Female Personal Care Assistant

Vacancy Title: Female Personal Care Assistant
Reference Number: DP7346a
Location: Worthing
Hours per week: Current PA carer hours/days/times are agreed & negotiated on the start of contract and can be anything from 6 hrs a week up to 12 hours per week term time & 20hrs a week, holiday weeks depending on need.
Hourly pay rate: £11.44 per hour
Details
I am looking for care for a: woman
The candidate should be: a woman*
Driving licence required: no
Access to own vehicle required: no
Overnight care required: no
Job Description
Summary
I am the mother of a very loving and affectionate daughter of 21 years, who was diagnosed with Down’s Syndrome at birth. She has learning and speech and language delays/difficulty and currently travels from home in Worthing to Chichester College 4 days a week during term weeks and has a day centre placement 3 days a week in Worthing during holiday times.
I need support & respite in and around those times and I need someone who can be quite flexible with hours and a car is preferable to take her to activities and clubs weekends, evening, holidays.
Specifically, I need two to three shifts of 3-4 hours a week in term time, (12hrs week) to be negotiated and 8 hrs for occasional full days to cover INSET days throughout the year.
Holidays I need 8-16 hrs cover on a Monday or Friday each week, possible evenings, weekends too so could be additional 4 hours.
It would be wonderful to find someone who can commit long term to this role, and would be great for someone who needs regular hours each week.
She is physically enabled and enjoys a variety of activities such as football every fortnight on Sundays, tennis, swimming, riding her bike, ten pin bowling. As a single mother, having a PA/ Carer gives me the additional peace of mind that I have someone to call on if I am ever ill, in need of extra help or I need to go away or out in the evenings.
This rewarding role requires flexibility and commitment to give my daughter the stability that she needs. She is very socially outgoing and affectionate but needs to be continually supervised, given firm boundaries and guidance to keep her safe in the community and at home. She cannot travel independently and needs assistance, support to travel and participate in the community.
She enjoys practically everything including; Books, drawing, arts/crafts, cooking, baking cakes and cake decorating, jigsaws, computer games, singing and dancing and loves to be physically active enjoying trips to the park, beach and indoor play areas. She also enjoys Kayaking, bowling abseiling and walking in the woods.
She is a lot of fun to be with, very creative and is always open to trying new things if given the opportunity. We need a person who has experience working with adults with learning difficulties, who is compassionate, patient and can take the initiative by drawing up a plan of action for activities each session. The idea of this role is to provide much needed respite for me and a variety of fun and learning/educational and physical activities for my daughter that encourage her to grow and encouraged to find inclusion within the wider community that she finds enjoyable and engaging, meeting and making friends.
Candidate qualities:
Respectful of the employer's privacy and confidentiality
Reliable with good timekeeping
Able to both follow instructions and work on own initiative
Hygienic, tidy and well organised
Fit and healthy to undertake the required duties
Patient and possess excellent interpersonal skills
Honest and cheerful
Able to speak and read English to a reasonable standard
Able to always work to high standards of health & safety
Other Personal Qualities:
Experience with working with people with special needs and challenging behavior is essential and you would need to be able to learn and adapt to my daughter’s individual needs
Knowledge of Makaton/Signalong is useful but not essential
Have confidence to deal with any challenging behavior in a calm, consistent and compassionate way using strategies.
Patient and tolerant, self-controlled and calm when under pressure.
Employee Duties:
Medication prompting/administering
Other relevant duties as required
Housekeeping
Cooking
Transportation
Companionship
Dressing / undressing
Bathroom assistance
Additional duties:
Making sure her smartphone & gadgets are charged and useable.
She also has a bus pass for travel and you will need to ensure tickets are booked for any venues/activities and backpack packed with lunch and snacks.
Main priority is to keep my daughter occupied with the emphasis on enjoyment and doing fun things together.
Support with developing independence.
Constant supervision indoors and outdoors
Protecting my daughter from danger and keeping her safe for example; keeping her away from roads, dogs and strangers etc.
Intervening and supervising when with others and managing inappropriate behavior
Teaching or correcting unacceptable behaviour in a loving, form but calm and consistent way
Giving guidance and instruction when necessary with social skills and boundaries e.g. sharing and turn taking.
Being mindful of improving my daughter’s overall development by taking the initiative in organizing & booking activities that motivate, encourage, stimulate and engage her in a wide variety of activities e.g. reading, writing, arithmetic, colour, threading, jigsaws, painting, drawing arts and crafts, cutting out shapes, outdoor sports and physical activity etc
Additional requirements
Non-smoker preferred or someone willing to refrain from smoking during working hours
All applicants must have the right to work in the UK and be willing to undertake an Enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service check if required.
Please note, if you are successful in your application for this position you will be employed directly by the individual employer and not Independent Lives. Successful applicants will be entitled to Holiday pay and will be issued employment contracts.
*Exemption for gender is claimed under the Equality Act 2010 Part 1 Schedule 9