Some support workers work in care and residential settings and others work within the community, visiting people in their homes to help enable them to live a more independent, fulfilling, and abundant life. As a support worker, you may work with children, adults with physical or learning disabilities, or the elderly. You can be a support worker on a part or full-time contract and may work day or night shifts which makes this a flexible role.
You can have a rewarding career being a support worker as it is a great choice for people who want to work one-on-one with individuals and are passionate about making their communities more caring, more accessible, and more welcome to people who need extra assistance in their daily life.
What are the Responsibilities of a Support Worker?
The role and responsibilities of a support worker will depend on the kind of support work you go choose, which could include children’s services, mental health services, disability support services, and support for the elderly.
The general responsibilities that apply to all support workers include:
Building a relationship with the individual while supporting them in their daily life
Ensuring that people in your care are kept safe whilst ensuring that their lives remain fulfilling and their desired outcomes are met (this is known as your Duty of Care)
Providing advice on various concerns for those you support
The ability to provide emotional support to the person and their family
That you meet the person’s needs that are documented in their care plan
Teaching life skills or support personal development
Completing formal paperwork as part of your role, maintaining clear and accurate records, recording medication administration, and reporting on your work in line with the care requirements set out in legislation
You may be required to be part of an on-call team
Your working hours may be required to be more flexible, for example, if you are accompanying a person when they go on holiday or after an operation or illness
For individuals with a learning disability, your responsibilities may include:
Support and encouragement with exercise, new skills or therapy
Support somebody to develop their sociability (if they wish to) and make new connections to avoid isolation
Supporting people to manage their own home with housekeeping such as cleaning, cooking, meal preparation, grocery shopping, medication management, etc.
Ensuring that the individual can access social events, health appointments etc.
For individuals with mental health issues, your responsibilities may include:
Support to aid in recovery
Arranging peer support groups
Helping to teach new skills or assist with therapy
Working alongside mental health specialists and physical health specialists
Helping to monitor recovery/symptoms/progress, etc.
Putting individuals in touch with resources that can assist them
For individuals who are elderly, your responsibilities may include:
Assistance with meals, housekeeping, and general cleaning
Assistance with personal care
Transport to doctor’s surgeries, community groups, and other appointments
Collecting groceries and medication, and running general errands
Providing companionship
Helping to monitor general mental and physical health
Is There a Difference Between a Support Worker and a Carer?
Support workers and carers are often referred to interchangeably, but they are a bit different in some important ways. The main difference is that a carer is usually someone providing informal, unpaid assistance. This could be a family member caring for a loved one or a community member helping their neighbours.
A support worker is a formal, paid role where individuals have received specialised training to perform a caregiving role to provide professional support to a person who needs additional help in daily life.
Often, support workers work with family members and informal caregivers to help take care of the elderly or people with mental or physical disabilities. They are employed by organisations and individuals to provide certain types of care to meet specific assistance requirements. While most support workers develop close and personal relationships with those they support, they are employed, salaried professionals who have a well-defined set of responsibilities to uphold a high standard of care.
What Skills does a Support Worker Need to Have?
While you don’t need work experience to become a support worker, you will need training and qualifications. You’ll need good literacy and numeracy skills, and you may also be required to have GCSEs (or the equivalent) in English and maths, and a healthcare qualification such as a BTEC or NVQ for some of the roles. As with any career, the better your qualifications are, the more specialised work you’ll be able to undertake, and you’ll be able to manage more complex responsibilities.
If you are considering a career as a support worker, it’s best to start by looking at your own personality and career aspirations. The best support workers are:
Exceptionally reliable, responsible and trustworthy
Confident in their skills and knowledge, and able to set boundaries and limitations on their own ability to contribute
Patient and able to work with a variety of people which may, for example, include those diagnosed with dementia and people with complex needs
Have a friendly and compassionate disposition, with a good sense of humour, to easily make connections with those they support
Resilience that enables them to remain professional at all times, even when faced with difficult situations such as a person’s deterioration or passing
Can confidently work without supervisions, taking the initiative when required to do so
Respectful and sensitive to the needs of others, be intuitive and have a good level of social intelligence
Thrive in a people-centric environment
Can remain calm in challenging situations
If you think you have the right attributes for this role a company like 3 Trees that will support you in gaining the skills and qualifications to become the best you can be as a support worker.
