Good carers are born, not taught, and employers should cherish and reward their special skills

Sometimes, more often than I have the right to expect, I see a carer in my employ connect with the older person she is looking after with a spark which reminds me of Michelangelo’s wonderful image in the Sistine Chapel of God reaching out to Adam.

There is a bridge between them, a generational gulf crossed, a natural understanding which the carer brings freely to the job. It is the result of a simple kindness, a goodness of heart which cannot be taught and which is not dependent on qualifications or authorisation.

It is the kind of attitude to which older people respond so well, particularly if they are in a situation where the carer’s time is one of the most significant personal contacts they have in the course of their daily lives.

And it is an attitude which is the key element my team and I look for when we are recruiting care workers – which we are continuing to do at an increasing rate as our company continues to grow.

What we try to identify is an initial, instinctive buy-in to the ethos of the company. We are, effectively, recruiting for attitude and then upskilling, rather than recruiting for qualifications and then trying to instil the right attitude.

It could be argued that this is quite the reverse of the norm in the wider care sector, which can sometimes have a tendency to overemphasise qualifications and underemphasise on character, personality and ingrained attitude to older people and good care.

Care workers, as a generality, are underappreciated, overworked, underpaid and undervalued but, despite all these disincentives, if their hearts are in the right place, the effect they have on older people’s lives can be transformational.

Instinctive kindness in a person is difficult to identify. You don’t get SVQs in common decency or Standard Grades in compassion and understanding. Only experience can guide the recruiter in sensing warm-heartedness and a gentle disposition.

Conversely, it is quite easy to identify the personal attributes which will never sit well in a caring environment – aggression, abruptness, bullishness, negativity and a tendency to be unreasonably critical of other people or former employers.

There is no doubt that my recruiters would opt for a care worker with minimal qualifications but an upbeat, positive spirit in preference to a highly qualified but emotionally unsuitable candidate.

But that is not to say that we will not take steps to improve the right carer’s career prospects. Once a person with a bright personality is taken on, we will train them, shadow them, nurture them, supervise them and bring them up to speed all kinds of additional training which can also lead to formal qualifications like SVQs level 2, 3 and 4.

And, since everyone likes to be appreciated and recognised, we choose a “Care Worker of the Month” from across the company to give people something to aspire to and to keep morale at the high levels we encourage.

Care workers with the right attitude can, as I said at the beginning of this article, communicate with, sympathise with and listen to older people in a way that lightens the weariness of their declining years.

It is a great and undervalued skill and every employer in the care sector should go out of his or her way to recognise, cherish and reward it.

Tim Cocking is director of Bright Care.