and capacity than because most carers only remain with the company for a few months.
You can look at sites like Glassdoor if you’d like to get an idea about how the agency treats its staff—an independent career community where people are invited to ‘score’ employers. We’re delighted to be rated 4.8/5 stars, with 100% of our staff recommending us to a friend.
Training and Mentoring
The best jobs in care and any sector are those where the position you start in, whether as a trainee or a senior carer, has the scope for progression. Perhaps you’d like to upskill into a carer specialism, learn about different types of care, such as overnight care or live-in carer jobs, or would like to turn your passion and dedication into a formal qualification or accreditation.
We believe that career opportunities are ideal for both us and our workforce, developing and honing talent and investing in talented professionals. This is why our first-class training programme is available as standard, from fully funded certification courses to NVQs, CPD, and collaborative monthly staff meetings.
Care Quality Commission Ratings and Service User Reviews
Finally, you can head to the CQC site to check whether a home care agency you are considering working for is well regarded from a regulatory perspective. We say this with caution because, although Guardian Angel Carers territories are exclusively rated Good or Outstanding, there could be scenarios where an agency previously downrated is working exceptionally hard behind the scenes to improve.
Another gauge is to look at an unbiased, user-verified rating site like HomeCare.co.uk, where you’ll find feedback and comments from service users, family members and loved ones—showcasing the standards, quality and compassion you’ll experience if you apply for, and succeed in, securing a job with your selected agency.