Each new Home Care Assistant will complete an extensive 5 day induction training programme and will then be allocated shadowing shifts with senior experienced HCAs which equips them with all the skills they need to provide quality care.  They are also required to complete yearly updates and specialist courses to provide the best care for our clients by identifying their individual needs.

There is training almost every week for a variety of courses: first aid, food hygiene, safe-guarding, dementia, skills and knowledge, moving and handling, medication and more specific courses such as: palliative care, falls prevention and risk assessment.

We provide specialist care and ensure all carers have the required training; this includes dementia care, catheter care and peg feeding.

Home Care Assistants will also complete Common Induction Standards and have the opportunity to gain further qualifications in Health and Social Care Diplomas (NVQ).

Marie and Alisha manage and co-ordinate all of our internal and external training programmes, working closing with Senior Management and Care Supervisors to ensure all staff receive regular up to date training.

We (Janice, Hayley and Donna) are the 3 co-ordinators who in conjunction with the Registered Manager, Deputy Manager and Care Supervisors, look after the Bromsgrove & Redditch, Worcester and Droitwich areas respectively.

 We are responsible for creating and generating the weekly rotas for over 100 Home Care Assistants who support our clients.  We communicate with these staff on a daily basis with any queries they have relating to our clients’ care.  This is particularly important as it enables us to take the appropriate action immediately if any concerns need to be reported to family members or if clients are unwell.

We also liaise with third parties daily i.e. Social Workers, hospital discharge teams, doctors and clients’ families etc.

We work closely with our Care Supervisors to make sure the clients have the correct care package relating specifically to their changing needs.  This is monitored through feedback from our Home Care Assistants and following reviews which are undertaken by our Care Supervisors.

Most importantly, we communicate with clients and their families to ensure the highest standards of care are delivered and maintained, achieving their required outcomes.

I joined Worcestershire Care Group in a new role, as Deputy Manager, supporting our Registered Manager, the management team and all HCAs.

This is the first time I have worked for a private company as my previous work experience has been 30years working in Home Care for Worcestershire County Council. I have therefore been able to transfer my skills and knowledge of the industry.

One of my responsibilities is recruitment and selection of Home Care Assistants. I find this area of my work very satisfying as I am able to ensure the new HCAs are caring people who are passionate about the role they will play in delivering care and enabling our clients to continue to live in their homes with our help.

I am involved in delivering training at our extensive 5 day induction for all new HCAs who join the company. This enables me to advise, share knowledge and information which will ensure our high standards of care are maintained, that we make a difference to our clients by offering choices and we ensure their dignity and promote that independence.

Part of my role is to line manage two care supervisors who are in new posts from 1^st March 2012. This new post will cover completing new assessments and supporting HCAs in their busy role.

My role at Worcestershire Care Group enables me to use my experience in the Home Care industry to support our HCAs in providing the highest standards of care to our clients.

• ·         Respecting and involving people who use the service
• ·         Care and welfare of people who use the service
• ·         Safe guarding people who use services from abuse
• ·         Supporting workers
• ·         Assessing and monitoring the quality of service provision

We work within the guidance of all the CQC outcomes. We have a 7 day induction for all our new Home Care Assistants (HCAs), where we include training on respecting all our clients and treating them as an individual. Teaching new HCAs about client outcomes and that each client may have very differing views on how to for example: “I am allowed to take risks” or “I am as clean and comfortable as I want to be.”

During assessments and reviews we engage with the clients to try and work together to achieve the desired outcomes.  With on going feedback and monitoring we maintain a high standard of care and quality for each of our clients and HCAs.

Safeguarding is always high on our agenda and training is given to all new HCAs and updates are provided annually. With our policies and procedures in place we encourage all workers that they can come and talk to the Registered Manager and her Deputy about any concerns they may have about client’s safety or risk of any form of abuse.

We welcome any feedback from all clients and HCAs and we receive a lot of compliments and positive comments which we cascade down to the HCAs involved.

All complaints and comments are fully investigated and lessons learnt are fed back to improve our service delivery.

WCG is always learning and evolving and working hard to achieve all clients and HCAs outcomes in a positive way. We had an unannounced visit from CQC Inspector in August 2011 and they were very satisfied with out standards and recommendations were made.

I feel this had benefitted me far more than just working or attending college. This has helped me to gain skills to progress further, using the knowledge and support from both work and college and the understanding of a business environment.   

I work closely with office co-ordinator Marie on a day to day basis, who I have learnt a lot from.

