Sue's application

Meet Sue, a mum with two school-aged children. She has been working part time for the last three years as a midday supervisor at the local primary school. Before she gave up work to have her family she worked as a sales assistant in a department store. When Sue’s not working, she finds time to visit her neighbour and enjoys helping her out with her shopping and popping in for a chat to keep her company. Recently she has begun to feel that she would like to work as a carer and has found a Home Care Assistant post advertised in her local paper. The advert says experience, whilst desirable is not essential as training will be given.

Job Description
Job Title: Home Care Assistant

Duties:
To provide practical help and support to older people using social care services and their carers including bed making, laundry, assistance with meals and shopping and ensuring general standards of cleanliness are maintained.

To provide personal care including washing, dressing, toileting, assisting in/out of bed, general personal hygiene, shaving and giving assistance with prescribed medicine.

To provide emotional support, duties may include listening to and communicating with individuals, encouraging self-help and observing changes. To complete basic records.

Person specification

Sue’s list:

Shop experience
Talking to customers, dealing with complaints, keeping stock records, and ordering stock. Had to respect customers and be polite. Sense of humour.

Home and family
Caring for children - washing, dressing, feeding - nutrition, listening, communicating. Have to be patient and tolerant. Cooking, cleaning, laundry, budgeting, paying the bills and shopping. Looked after Mum - shopping, made sure she was eating - nutrition, helped her get up in morning, washing and dressing, washed and set her hair.

Computer course

School meals supervisor
Communicate with children, teachers and sometimes parents. Team work, Health and Safety training, Equal Opportunities training. Dealing with minor incidents - using initiative Recording accidents in book

Lillian
Shopping, listening, chatting - keep her spirits up.

Sue’s Draft for the supporting information section:

I am applying for the post of home care assistant because I enjoy helping others and feel I have the skills and personal qualities to do the job well.

Although I have no paid experience in care, I looked after my elderly mother for several years, helping in the beginning with her shopping. Eventually she became frail and I used to go in most days to make sure she was eating properly and to help her get washed and dressed.

All my work experience has involved working with people and I get on well with all ages and groups of people. Working in a shop I learnt to be tolerant when dealing with difficult customers and was usually able to calm them down by being respectful, helpful and polite.

I have spent several years at home bringing up my children and looking after the home. During this time I have developed useful skills such as cooking, cleaning, doing the laundry, shopping, budgeting and keeping household accounts. I also used this time to take a beginners computer course and can use Word and enjoy helping my children search the Internet.

In my current job I need to accurately record any incidents in the accident book and in the shop I used to keep records of all the stock so feel that I would be able to keep records in a care setting. I have attended courses on Health and Safety and Equal Opportunities.

Recently, I have been regularly visiting my neighbour. I do her shopping for her and other odd jobs that she finds difficult. Most days I try to visit her as she has no family in the area and feels quite lonely. I enjoy talking to her and feel my visits keep her spirits up. This has made me realise that although I love my job I would get more satisfaction and enjoyment from working with older people.

I am keen to learn and am willing to train further to gain qualifications. I feel that I am a caring person and have both the practical and social skills to be able to help older people stay in their own homes. I am willing to be flexible with my working hours.