In the UK the provision of care services is strictly regulated by law. Any company or organisation that charges for the provision of care services needs to be registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), needs to abide by certain rules and gets inspected and rated. The only exceptions to this requirement to register with the CQC is when an individual person provides care and charges for their services (i.e. a self-employed private carer) or those organisations that only provide an introductory service – Staffing Agencies.

If you are a carer and you change jobs from one company to another you will probably have to go through a number of checks and processes. These checks and processes might be slightly different from one company or organisation to another, but as they are typically all regulated in the same way and have to follow the same set of rules, they will largely be the same. The key things that companies have to do is to check that anybody they hire is suitable to be a carer. This means that they have to check with the Disclosure and Barring Service whether or not the candidate is barred from working with vulnerable people, and if they have a police record or not. The employer also has to be able to demonstrate that they know the complete employment history of the candidate going all the way back to when the candidate left school and be able to explain any employment gaps. They also have to take up and verify references from previous employers wherever possible.

So when you apply for a new job in the care sector, be prepared to provide a lot of information, the better prepared you are the quicker and easier the application process should be!