Night Care Assistant

Job Description

As one of our highly valued carers, youre at the front line of care delivery. Your mission is to promote health and wellbeing by helping residents with their personal care, and supporting them with all aspects of daily living. As such, every day is different and your job is very rewarding. Job DescriptionAt Abbeyfield, we believe that great care starts with great people. We’re committed to providing the highest standards of accommodation to our residents and we’re always keen to hear from people who share our commitment to enhancing the lives of older people in the UK.From carers to house managers, activities coordinators to cooks, plus roles in our St Albans head office, Abbeyfield has a varied range of career options available. By working at Abbeyfield you’ll be joining a charity with more than 400 houses and over 7000 residents. But we’re also developing new homes throughout the UK with state of the art facilities.In return for your commitment, we offer a great pay and benefits package. This includes 29 days paid leave, (pro rata if part-time),including bank/public holidays, an occupational sick pay scheme, a pension scheme, plus shop and save discounts. We also offer great career prospects, from a comprehensive induction and a ‘buddy’ to get you started, to further opportunities to progress your career as a carer, through development, to gain more experience in your role.Best of all, we’re a charity, meaning that the interests of our valued staff and residents sit at the heart of what we do, not shareholders. Description of the roleEach resident is unique; the care and support they need is individualised and personal to them. You treat people with kindness and compassion, and your sensitive and respectful approach ensures residents maintain their dignity and feeling of self worth.You assist residents at difficult times such as during periods of illness, attendance at hospital appointments or sometimes providing palliative care, and your caring input helps to make these times as easy and comfortable as possible.You contribute to residents emotional and intellectual wellbeing by getting to know them personally and supporting them to participate in social activities and events. You see the benefit of this stimulation by getting involved with planning, organising and delivering these home activities and functions.To ensure each residents needs are continually met, you participate in regular monitoring of their health, care and social needs and the preparation, implementation and review of their personal care plan. This involves liaising with other members of the staff team and people involved in the residents care as well as with the resident themselves to ensure their needs and wishes are at the centre of the care we provide.You strongly believe that residents choice and independence is paramount, and you understand the need to support and work closely with residents families and friends, offering them professional and emotional support. Our Ideal CandidateNo specific qualifications or background in care is required to become a care assistant. What’s more important is that you have a natural calling to care, and are naturally empathetic to the needs of older people. But if you do join us without previous experience, you’ll need to be willing and able to learn new skills quickly. And with our online, face to face induction, and the support of a buddy, we’ll ensure that within six months you will gain a QCF Level 2 qualification in Social Care.So first of all you’ll need to be a caring person, and able to communicate and interact well with a wide range of people in varied situations. You’ll also need to be patient, with the ability to remain calm in difficult situations. You’ll also be a strong and supportive team player. And as you’d expect in a modern workplace, you need to be able to read, write and work with numbers to a good standard, and good at record keeping.Better still, if you already have experience within a health or social care setting, you may benefit from a higher rate of pay. In return for this we would expect you to have a QCF Level 2 in Health & Social Care (or equivalent), and qualified to Level 1 in Maths and English.A copy of the full job description is available here. Note that this role requires an enhanced DBS check, to be renewed every 3 years. About the House or Home you’ll be working inLocated in the village of North Weald Bassett, Cunningham House is our dementia-friendly residential care home based on the outskirts of Epping Forest. Our home has 54 bedrooms, 33 of which have en-suites. Residents can choose how they wish to fill their days, either by enjoying the peace and quiet in one of our libraries or participate in an exercise class with our home’s personal trainer. Our beautiful nautical themed garden is the best place for our residents to relax and enjoy the fresh air with their families or friends.Each of our residents has a personalised care packaged provided by a senior member of our dedicated team who will work with them to ensure that their time with us is happy, safe and fulfilled. At Cunningham House we have introduced several initiatives to enhance the lives of our residents from hydration stations, ferrules checks and regular exercise classes.Our two activities co-ordinators offer a wide engaging programme of activities in and outside of the home for our residents to enjoy, with weekly visits by a local hairdresser. Our friendly team are also on hand to help each and every resident continue to pursue their own hobbies at our home if they prefer. An honest and open culture is encouraged by our home manager amongst the team, who are supported with regular team meetings and ongoing up-to-date training.As part of our team, you will have excellent opportunities to work with some amazing, caring people and give something back to our wonderful residents by enriching their lives.If this sounds like somewhere where you would like to work, please do contact us.For more information about Cunningham House, please click here.