What Is the MyLife Carer Recruitment Process?
When you need to purchase home care and support for a close member of your family, it is extremely important for you to find the right care, as well as knowing that the carers can be trusted to care for your elderly relative in a friendly, respectful and dignified way. We are often asked by relatives how the MyLife Carer recruitment process works.
The MyLife Carer recruitment process is based on the following key indicators and activities.
Selecting caring, compassionate people
Firstly, we look for people who are naturally caring and compassionate. Someone with a naturally caring personality will usually understand how treat people with respect and dignity. So that we can determine whether a person understands these qualities and what they mean to someone they will care for, we ask specific scenario based questions during interview, and carefully evaluate each person’s answers.
MyLife will often recruit for skills to meet client specific needs, such as ability to speak a certain language or be able to cook specific styles of dishes. We try to also match interests, especially if the client requires a live-in carer.
Interviews
We receive a large number of applications on a daily basis, so rather than interview everybody, we will telephone applicants to take them through a pre-screening questionnaire. The pre-screening includes scenario based questions, as well as specific questions surrounding quality and security. This ensures that we spend time with applicants who are more likely to make it through our interviewing process.
Once an applicant has been invited to interview, they will attend our office for interview with the Care Manager for around an hour. The Care Manager will make the final decision on whether the person is suitable to join their team.
Security checks
Every person working in care is required by legislation law to have undergone a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. This is completed by taking the applicant details and photographic proof of identification such as a driving licence and/or passport as well as two proof of address documents. We take the last five years of address history as well as documentation for any change of name. This information is then used to apply for and process the DBS check.
Records are checked with the police central database as well as a central DBS database, followed by a check within the local police stations related to where the person has lived for the last five years.
In Scotland a similar process takes place but with a different name; Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG). Under the PVG regulation, each person wishing to deliver care will need to be a PVG member – MyLife will check their membership and a report is provided, detailing any criminal records.
Under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act, it is illegal to turn a job applicant down due to convictions and cautions, however if the employment requires a DBS then there can be exceptions. In the case of a conviction or caution showing on a check, then the application will go a DBS panel within MyLife and that panel will jointly make the final decision. Any decision to employ a person who has a conviction or caution will depend on the type of crime as well as how long ago this was.
Training and career progression
MyLife offers full training to cover all aspects of delivering a professional care service that is of exceptional quality. Our training consists of five full days in-class training where attendees will learn all aspects of care and of specific health conditions, they will also become first aid trained. The training doesn’t end there though; the employee will receive a ‘Training Passport’ with further training goals to achieve while they are working with MyLife.
Every employee has the opportunity to be supported in gaining Health and Social Care qualifications while working with MyLife. We believe it’s important to support personal and professional development, as well as offering staff the chance to progress their career should they wish to.
On the job support and reviews
MyLife has dedicated Quality Officers, their job is to maintain and improve all aspects of the quality of service. This includes ensuring that our Care Assistants are receiving the best professional support while they work and reviewing their training needs.
Caring for our carers
People who work in care are often emotional and passionate about what they do, so it is vital for us to support them in every way that we can. We treat carers with respect and dignity, as well as providing an open door policy and free counselling service.
