Why Canford?

We recognise that our staff work hard and do an excellent job, so we like to offer you a special birthday treat. In addition to your paid holiday allocation, you can also take a day’s paid leave on your birthday. Whether you use your Birthday Break to have a rest, spoil yourself with a massage, see a show or celebrate with family and friends, the choice is entirely yours.

This scheme offers access to hundreds of high-street discounts from a wide variety of retailers and services. These include fashion, DIY, electronics and technology, travel, hotels, cafés and restaurants, entertainment, health, beauty and many others.

We pay above the National Minimum Wage and review salaries at least once a year. In fact, we regularly benchmark ourselves against other similar employers in each of our support offices’/homes’ local areas to ensure that we remain competitive. We also provide clear and easy-to-understand electronic payslips via our online employee self-service account.

We provide a free, confidential 24/7 external service that offers expert advice and information, practical assistance, specialist counselling and emotional support. This helps you prepare for, and cope successfully with, major life events, such as serious illness, bereavement or any other circumstances that are causing you stress.

We offer a financial reward to staff who refer a friend or family member and they take up an offer of employment with us.

We pay increased overtime rates if staff work over and above their contracted hours.

We have a number of policies that help with family commitments including maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave, as well as offering paid compassionate leave for employees dealing with the critical illness or death of a close relative. We may also offer discretionary enhanced long-term sick pay for staff.

We have a variety of shifts available in our homes on a full- or part-time basis. Our vacancies make it very clear what is available before you apply, so you can check beforehand whether the role would fully fit in with your lifestyle and other commitments. Eligible employees can request a change in their working pattern once they have 26 weeks of continuous service.

Unless otherwise stated in your employment contract, you are entitled to 5.6 weeks’ annual holiday per year, or the pro-rata equivalent if you work part time.

We look after your loved ones, should the worst happen, via a lump-sum benefit payable if you pass away while employed by us. This is generally based on your annual basic salary for the previous year. You can nominate one or more beneficiaries.

We believe that recognising long service and loyalty is key to the success of our business. When you achieve anniversary milestones, such as, 3, 5, 10, 15 and 20 years, you’ll receive thank you letters and long-service pins. Really long servers, of 25 years and more, receive additional rewards. These long-service awards are a way for us to say ‘thank you’ and gift our long-serving colleagues for their hard work, loyalty and dedication.

Working with vulnerable adults requires you to undergo a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check before you start your employment with us. We will apply and pay for these checks.

We automatically enrol you, if eligible, into the scheme three months after your start date, if you haven’t already joined. Your contribution is deducted from your wages each month. The company also pays a fixed percentage contribution

If your role specifically requires you to be a member of a professional register, such as the Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC) which is essential for practising nurses, we will (with prior agreement) pay your subscription fees.

All year round we provide free drinks and refreshments at our homes and support offices. We also organise seasonal events, such as Christmas parties or summer BBQs and, because staff work incredibly hard, we provide them with gifts at Christmas and other times of the year to recognise this.

We value our staff, not just because they’re fantastic and provide first-rate care, but also because they help us to achieve our goals as a company. We listen to what they say – we survey them at least annually – and learn from their wisdom. Our door is always open for any fabulous ideas they may have.

Because we are committed to helping you to feel confident in all aspects of your role so that you can provide excellent care and progress in your career, we provide access to continuous professional development, via on-the-job training and supervision as well as support while you work towards industry-recognised care qualifications. Some of our care assistants have moved up into assistant practitioner roles and or nursing, for example.

Our uniforms are colour coded, depending on the role and we provide a free set of uniform tunics for nurses, carers and trainers, as well as housekeeping, activities and facilities staff.