11 Reasons to work as an in home carer

Our Caregivers are rare and special people and we, along with our clients, truly appreciate the caring, enabling, supportive work they do.

If you’re looking for a job caring for older people, and you have that ‘something special’, please read on.

We have high expectations because we are a premium private care provider

For 21 years we have been a premium provider of private in-home care services and since 2017 we have provided Government funded in-home care through our Not-for-Profit Registered Charity Daughterly Care Community Services Ltd. Our clients along with Daughterly Care, have high expectations of our Caregivers and Live in Carers. We arrive on time, stay for the whole time booked and multi-task to be as helpful as possible to our elderly clients. We dress well and present as a family friend rather than a care worker.

We don’t just ‘care’, we care like a Daughter

Our Caregivers and Live in Carers do far more than support, enable and re-enable our clients; they are reliable, empathetic companions who really care like a loving daughter would care for her parent. Our many unsolicited testimonials and client survey results bare witness to this fact. So if you are going to work with us, you’ll need to be an exceptionally caring person who is capable, thoughtful and a good communicator with our office team, their clients and families.

We value our Caregivers and Live in Carers

We are proud that Daughterly Care is known for our Exceptional Caregivers and Live in Carers. We are proud to be the first choice for Sydney’s best private in-home care.

Did you know that on average, employers in the aged care industry lose over 25% of their care workers each year? By contrast, Daughterly Care retains over 91% of our Caregivers and Live in Carers per annum. With such a high retention rate, clearly our Caregivers and Live in Carers enjoy working with Daughterly Care and that means our clients get the benefit of long term Caregivers and Live in Carers and therefore receive consistent and reliable care which means Daughterly Care is in high demand, so work is plentiful.

Below are 11 reasons exceptional and experienced Caregivers and Live in Carers choose to join the Daughterly Care team:

1) Our culture of care starts with our Caregivers and Live in Carers. Respect. Care. Together:

Daughterly Care’s culture of care starts with you, our Caregiver or Live in Carer.

Before co-founding Daughterly Care, Verlie Hall, our Managing Director, was a Caregiver, then an Enrolled Nurse, Diversonal Therapist and finally a Registered Nurse. Verlie has worked in your shoes and because Kate and Nicole came from financial services they are in awe of what amazingly beautiful souls Carers are. From the very top of Daughterly Care, we understand how equally important Caregivers, Live in Carers, Registered Nurses, High Care Case Managers and Care Managers are. That’s why we try our best to honour our Caregivers, Live in Carers and Registered Nurses by treating you with respect, kindness and understanding:

• We work our business around you, so that you can manage your family and personal commitments;
• We always offer our Caregivers and Registered Nurses work. We don’t insist that you are available from 8am to 8pm and roster you for work without consulting you. We don’t send you a timesheet each night telling you what work you are doing the next day. That’s not a quality way of living. We understand you want to stay in control of your work-life-balance and family commitments. We also understand that you need to plan / organise your life;
• We also understand that you care best when you enjoy your clients and your role. If you decline the offer of a job, we have a ‘no retribution’ policy (if you have worked elsewhere you will know what that means);
• Most importantly – we understand that your family comes first. We have a saying – ‘you can’t care for other peoples’ families if you haven’t cared for your own family’. We call it our ‘no regrets’ policy. When Verlie’s mother was dying, Verlie took 9 months off work and took her on 7 holidays with family to Foster and then did all her palliative care at home. Wonderful memories created and definitely “no regrets”.  Life is so much easier with no regrets.

Our Caregivers and Live in Carers tell us they really appreciate the genuine respect we have for them and that’s why so many of our new team members are recommended to us by our current and retired Caregivers and Live in Carers.

We received these messages from our Caregivers and Live in Carers on Monday, 10 September 2018:

• Thank you. Happy Monday to you all in the office doing a fantastic job…
• Thank you to each and every one of you for always being a great support.
• It’s a joy to represent Daughterly Care Community Services.
• Thanks.for.the.kind.thoughts.its.not.hard.as.i.love.my.job.have.a.great.week.ladies.xxx
• I really enjoy my work and thank you all for your trust and support.
• Thank you for all your kindness and support.
• I really appreciate your support & love working with y’all xxxxxxxxx
• It’s a pleasure working for a great company.
• Love to do it & always appreciate the great support from you all @ the office.
• Happy Monday to you hard working girls in the office we thank you for everything you do for us
• Love my field of work and love the company i work for xox
• Thank You.. Gracias.. Danke schone.. I just love how DCCS looks after their staff
• I’ve had a lovely morning working and know once I finish doing my personal ironing I’ll be glad to get out of the house to enjoy a couple of more hours at work.
• Thank you DC office for providing such a supportive environment, those of us ” in the field” are so lucky to have such a wonderful support network in the office

2) Above Award Pay and no EBA (Enterprise Bargaining Agreement):

This is a really serious issue reducing the pay of Hourly Care Workers.

