Getting Started in social care

It doesn't matter about your background or how old you are, if you want to help people there's a social care job for you. 

You don’t necessarily need any qualifications or previous work experience to get a job in social care. What’s really important is your values and attitude towards working with people who need care and support. 

You can help people to live more independently and have a better quality of life so it's really important you have the right values. Some of the values and behaviours you might need to work in social care are: 

• Treat people with dignity and respect.
• Good at working with others.
• Committed to quality care and improving lives.
• Willing to learn and develop at work. 

These values might look like this in your everyday life. 

• Spending time listening to people to get to know them and their needs.
• Respecting people's right to make their own choices and decisions.
• Commitment to working as part of a team.
• Supporting people when they need it most.

This role is ideal for you if you if you have the the ability to work on your own initiative, good listening and communication skills, display flexibility and good time management as well as interpersonal skills.

Personal assistants usually support individuals in their own home or to go out in the community.

You’ll be employed directly by an individual. You can be employed directly by one employer or work for a number of different people.

Role overview

• organising and supporting individuals with their social and physical activities
• booking and going with individuals to appointments
• helping individuals to get to work, college or university
• helping with personal care such as showering and dressing (although not all PA roles involve personal care)
• supporting with tasks around the house such as shopping, cleaning and cooking
• monitoring their health for example measuring body temperatures or administering medication.
• managing a team of PAs if you’re in a senior PA role. 

Download our 'Being a personal assistant' guide to find out more about the role, including who can be a PA, the recruitment process and starting work. 

Skills and experience

When you start in your role you should do an induction which includes training necessary for your role such as health and safety, first aid and moving and handling. You might also receive specific training depending on their individual care needs.What’s really important is that you have the right values and behaviours to work in social care.

Your employer might ask that you have qualifications showing good English and number skills such as GCSE in English and maths. It might also be helpful to have a social care qualification, but this can be completes once you're hired.

It might also be useful to have experience working in a similar role or with vulnerable adults. You could gain this experience through a work placement, from your personal life, through volunteering or as part of a traineeship or apprenticeship.

Opportunities

When in your role you could do a vocational qualification or a continuing professional development qualification such as dementia, end of life or autism care.

There may be opportunities to progress into senior personal assistant roles where you’re responsible for organising rotas, training or wages. You might also choose to go into other roles such as an advocacy worker, care worker or rehabilitation worker.

Your employer might pay for you to do these qualifications via individual employer funding, or you could apply for an Advanced Learner Loan to pay for them yourself.

Being a personal assistant can also be great experience to support your University application to become a social worker, nurse or occupational therapist. Read more on the Job roles in social care page.

Set up in partnership with Peterborough City Council, the Personal Assistants Register (PA register) aims to make it easier for PAs to advertise their skills and availability to potential employers.

Joining is free and will give you access to a range of training opportunities and a monthly support group. It also increases your visibility to organisations looking to recruit PAs.