Care Assistant, Harpenden

£14.50 up to £28.00 an hour plus lots of benefits, full list below. Probably one of the best overall packages for carers in Hertfordshire.

Full time and part time hours available | No experience necessary (full training provided)
You will need the right to work in the UK (we are not able to offer visa sponsorship).
You must have a full UK driving licence and your own car.
Visits across Harpenden and the surrounding villages.

Somewhere in Harpenden this morning, someone is waiting for a knock on the door. They have a routine that matters to them, a way they like their tea, a chair by the window they want to get to. The person who arrives will decide how the rest of their day feels.

We started Starling Homecare so that person would be you: someone who turns up when they said they would, knows the client by name and by habit, does the small things properly, and treats people the way you would want your own mum or dad treated. That is the whole idea.

We are a family owned, independently run homecare provider based in St Albans, founded by a husband and wife with more than a decade of building and running an award-winning homecare service in Hertfordshire. We are CQC registered, we provide visiting care across St Albans, Harpenden, Hemel Hempstead and Welwyn Hatfield and live-in care across Hertfordshire, and we are growing carefully, building the kind of team that clients ask for by name. We know who delivers great care. It is not the office. It is the carer at the door, and we built this company around you.

The pay, in full

You start on £14.50 an hour on weekdays and £15.00 an hour at weekends, paid for every visit you work.

After your first three months you can move to our Committed Availability Rate: £16.00 an hour, every hour, weekdays and weekends alike. It is the same job at a higher basic rate, written into your contract rather than paid as a bonus, and it stays with you for as long as you keep the availability you have committed to.

Here is how you get there. Your first three months are about settling in: learning how we work, getting to know your clients and finding the pattern of hours that fits your life. At the end of those three months we sit down together and look at the availability you have been keeping. If you have been signed off, your availability matches the pattern below and our clients need those hours, we invite you onto the £16.00 rate. The route is the same for everyone, and it is open to everyone.

The pattern we look for is around 40 hours of availability a week at the times our clients need us most: first thing in the morning, in the evening and at weekends.

• Every other weekend, both days, with either a morning (7am to 2pm) or an evening (4pm to 10pm) on each day, and
• Any one of these three: all five weekday mornings (7am to 2pm), all five weekday evenings (4pm to 10pm), or six weekday blocks with at least two of them evenings

You will not always work every hour you are available for. What matters is that the availability is real and stays open to us, because that is what gives our clients consistent carers and gives you consistent earnings. If your availability changes, we talk it through with you first, and the rate follows your availability. If your week looks different, you are still very welcome here: it is the same role on the Standard Rate, and the invitation stays open if your availability changes later.

On top of your hourly rate

• Rate uplift to £21.00 an hour on bank holidays
• Rate uplift to £28.00 an hour on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day
• 40p per mile between visits
• £200 welcome bonus after your first three months, on the terms set out in your offer letter
• Uniform and PPE provided
• Company pension

The work

You will support people in their own homes with the things that let them stay there: getting up and ready for the day, meals, medication prompts, keeping the house the way they like it, getting out and about, and company. You will see the same clients regularly, so you know them and they know you. You will notice when something is not right and say so. And once you have found your feet, you will help welcome and guide the carers who join after you, because the standard we set is passed on person to person.

Who we are looking for

Experience is welcome and not required. We train you properly and you shadow experienced carers before your first visit on your own. What we cannot train is who you are: kind, reliable and calm, someone who leads with their heart and takes pride in doing things properly. You would be comfortable if the person you were caring for was your own family.

Looking after the people who look after others

Caring is demanding work, done well by people who give a great deal of themselves. We believe the people who care for our clients deserve to be cared for too, and we have built that belief into how we reward the team.

Once you have completed your first six months with us, you will be invited to join our wellbeing package. It brings together support for your health, your wellbeing and your everyday spending: a GP when you need one, someone to talk to when you need that, help with your health and fitness, and savings on the things you already buy. It includes:

• 24/7 on-demand GP service with video, phone and text appointments
• Unlimited digital physiotherapy
• Online eye health screening
• Menopause health support