FAQs

While a Diploma in Health and Social Care at level 2 or 3 would be a positive for anyone applying to work at Hft as a support worker, it’s not essential. A willingness to work towards one is definitely welcome.

You don’t need any specific experience or qualifications to start work at Hft as a Support Worker. It's more important to us that you're caring, enthusiastic, patient and a great communicator. It's also important that you share our commitment to supporting learning disabled adults to get the most out of life.

DBS stands for Disclosure and Barring Service. DBS checks help us make safer recruitment decisions and prevent unsuitable people from working with vulnerable groups. A DBS check will show information on certain convictions, cautions, warnings or reprimands. Having a criminal record will not necessarily mean you cannot work for us. We look at each case on an individual basis.

Due to the current pandemic, interviews are being held by video link (Skype, Microsoft Teams). Your interview will take place with the hiring manager and will last around 45 minutes. This is an opportunity to further explore your suitability for the role and another chance for you to find out more about us. You will be asked a series of values based questions and we’ll ask you to undertake short literacy and numeracy assessments. You will need to show your ID documents and any relevant qualification certificates.

It depends on the role. While this will likely be possible for office-based roles, many of the people we support require round-the-clock support and, as we take a person-centred approach to support, our rotas are based around their needs. Individual vacancies should indicate what the working hours will be for particular roles. If in doubt, we provide contact information for the people best able to answer questions. Why not give them a quick call?

It depends on the job. Please take a look at the Person Specification to check. If you're still unsure, contact the person listed for enquiries on the vacancy in question.

While some of our vacancies will require applicants to hold a full UK Driving Licence, many do not. Take a look at the Person Specification for the role you’re interested in as this information will be included there.

Personal care means supporting someone with physical needs to perform tasks such as washing, toileting, cooking and feeding. Not all of our jobs include all of these tasks and, where this is a requirement of the role, training will be provided to ensure you have the skills needed to perform this element of your role effectively. If you are concerned about supporting any aspect of personal care, please check the Job Description for any given vacancy, or contact the person listed for enquiries.

While some of our services do focus on supporting people with particular learning disabilities, most support many different people with different learning disabilities, so this wouldn’t be practical.

This will vary from service to service but we do sometimes offer additional hours to cover leave or periods of sickness absence.

Hft is committed to supporting internal career progression. We run an ‘Operations Development Pathway’ programme. Staff who express an interest in the programme are provided with diverse training and development opportunities intended to support them in building the skills and knowledge needed to further their career with Hft. Typical development programmes include our ‘Support Worker to Senior Support Worker’ pathway, or our ‘Senior Support Worker to Registered Cluster Manager’ pathway. Staff who have completed their probation period with Hft are eligible to apply for inclusion on one of the programmes.

Hft employees receive at least 28 days’ leave (including bank holidays) pro rata for people who work part time. Take a look at our Staff Benefits page for more information on the benefits of working at Hft.

Hft is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to provide personal care and accommodation for persons who require personal care. At time of writing (July 22) over 90% of Hft’s registered services that have been rated under the current CQC inspection regime, have been rated as Good or better.

We have some roles and apprenticeship opportunities that you can apply for if you are under 18. Generally, these have certain restrictions in terms of hours of work and tasks. For example, in support worker roles, if you are under 18 you would only be able to work in a day service or residential care setting where lone working and personal care in particular are not part of the regular duties. If you see a job you are interested in, why not give the contact a quick call to check if this would be suitable for you?

As of 15 March 2022, the government has cancelled vaccination as a condition of deployment in health and social care. Although not required by law, we encourage our staff, people we support, family, friends, and visitors to be fully vaccinated, to help keep everyone safe.

You can contact your local Coordinator with any questions about job vacancies, staff benefits, or working at Hft:

North - Sian Gregory @ sian.gregory@hft.org.uk
Sian covers our Bradford, Cheshire & Merseyside, Flintshire, Lancashire, Leeds, Newcastle, and Sheffield & Derbyshire regions.

Central - Lauren Taylor @ lauren.taylor@hft.org.uk
Lauren covers our Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Herts & Essex, Leicestershire, London, Shropshire & Staffordshire, and Worcestershire regions.

South West - Vanessa Mitchell @ vanessa.mitchell@hft.org.uk
Vanessa covers our Bristol & Bath, Cornwall, Devon, Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, and Wiltshire regions.

South East - Tamar Couzens @ tamar.couzens@hft.org.uk Tamar covers our North and South Kent, North Oxfordshire & Vale, South Oxfordshire & Berkshire, Surrey and Sussex regions.