Beverley's Day: Beverley has been a co-ordinator for three years
I started out as a carer in a hospital when I was 19 and then went on to do domiciliary care. I started work for Careforce in 2002. I was promoted to Senior Carer quite quickly as I already had a lot of experience. When the co-ordinator job came up I decided to go for it as I had helped out from time to time and enjoyed the buzz of the office.
I’ve been doing it for three years now and although it can be stressful I really like the work. I have also kept a few care clients and still cover for carers if we are ever short-staffed. I think it helps to do this so when I’m asking my carers to do something I understand what I’m asking and the difficulties they sometimes face.
As a co-ordinator I’m responsible for a specific area and have to manage around 650 care hours each week, mostly for social services but about we have a percentage of private clients too. In my area we look after about 100 service users on average.
Part of my job is to meet with Social Services on a regular basis as there’s usually a waiting list of people who have been in hospital and are being cared for by the Local Authority while they wait to go home. Once we have the capacity to take them on they are allowed home, this is obviously a very important part of the job and we have to manage our care teams well to optimise the amount of care we can provide.
My typical day is a 9am start when I check the phones for messages in case there are any problems or anyone has called in sick – this can be the hardest part as you then have to get their calls covered – service users cannot be left without a visit under any circumstances. Occasionally there will be a call from a service users needing something to be changed and, again, this has to be scheduled in and the carer informed. Every carer has their own weekly timetable which is managed through a computer software system called Staff Plan that each office accesses through the internet. Adjustments are made daily and the schedule is generated every two weeks. Part of the job is to adjust calls to cover holiday periods or training, or to make changes to existing client schedules and factor in any new service users.
I usually finish work at 4.30pm unless it’s my turn to be on-call. Every branch manages their on-call cover differently. We have three co-ordinators who take it in turn and we are on-call between 4pm and 9am the next morning. We don’t sit in the office waiting for emergency calls, we take home the necessary paperwork so if a client rings because their carer is running late we can chase them up and let the client know. Usually it’s just a matter of them being delayed and we can reassure the service user that they are on their way. Very occasionally it may be more serious – of they found one of their clients ill or injured they wouldn’t leave them until help arrived – and I have to find a replacement carer to cover the rest of the evening calls. Our last calls are at 9.45pm so I don’t usually have problems to sort late into the evening. We are on-call every third weekend and one evening each week.
All our carers undergo regular assessments by their Team Leaders, as a Senior Carer myself I occasionally cover these and I enjoy the variety this gives me in my work – in any week I might be a carer, an assessor and a co-ordinator! To be a good co-ordinator I think you need good retention skills – it really helps me to have a lot of information in my head – this comes over time. I also think it really helps to have been a carer so you understand the stresses of the job. It’s helpful to be computer-savvy and not phased by spreadsheets and on top of everything – don’t panic!