We employ Caregivers who really enjoy supporting, assisting, nurturing enabling and caring for elderly clients in their own home.

Our Caregivers are paid above the award rate, including mileage between successive clients. We pay fortnightly directly into your bank account. Importantly, we invest heavily in paid training for our team.

Are you employed under an EBA that traded away your full and rightful penalty rates for night, Saturday and Sunday work so that you are personally subsidising your employer’s profits and your clients’ cost of care? Many Pay by the Hour Care Workers on Sydney’s North Shore and Northern Beaches are.

Did you know that EBAs put together between 2006 and 2009 didn’t have to pass a “better off than the award test” at all and so many employers rushed and put EBAs in place during this time that are favourable to them and very costly to their employees?

Most Caregivers don’t know that all they have to do is complain to Fair Work Australia that their EBA is not better off and Fair Work Australia will overturn it. No, they don’t know that and they keep working for under-award wages pay by the hour subsidising their employer’s profits.

Did you know that the employer produces the ‘evidence’ to pass the “Better Off than the Award Test” and that it is relatively easy to get EBAs rubber stamped / approved where the employer is better off than the employees?  Think about  it – why would an employer go to the additional legal cost of putting an EBA together and then negotiate with staff (time consuming) to pay their staff more than the Award? They don’t. I asked an Employment Lawyer why employers had EBAs and he said you lock in wages that compare favourably for today but which save you money when the Award increases.

At Daughterly Care we have chosen not to employ our team under an EBA. We prefer to keep life fair and simple. We pay you more than the award and review pays annually when the award increases.

3) With Daughterly Care Community Services you can earn up to $5,500 pa more each year, without working one minute longer:

When you choose to work for Daughterly Care Community Services, instead of paying no tax on $18,200 pa, you can elect to salary package part of your living expenses so that you DON’T PAY  TAX on $36,750 pa.  Many of our Caregivers have been able to save $5,500+ pa tax every year from this benefit alone. This means they have an extra $5,500 pa every year to spend on giving-to-themselves which is well deserved because our Caregivers give so much to our clients.

4) In 2017, we started a unique career development program where we provide best-practice, evidence-based, externally-branded training to brand our Caregivers even more exceptional than they already are. Daughterly Care is the first in home care organisation to accredit our Caregivers and Live in Carers in the Montessori way of engaging and supporting Older People with dementia.

We invest in our staff via regular training:

Some aged care providers make you complete “their Cert III” which is not recognised outside their employment, i.e. it’s useless on your resume essentially locking you into their employment at low pay rates.

At Daughterly Care we are proud to invest in our team and to offer best-practice externally-branded paid aged care training that is recognised outside of Daughterly Care, great on your CV and makes you an even more valuable Daughterly Care Community Services employee. We invest in our Caregivers by providing up-to-date training on a regular basis throughout the year in the following ways: Cert III in Individual Support (Ageing, Home and Community) and Cert IV in Disability Course plus:

1. Internal face to face training

2. External face to face training

3. Internal online training

4. External online training

Many aged care providers say they provide training to their staff, but they provide very little training. We definitely do.

In the last financial year ending June 2019, we issued 630 successful assessment certificates to our Caregivers and Live in Carers.

In addition to the training sessions above, we also held 2 full days of workshops for our Live in Caregivers.

Cert III in Individual Support (Ageing, Home and Community) and Cert IV in Disability Course: 

You can apply to complete a Certificate III:

1. if you are working 30 hours or more per week; and

2. after you have completed two months employment with Daughterly Care Community Services;

3. client feedback shows you are an exceptional Caregiver…

…then you will be invited to complete this course.  It is one day per month for 13 months. We pay your wages plus the course fee and best of all, it’s great for your CV and ‘future proofs’ your career, as many employers require a minimum of a Certificate III to work for them.

Specialised training in Dementia Care:

When we started Daughterly Care 21 years ago, from the start we specialised in providing enabling support and care for elders living with a form of dementia. Today, Daughterly Care continues to employ experienced Caregivers as well as providing 3 days of specialised training on evidence-based, best-practice, externally-branded dementia care.

