Care assistant supporting statement: cover each criterion

A care assistant or care worker supporting statement answers the person specification of the care home or home care post you apply for. This guide reads three documents: a residential care assistant specification from Barking and Dagenham, a care homes specification from Edinburgh and a home care outline from Herts at Home. One of them says previous care experience is not essential.

The three documents

Barking and Dagenham's job description and person specification is for a Care Assistant (Scale 3) who reports to the Manager Residential Care. Its person specification block carries "Date of Person Specification 8/1/2021". Edinburgh's person specification is for a Social Care Assistant in Care Homes, with page footers reading "Recruitment, 14 March 2018". Herts at Home's job outline is for a Care Worker, and its text carries no date.

None of the three gives a length. The length guide shows how to decide when your advert gives none.

What the documents ask for

Employer	The line, in the document's words	How it is marked
Barking and Dagenham	"An attitude towards others based on respect, dignity and equality"	Essential, interview
Edinburgh	"Promote resident's right to dignity and respect"	Essential
Herts at Home	"Care workers must be dependable and reliable and show respect for privacy and dignity."	Under "Our values"
Barking and Dagenham	"Ability to provide personal care and support to clients with a wide range of needs, illnesses and disabilities"	Essential, interview
Edinburgh	"Able to Carry out personal Care tasks which may include: Supporting clients with bathing, continence, nail care, oral hygiene, skin care and personal care tasks described in their individual plan of care."	Essential
Barking and Dagenham	"Caring for the elderly (informal or formal) In a person centred manner"	Essential, application form and interview
Edinburgh	"Experience in a caring role"	Desirable
Herts at Home	"Confidence and accuracy in recording information in the log books/diary sheets/communication book."	Under "Knowledge Skills and Abilities"
Barking and Dagenham	"NVQ Level 2 in Care/Promoting independence or ability to achieve this (or equivalent QCF qualification)"	Essential, application form
Edinburgh	"Ability to obtain SVQ Level 2 (Health and Social Care) within required timescale"	Essential
Edinburgh	"SVQ level 2 (Health and Social Care) or similar qualification that meets SSSC requirements"	Desirable
Herts at Home	"An accreditation in care such as the Skills for Care Certificate or an NVQ Care Certificate would be advantageous, but not essential for the role."	Under "Qualifications"

In Barking and Dagenham's key, "E" is "Essential", "AF" is "Application Form" and "I" is "Interview". Edinburgh sorts its lines into Essential and Desirable columns. Herts at Home marks none.

Residential care and home care

Barking and Dagenham's job purpose is to "Provide high quality care services to older people that will enable them to maintain their independence and confidence in all areas of daily living". Herts at Home's purpose is "enabling people to live as independently as possible in their own home, and within the wider community". Its personal care list reads "dressing/undressing, washing/bathing, support to eat and drink, continence care, assisting with medication."

The checks

Barking and Dagenham's job description says "This role will require an enhanced DBS check". Herts at Home says its role "has been identified as requiring an Enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check". The Edinburgh specification names no check.

GOV.UK describes two enhanced checks: "an enhanced check, which shows the same as a standard check plus any information held by local police that's considered relevant to the role", and "an enhanced check with barred lists, which shows the same as an enhanced check plus whether the applicant is on the list of people barred from doing the role". The two care documents say "enhanced" and neither names barred lists. GOV.UK adds that "There are different rules for getting criminal record checks in Scotland" and in Northern Ireland.

The support worker guide quotes the Care Quality Commission's page on regulation 19 and Schedule 3 of the regulations, and lists the National Careers Service routes into care work.

Values

A Skills for Care blog post of 13 September 2021, by a values-based leadership and wellbeing coach and trainer and written for employers, lists "dignity and respect, working together, commitment to quality care and support, and learning and reflection" as some of the values "relevant for social care employers". It says an employer's form could use "the section where you ask for a supporting statement" to ask for "examples from their personal or professional life where they've demonstrated the values".

Applying without paid care experience

Herts at Home says "Previous experience within care is not essential for the role, however candidates would be expected to demonstrate:"

• "Empathy and patience towards our customers, some of whom may present challenging behaviours."
• "Ability to maintain confidentiality."
• "Ability to build professional relationships with customers and their families and to understand their needs."
• "An understanding of following care plans and ensuring the health and safety of people we support, colleagues and yourself."
• "An ability to communicate well both verbally and in writing with people we support and colleagues"
• "Confidence and accuracy in recording information in the log books/diary sheets/communication book."

Barking and Dagenham's caring line says "(informal or formal)", and Edinburgh asks for "Experience of working with general public" as essential. The Skills for Care post says values-based recruitment lets employers find "people who may not have any previous experience in care".

The shape of one answer

The two criteria below come from the Barking and Dagenham and Herts at Home documents. The short lines after "Made up" are invented to show how much one line holds. Use things that really happened to you.

Criterion: "Caring for the elderly (informal or formal) In a person centred manner"

• When and where: the setting and the dates (a care home, a client's home, caring for a relative, a year). Made up: caring for a grandparent at home, mornings and weekends, 2022 to 2024.
• What you did: one task you handled yourself, in plain words. Made up: helped her wash and dress each morning in the order she preferred, and asked each day which clothes she wanted.
• What happened: what changed for the person. Made up: she kept choosing her own clothes and the morning routine took the same time each day.

Criterion: "Confidence and accuracy in recording information in the log books/diary sheets/communication book."

• When and where: the setting and the dates. Made up: evening home care visits, 2025.
• What you did: one task you handled yourself, in plain words. Made up: wrote each visit's notes in the log book before leaving, with the time, what the person ate and any change in mood.
• What happened: what followed. Made up: the next carer read the notes, saw that the person had eaten less on three evenings, and told the office.

Before you submit

• Any line marked for the application form has its own example.
• Each example says whether the care was in a care home or a person's own home.
• Qualification lines say what you hold, or what you will achieve where the line allows it.
• No example identifies a person you cared for.

You can also check your draft against the person specification to see which criteria still have no example.