My main duties are organising the training – helping with the systems, planning, managing and recording all aspects of the training which is offered to all staff. I record all compliments and attend and minutes meetings. I work on reception 1 day a week meeting and greeting and dealing with telephone calls from clients and staff. I also help with updating the website.

Being an apprentice is a valuable experience as I am continually learning, taking on new and different challenges and enhancing my career prospects. It’s a fantastic opportunity which I would recommend to anyone

My main duties are checking all the timesheets and calculating mileage claims as well as looking after the pool cars.  I also help with invoicing and produce many spreadsheets for various projects given to me by management.

I attend Redditch College once a week on a Thursday, to study for my Accountancy qualification. I really enjoy college and feel I am doing well. I am completing my level 2 AAT and hope to go on to do my level 3 and level 4. After that, I am striving towards becoming a management accountant.

Being an apprentice at Worcestershire Care Group, I have learnt a great deal of things that have helped and will continue to help me later on in my life. I have learnt how to work in an office environment, as I have never worked in one before, and am working on improving my time management and my organisational skills.  I have learnt a lot about finance and accountancy in college and at Worcestershire Care Group that has helped improve my working ability and I am sure that I can use all that I have learnt to get good positive grades in my exams.

I think there are a lot of positives about being an apprentice, such as: gaining experience at work; striving to gain qualifications; earning, which gives you incentive to work hard.

Being an apprentice gives you a starting point in your career choice.

Our staff have gained a great deal from attending this course and they now find themselves better equipped to support clients in remaining in their own homes at the end of their lives.

They appreciate the importance of client choice and meeting clients’ needs.  Our communication session covered methods of dealing with clients effectively, managing difficult situations and applying strategies when talking and listening to clients and their families.

The course included training on the treatment of pain and symptom control, pain relieving measures and the experience of pain from the client’s point of view.

Recognising and understanding the feelings associated with grief was also covered and this knowledge is used to support those suffering loss.

Our staff visited Hospices, Funeral Undertakers, Crematoriums and did case studies on the Hospice Movement, the Macmillan Service or the Marie Curie Home Cancer Service.  They also prepared a presentation.

If we can use the knowledge and experience gained to help you or your loved ones, please contact us on 01527 575904.

So March has a full programme of training updates and a very exciting new training programme in Palliative Care. It is based on the MacMillian course “Foundations in Palliative Care”. We have tweaked it slightly to reflect domiciliary care. It is a twelve week course for one and a half hours per week. We have two groups of twelve staff going to undertake the course and a waiting list of ten staff ready for the next course we shall run.

Training is a very costly item of expenditure but brings with it great results in staff continuity and customer satisfaction. The CQC and local authority demand certain trainings which often means we are left with only a small budget to offer training such as the Palliative Care Course. So with our staff we split the cost; the company pay for all the resources and trainers, and the staff are coming in in their own time for the Palliative Care Course.

Full to overflowing Palliative Care Courses demonstrate that our staff take their jobs seriously, want to know how to do it right, and are willing to put themselves out to give excellent care. Need I say more? It is very humbling.

Putting all the admin and team leader’s brains together helped produce a plan that we put into action on that Saturday morning (18th December) when we were suddenly deluged with heavy snow falls.

Our most vulnerable clients were immediately identified and care was maintained by staff walking to them. Contact details of neighbours, family and friends were easily to hand so we could phone them to enlist their help when we could not get to the client ourselves.

This snow did not want to go away and was still on the ground 10 days later and Christmas was in the middle of this period.

Our staff did their own planning to make sure they could get to work. There were staff who walked miles during this period, staff who left their cars on main roads as their own roads were snow blocked so they could get out in the morning, and staffs’ families who dug them out so they could go to work or ferried them around to their calls to ease their load.

It was a splendid effort all round. Everyone played their part to ensure our clients were cared for and staff still enjoyed Christmas. We have all lived to tell the tale. It was a humbling experience to see such effort from all of our staff.

But we are all still watching the weather forecasts carefully so we maintain our preparedness. As the year closes we shall be sitting down and analysing what went well and what we could improve next time…..

The company sees itself as a learning organisation, that is learning and growing the things it does well and learning and changing the things it does not do so well. To be able to do this we need to have staff who are confident in their roles to take part. Getting qualifications helps them and causes a tremendous “buzz” and lots of entusiasm. I am really looking forward to seeing them succeed, which means that the clients will get the best care and the company will grow in competence.