We decided to sit down and chat with Sue, a member of our award-winning team of carers. Sue has been a carer since she left school (for the past 25 years). Starting her career in social services she progressed her career into homecare.
Sue has been with Beloved Homecare for over 3 years.
“When I was younger, I actually wanted to be a nurse. I always wanted to look after people, my ambition to look after others has always been there. I changed my mind when one day I was looking at the carers caring for my gran and dad, and I thought to myself, I can do this.”was your background before you joined Beloved Homecare?
“I’ve been a carer since I left school 25 years ago. When I left school, I started working in social services. I worked for several homecare businesses and worked in residential homes also.”
With so much experience under your belt did you have to do a lot of training and studying to become a Healthcare Assistant?
“When I first started, there was a lot of on the job training, and I had to learn on my feet. As time went on and a lot more rules and regulations were coming into place, I had to have certain qualifications to do my job. For example, I had to do my NVQ Level 1 and 2 in health and social care. I also decided to undertake any other qualifications that come my way; for instance, I recently completed my end of life course at Beloved.”
How has working for previous employers compared to working here?
“Well in the past I have worked at a nursing home where I looked after several people including stroke survivors, the elderly suffering from dementia, and people living with Alzheimer’s. When I was working in that nursing home, I was assigned a specific group of people to work with. It was my job to look after the end-of-life patients who needed consistent care and support…”
“My dad would always have a go at me for working there. Working silly hours to meet the needs of the nursing home. Sometimes I’d start work at 6:45am and not finish until 11:10pm. Their working patterns are nothing like what I now have at Beloved. You have days off. I work agreed hours now and I still have time to myself.”
“When I was working in a nursing home, I felt the care they offered was not tailored to the people there but more to the needs of the business and making themselves money. You barely had any time to sit with the clients because the company made your schedule so overwhelming. At Beloved things are so different”
Do you find that you get the right amount of support from the management team?
The guys here look after us. They look after the carers. They look after the clients. If you have any problems, there’s always someone you can turn to. For example, a member of the office staff is always available to talk to over the phone or even in person when it comes to handling some of the pressures that come with the job.
“I came into the office the other day just to get something off my chest, that’s the sort of culture that Beloved have. They have a welcoming culture that I never had at any of my previous workplaces. The other companies didn’t care! they only cared about making their money, and ensuring that the money is in the bank…”
“At Beloved, you get a set amount of time allocated to you to complete certain tasks. That can even range from travelling from one client’s house to another – or even an hour call where you have plenty of time to carry out the personal care the client needs…”
“At my other workplace they never really accounted a time frame for travel. They didn’t even take into consideration traffic or the time needed to complete certain tasks. I often found that my visit times would roll over and I didn’t always have the time I needed to provide the level of care the client needed.”
What attracted you to work for Beloved instead of the 400+ care providers in Trafford?
“After 7 years I had enough of working at my previous employer. When I was looking around for a new job Beloved popped up. The fact that it was a family-run business really came across on the job advert and website, which really appealed to me and I liked the fact that it was a small company.”
“The other companies I worked for were really big compared to Beloved. They had over 500 clients and god knows how many staff members. If it was a small company, I thought it would be a more person-centred approach to care as they won’t be running over capacity. After starting here, I never looked back since and I’ve been here for over 3 years.”
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If you are an experienced care assistant looking to move to an award-winning care provider in Trafford then why not submit an application.