We always have clients who want a mature lady care assistant who is a competent home-keeper and companion.  Ideally, she can drive.

Most of our clients have quite severe problems and the successful care assistant is experienced and skilled in personal care, including continence management and the abilitiy to look after the effects of severe physical or mental disabilities.

All our care assistants must be able to make meals, clean the house, do the washing and ironing, shopping and general household management tasks to make certain that the client is safe and well over the weeks you will be staying with your client.

We like to offer all new care assistants three or four days of practical care training before they start work on their own.  You will go to live in with a client and work for that client, under the supervision of the resident experienced care assistant.  This will give you confidence and added competence.

After this training, you may stay with that client, now on your own, or you may go to another client.

It is very useful to us if you can drive, especially if you are over 25 with a clean licence, but it is not vital.  Many care assistants are perfectly successful with us and cannot drive..

Remember always to have your current driving licence with you.  if you come from overseas, bring an International Driving Licence..

Full details about how to get to Head Office and Training Centre in Saxmundham, Suffolk are on our Head Office pages.

You must be legally entitled to work in the UK.  The law is very strict on this and there are no exceptions.

Care Assistants from the Commonwealth.
All those 31 or over might be able to get a working visa if they can prove British ancestry (a parent or grandparent born in the British Isles).

Care Assistants from the EU
All care assistants who are citizens of the EU are allowed to come and work for us here in the UK.  Citizens of Romania and Bulgaria have restricted rights:  they may only do self-employed work.

Care Assistants who are citizens from other countries
In practice it can be very difficult for you to obtain a visa to work in the UK.  Even if you have a visa / work permit for another country inside the EU, this gives you no rights to work inside the UK.  If you have British Ancestry in the UK  i.e. a parent or grandparent born there then it may be possible for you to obtain an ancestral visa, but you must go to your local British Embassy first before you apply to find this out.

Your travel to and from the UK.
We do not pay your travel costs to or from the UK. However, you should be able to pay them back after a few weeks work with Christies Care.

You need a base in the UK
You should have somewhere to stay while in the UK, even if you are coming for a few weeks only.  Perhaps it will take us a few days to find you suitable work.  Perhaps you will feel sick for a few days.  Perhaps your client has to go into hospital.  You will not be able to stay at your clients house.  You will have to go 'home'.  You may be able to stay at a Youth Hostel or a similar place.  We can give you advice on this.  We also have 27 beds available at our guest houses in Saxmundham, so we may be able to offer you short-term accommodation there.

A guarantee of free accommodation
If you are eligible for and take up our guarantee of income, we also guarantee to provide you with free accommodation if you don't have any work through no fault of your own and it is not one of your holiday weeks.

How quickly do we find you work ?
After your interview and induction we will try and find you a suitable client as quickly as possible.
If you are good at your job, we will offer you as much work as your want and you should have no problem in earning money.  We pay you weekly, crediting your account within two days at the end of the week.  Remember, you are not paid when you are not working for us.

Setting up a bank account
You will be paid by cheque for your work, or directly into your Bank account.  We can help you open a bank account and tell you the documents you must bring with you to the UK for this purpose.

Yes.  We interview all of our care assistants face to face.  We will ask you to fill in an application form and send it to us before interview.  If you are from overseas, we will give you a preliminary telephone interview first.

If you come from Poland, New Zealand, Australia or Southern Africa , get in touch with our local agents who will process your application and give you help and advice.

At interview we can explore your experience, skills and motivation, to see if you will be a suitable Christies Care Assistant.  At the same time you can ask us all the questions you want so you can be confident that we are the right employer for you.

We will take up your references.  You must tell us if you have any past criminal offences.

IF YOU HAVE A BAD TRACK RECORD AS A CARE ASSISTANT, DO NOT TRY TO WORK FOR CHRISTIES CARE.

Very few of our clients smoke.  If you are a very heavy smoker you are unlikely to be successful as a care assistant.

If, however, you need a few cigarettes every day, we can probably find you clients who will be happy for you to have the occasional cigarette out of doors.

WE HAVE SOME CLIENTS WHO ARE HEAVY SMOKERS OR WHO NEED HELP SMOKING A CIGARETTE

We want you to be a success and will give you all the support you need to make sure your assignment goes well.

We  have a formal process of support and development for all new care assistants, lasting from the time they leave our training centre until the end of their twelfth week of work - normally the end of probation.

It starts with your further training, before you begin work on your own.  We set training goals for you to acheive over these days and we will share with you feedback from your supervising care assistant and your client over the further training days.

Then, while doing your first twelve weeks, we will have formal discussions with you every week, taking into account feedback from your previous and your current client.  We will make any face to face supervisory visits that are necessary.  We work with you to make the care you give a success.

We have an emergency pager system for our out of hours emergencies.  A manager is available 24 hours a day.

IF YOU NEED HELP, RING UP AND WE WILL DO OUR BEST

No, you can work as much or little as you like, although we prefer a commitment for at least six months.

If you have family you like to see - perhaps you will work for six weeks, take three weeks at home, return for six weeks, and so on.  Where else can you work regularly, and take 16 weeks holiday a year !

You have your own enterprise, which keeps you for six months a year.  Come to us for the rest.

You are spending two years on your travels and need to work for a year overall to pay for it.  So long as you know your 'holiday periods', you can work around your holiday.

We do ask though that you commit for at least 12 weeks.  We have student care assistants who come to us during the holidays, completing 12 - 15 weeks of work over a year, we have other care assistants who will be working for a few months only.

But, we know our clients prefer care assistants who can return to them regularly.  So, we generally do not accept a person who will work for less than twelve weeks.  Ideally we prefer a minimum of six months.

We have made a DVD / CD about the work our care assistants do - real care assistants and clients, real people in the office !

We are very happy to send a copy to all genuine applicants - fill in the application form and we will send it to you.  The film is available in DVD-R and CD formats.