Support Workers: their roles
and tasks –
a brief scoping study
Jill Manthorpe, Stephen Martineau,
Martin Stevens, Shereen Hussein,
Jo Moriarty; & John Peardon (user
advisory group)
Method
• Search of UK literature on support working in adult social
care in UK published since 2003.
• Search of eight bibliographic databases and five
websites established 36 relevant UK research studies retrieved and themes identified.
• People with experiences of using services participated in
the research in two ways: discussion at a carers’ and
users’ advisory group attached to SCWRU, and a
member of the group (JP) volunteered to assist the
research team in debating the subject further.
• The literature search was conducted November –
December 2007. The review was written up May – June
2008 and further literature added in October 2008.
support worker
The term is elastic, it includes people
employed or self-employed to foster
independence and provide assistance for
people using services in areas of ordinary
life such as personal care, communication,
employment and social participation. They
may take on secondary tasks in respect of
advocacy and learning.
Wanted: support worker
• Salary: £8.00 - £11.50 per hour
• Job Description This position is based in a
flagship development for the local
authority, it is a multi discipline unit that
houses many day services as well as two
floors of residential service users. You will
be working with older adults and older
adults with dementia
•
Source Reed 14 Nov 2008
Three defining characteristics in the
literature (limited in number of studies and
people)
• fostering independence among people
being ‘supported’ (theoretically or
aspirationally);
• lack of professional accreditation; and,
• engagement in both social care and
healthcare tasks (sometimes wider).
Wanted: Support worker: learning
disabilities
• Required for work in a learning disability supported housing
establishment in the Cambridge area.
• Duties of this role will be including providing support to adults with
learning and physical disabilities in supported living projects in
Cambridge, Ely & Huntingdon. You will also be required to maintain
client’s independence, providing personal care, and supporting with
day to day activities and life skills.
• We have a variety of shifts available to suit your requirements and
working hours may vary from 8 hours to 40 hours per week.
• We also offer ongoing training opportunities, excellent rates of
weekly and holiday pay, reimbursed CRB and free* uniform.
• £6.49 - £13.27 per hour
Source Guardian website 12 Nov 2008
+ support worker
What is in front of the words ‘support worker’
is always important
Some examples:
-community, leisure, detention centre,
housing, leisure, and floating
Inverse relationship between studied
populations and their numbers (eg
intermediate care support workers)
Wanted: Domestic Abuse Support Worker
• minimum 6 months experience - We are looking for someone with
considerable experience in providing services to victims of domestic
abuse, you will be working with vulnerable children and adults,
supporting them with emotional issues and guiding them etc. You
may be working alongside multi agencies eg, doctors,social
workers,care workers.
In return Pulse Social Care offer Excellent pay rates, Holiday Pay, A
contract of employment call Pulse Privelage where you can claim
tax relief on mileage,,claim for food etc
A suitable candidate will have experience in this field, will be a car
driver and can provide satisfactory 2 years work reference and 5
years work history without any gaps in employment. £10-12 per
hour.
• Source Reed 14 Nov 2008
Many of them are floating
Support workers and
personalisation
• Personal assistant more common term in
direct payment circles
• Potential for ‘support worker’ to be used
more - to convey differences from ‘care’
• May further obscure role boundaries,
accountabilities, skills, contractual
relationships
Wanted: Senior support worker
(temporary)
• A long term temporary position has
become available in the Exeter area. The
successful candidate will have previous
experience in a similar role. They will hold
or be working towards an NVQ level 3 in
Social care. If you are interested in the
position please don’t hesitate to apply.
• £7-8 per hour
•
Source Reed 14 Nov 2008
Research questions
• Studies were predominantly small-scale qualitative
projects (interview, questionnaire and/or focus groups).
Subject numbers ranged from as few as eight to 59,
apart from Skills for Care study of direct payments users
and personal assistants (2008)
• There are no longitudinal studies examining support
workers’ working patterns, roles and tasks.
• There is a lack of evidence about specific terms and
conditions among workers, and the profile of the
workforce.
• How might relationships/work be affected if the support
worker role were to become more formalised and subject
to checks, inspection and registration?