“The Montessori Training was a real benefit and shines a light on how to better and more effectively assist and care for clients living with a dementia diagnosis.”
Lynne, Daughterly Care Live-in Caregiver

Additionally, we have sent Caregivers to a 2-day training course just on the ‘Behaviours that Challenge for People Living with Dementia’ presented by the best trainer in Sydney. We have also sent Care Workers to a one-day training on Frontal Lobe Dementia and, we regularly send hourly and Live in Carers to various training courses offered by Alzheimer’s Australia, now Dementia Australia.

Most recently, many of our Caregivers have completed the ‘Dementia Essentials’ course:

“Dementia Essentials participants will benefit from the most up-to-date, evidence-based dementia training, delivered in a coordinated, nationally consistent way. The knowledge and skills acquired will be translated into best practice on the ground, improving care outcomes for people with dementia, their families and carers.”

Alzheimer’s Australia Acting CEO, Maree McCabe

We have over 65 Caregivers who have completed the ‘Understanding Dementia’ course run by the University of Tasmania.

So if your passion is working with people who have a form of dementia – we are the leading private in home care specialist, to be working with.

Internal Training:

Daughterly Care provides more than 18 internal training sessions every month on topics such as, but not limited to:

1. Infection control
2. Manual handling, including safe use of mechanical aids
3. Working within professional boundaries
4. Work, health and safety
5. Personal care
6. Bowel management
7. Consumer Directed Care
8. Management of Diabetes
9. Elder abuse
10. Person-centred care
11. Enabling, re-enabling and restorative care
12. Epilepsy management
13. Ethics, discrimination and social diversity
14. Falls minimisation strategies
15. Medication management
16. Safe hoist transfers
17. What to do if a client falls
18. Fire safety.

External training offered includes:

• paid evidence-based, best-practice, externally-branded training on dementia care – great for our clients, make caregiving even more satisfying and brilliant for your resume
• Dementia Essentials – Provide support to people living with dementia – Dementia Australia – 3 days
• Understanding Dementia – University of Tasmania
• Certificate III in Community Services
• Certificate IV in Disabilities
• Management of Chronic Diseases – NSW Tafe
• Various courses offered by Alzheimer’s NSW
• Parkinson’s Care – Parkinson’s Association
• Safe Food Handling
• Effective Hand Washing
• Caring for and Enabling the LGBTI Community
• Managing Behaviours that Challenge Dementia
• Palliative Care

5) Flexibility to choose your working days and hours:

Choose the days and times you want to work. Here at Daughterly Care we want our team to be happy, so you have the flexibility to select how many hours you work plus the days and times you are available to work. We know your family; your children, your grandchildren and your Elderly Parents need your support and care too. We are flexible and work around your family’s care needs – just as we know you will be flexible and work around our clients’ care needs.

Tip: 75% of in home care services requested are between 8am and 2pm. So if you can’t work mornings that is challenging.

6) We value your time:

We know one hour jobs are not worth your while financially, that’s why we rarely ask you to do them.

7) Team seminars:

Our Live In Care Team is invited to a yearly full day paid conference, which is held twice a year so no one misses out.  This allows our Live in Caregivers to update their skills, connect with other Live in Caregivers, brainstorm solutions to clients’ “changed or reactive behaviours that challenge”.

8) We want to pay you long service leave:

We celebrate paying our Caregivers long service leave when they reach 10 years continuous employment with us. We like to employ the best in home care Caregivers who plan to work in the aged care industry for the next 5+ years and if they work with us for 10 years then we know our clients and we have been very fortunate indeed.

I’m sorry, we don’t employ back packers or people on 457 visas. Our priority is to create employment for Australians.

9) We offer career progression:

We enjoy identifying Caregivers who have superior skill sets and offering them roles that pay more or are more challenging such as becoming accredited trainers of newer Caregivers, Aged Care Managers, running Café Connect and our walking club .

10) We have a car you can borrow when your car needs to be serviced so you don’t miss out on work / income.

11) We are Australian family owned. We create employment for Australians. We are not part of a foreign owned franchise sending profits offshore.

Step 3 – Download our application.

The photos of Nurses and Caregivers on our website are our actual Caregivers, not ‘marketing stock photos’. Often there is a link under their photo to their profile so you can see their experience and training. You can see they are well grounded beautiful souls who really enjoy helping older people by providing exceptional care.