Our staff

Delivering quality care requires commitment, professionalism and consideration from our staff, towards those in our care. When we recruit new staff we look for these values and, in particular, an eagerness to learn and to undertake professional training and development.

Care South offers a full induction programme for all categories of staff. For a care assistant, after approximately six months work, our staff members are offered the opportunity to undertake a professional qualification; a national vocational qualification (NVQ) in health and social care. This can be provided through Care South's in-house training and NVQ centre.

Each summer Care South holds an Annual Awards Ceremony to celebrate the achievement of qualifications. For the past three years this has been held at the RNLI Lifeboat College in Poole, attended by members of the board and senior managers. The idea is to create a party atmosphere through a themed event. Our theme in 2010 was 'You're a Star!'.

The majority of the recipients at the event will have achieved their national vocational qualification (NVQ) in health and social care at Level 2. Those in more senior roles receive their NVQ Level 3. Both of these awards are achieved through Care South's internal NVQ centre which is registered with Edexcel, the awarding body. Residential and home care managers celebrate their NVQ Level 4/Registered Managers Awards. Other staff members' achievements are also celebrated: in the past catering staff have received their NVQ in professional cookery; officestaff their NVQ in business administration, and trainers have received adult learning certificates.

The delivery of quality care is directly linked to the achievement of relevant professional qualifications. As a holder of Investors in People we place a strong emphasis on the training and development of our staff.

Training and development is extremely important in Care South. Our training department provides full induction training as well as updates from a variety of sites. The team also create and provide distance learning materials to allow the individual to learn at their own pace.

Our trainers use dedicated training suites in Poole, Crewkerne and Bath. They also provide 'in house' training sessions at any of the residential and nursing homes in subjects such as food hygiene, adult protection, manual handling and dementia awareness.

All staff are issued with a personal development folder which highlights and records their training needs and achievements.

The purpose of the staff association is to provide staff with a means of developing and putting across constructive proposals and ideas.

It enables the executive, through both formal meetings and informal discussion, to highlight matters of general concern about the workplace and the business. This helps foster mutual understanding and best practice on employment issues, to enhance the effectiveness of the company and job satisfaction of our staff.

All staff representatives are provided with full training for their roles.