Also see why 3 Trees hire for attitude and not necessarily for skill:
What Types of Challenges do Support Workers Face?
Every job has its challenges, but those you may face as a support worker will vary depending on your role and responsibilities. The most common challenges faced by support workers include:
Managing shift work
Balancing work and life, especially as you will develop relationships with those you support and have emotional investment
Managing interpersonal relationships with the person, their family, and their other caregivers
Non-compliance and refusing care services
Coping with a person’s decline in health or their passing, developing emotional resilience and supporting their own mental and physical wellbeing
Managing unique challenges that individuals may present – no two people are the same!
This is where being part of supportive team is essential for any support worker. With the right resources and insight, more experienced support workers can guide you, advise you, and assist you in making the right decisions whenever a challenge is presented.
How Much can a Support Worker get Paid?
Your salary as a support worker is dependent on the company that you work for, your experience, where in the UK you are working, and the type of support work you are doing. As a basic guide, support workers in the UK earn around £19,526 per year or £10.01 per hour on average. For entry-level support workers, you can expect to earn around £18,333 per year, which can increase to an average of £24,496 per year as your experience grows. There are opportunities to enhance your salary by providing support on evenings, nights, and weekends.
3 Trees are currently developing a structure that enables people to have a clear career path. This includes additional training with any progression being reflected in the salary. Other benefits include pay, and access to a private health scheme.
How Many Hours do Support Workers Work?
On average, support workers work 37.5 hours per week, with most jobs being a standard 40-hour week. However, there is a lot of opportunity for part-time, night shifts, and even 24-hour support work, so it’s all about finding a position and salary that works well for you.
How Can I Become a Support Worker?
Here at 3 Trees, after you have completed the interview process and offered the job, you will be required to complete your induction training; this will give you insight into your roles and responsibilities. It is also an opportunity to meet the board of directors and your Team Manager.
Mandatory training that you must complete as part of your induction will includes:
First Aid,
Food hygiene
Medication management and Buccal training
Fire safety
Person-centred Approaches
Report writing
Manual/physical handling
Safeguarding adults
Equality, diversity, and inclusion training
Training on the Mental Capacity Act
Training on deprivation of liberty safeguards
Positive Behaviour Support
Your probationary period here at 3 Trees lasts 6 months; throughout this period, you will be offered a lot of support from your allocated Team Manager and the service directors. You will be allocated shadow shifts with those you will be supporting. After your first shadow shift your Team Manager will contact you to see how it went and assuage any concerns you may have.
This level of support will continue until you feel confident in your role as a support worker; some people take a little longer than others and that’s ok. You are expected to complete your Care Certificate within your probationary period; this is transferable to other care positions elsewhere. Post your probationary period, you may wish to develop your knowledge and skills to enhance your training.
Courses and Studies
There are some exceptional care providers that offer great training to ensure support workers are well-equipped to carry out their role effectively. 3 Trees’ invests heavily into its training programme. Working for 3 Trees will provide you with a support network no matter where your career takes you the focus is on building healthy, happy environments for both care workers and service users alike.
3 Trees works hard to curtail some of the pain points in the care industry including low wages, lack of appropriate training, poor induction and few career progression opportunities. We take each of these challenges and create a new environment where support workers can thrive, removing these barriers to change support care work from the ground up and making a more rewarding and more fulfilling career path for you.
3 Trees offer their own continuing professional development program called MASTERS. This is a framework that provides team members the chance to progress their career through multiple different avenues should they wish. For more see our Youtube video below:
Ongoing Learning & Development
As part of our mission to make social care a more appealing career choice, we offer ongoing learning and development opportunities for all support workers. Our focus is specifically on providing adult care work to those with learning disabilities. You will gain a lot of experience and knowledge. We want to encourage and support career growth and show you the many possibilities of career progression that you can aspire to in social care.
3 Trees have a passion for caregiving and want service users and staff alike to reach their full potential. We aim to provide exceptional support to all social care workers in our network throughout your career.
Experience what it feels like to be part of a tribe. A family of like-minded individuals trying to do some good in the world.
Experience what it feels like to have nurturing leaders who genuinely care about you as a person and co-workers who step in and support you when you most need it.
Experience a company where you can make new friends and develop deeper relationships with not only those you support, but those you work alongside too.
Become part of our tribe, hit the ‘Apply Now’ button below.
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