registered manager

supported living manager

deputy manager

trainer

service manager

Heathcotes Group

Such a shame it's turned out to be a bad place to work for because the people you care for are absolutely and utterly so wonderful! Yes you might end up with cuts and bruises and yes they have bad days, but hard work and good teamwork was always so rewarding seeing them grow and enjoy life they almost slowly start to feel like family and for that I will forever be grateful that I got the chance to work for such lovely service users, I still miss them dearly!!!! 

...However with that being said, the company as a whole as well as the management is severely disappointing.Which again is such a shame considering they make thousands off these people, and I mean THOUSANDS yet give so so little to help fund both us the workers and the service users. It feels greedy. The company has been around for years so it's not an excuse that it's new and they still have lots to learn. In my experience there was constant gossip and bitterness from both the staff as well as the manager, most of the time you are working with agencies and are very rarely working as a strong experienced team-which makes challenging behaviours so much more difficult to manage.Or not having a good team will often lead to behaviours. Which will make everyone in the house feel distressed. Most of the time you are left on your own doing everyone else's jobs as well as your own. And the pay as well is absolutely unforgivable! Team meetings are held often but you can see the new staff slowly inputting less and less as time goes by because you quickly realise that no one's input is ever used to better the place. And even on occasions where it is, it rarely lasts because again there is no stable team to keep up a routine for the guys which just makes everything a big mess- it doesn't ever feel stable no matter how long you have worked there. Where I worked they were very good at keeping in contact with the service users family's, regular phone calls and visits. Again, if there wasn't so many agencies maybe there would be more of that. There is a lot of potential in this company, but sadly in my experience you can't work with potential youl just get the life and soul drained out of you. 

I been working here since the service opened and still here, I have come to terms with if you can’t stand your own ground against management then you will certainly get walked over no matter how much you go out of the way for them, at the end of the day YOU ARE REPLACEABLE. 
So basically it’s not for the faint hearted. The service users are spot on can’t complain about them but some staff will lie to get an investigation going to cause you stress and trust me when I say this YOU WILL NOT GET ANY SUPPORT FROM MANAGEMENT what so ever so don’t expect it. 
Policy and procedures are meant to be ‘equal’ for everyone employed but here rules are differed from person to person so expect that too.
I enjoy doing what I do in supporting and getting on with my day, sometimes there are situations that you have to deal with, for some will definitely be challenging and dangerous so brace yourself because the training that you have to do is pointless in a real life situation.
I have travelled from service to service and it’s been quite an experience in terms with supporting the service users. 
Some staff will have vendettas against you for no reason and make things awkward and difficult whilst your on shift so like I said brace yourself and stand your ground it’s that simple coz at points even management don’t know what time of day it is.......
Another thing to add you get asked if your a team player and all that raadi daa but no matter how much you team play it’s not enough and you will get things thrown at you that you are not here to make friends but when they start making enemies it’s a different story. 

So if you are thinking of applying keep these in mind and that YOU ARE REPLACEABLE the company just want the day done and that’s it tomorrow I s a new day and the cycle starts again... 

Staff are horrible and manipulative. They belittle you and make you look like you don’t know what you are doing, and think they are better than you just because they are the originals and have been there for 2 years. If you’re not one of the original staff members, you’ve got no chance. Majority of staff are very lazy, with service users and just general housekeeping. Sit on their phones an awful lot, do not have service users best interests. There is no communication, get told one thing by one person and different by someone else. A lot of staff members are unhappy working there. Staff are very two-faced, and I’ve never been to a place that is so unbelievably backstabbing. Some of the service users get neglected and are not thought of as much as other service users. They do not get treated the same, very unfair. Certain staff get to pick and choose who they work with, as they are very much in a click with the ATL and team leader. There is no teamwork amongst majority of the staff, and it seems such hard work to get someone to help you when you’re struggling with something. The team leader and ATL will moan and go behind your back to other staff members, but won’t say anything to your face. This place makes you feel paranoid, and to not want you to go to work. It’s an awful place to work. In all the different care places I have been this is by far the worst. I would not get a job here at all. You will see the company’s true colours very quickly after you’ve started. Your mental health will go down quickly after working here. You don’t get paid for doing training, but if you happen to miss training whether that be practical or theory you get fined £50. 

What can I say about heathcotes other then the management of the homes are unprofessional and pick favourites, the staff are a bunch of adult with the mentality of children at school, always talking about eachother, always bullying and always accusing eachother of things, you can't trust anyone, not even the managers who are part of in-home-clicks! If your not in-the-click you may as well consider yourself the weird kid in the school yard with no friends. And the weird kid is usually the best staff member there which is ironic, because all the CLICK cares about is the pay check at the end of the month, their appearance and sitting around doing nothing but talk about inappropriate subjects, and if there is work to do, which there always is 24 hours a day! They moan and complain and neglect the service users. Smoke breaks are priority one at heathcotes and smoke breaks for the popular staff sometimes go on for up to an hour. Managers do nothing but get in with the cool kids. They have no respect for mental health which I believe is the most ironic thing of all, heathcotes have a huge staff turn over and here are the reasons:-
- favouritism 
- young staff/managers 
- long hours - zero help
- challenging service users who are neglected 
- hard work - no breaks 
- stress from staff
- no compassion or empathy 
AVOID PLEASE. 

I worked at Heathcotes for just over 6 years and for the most part it was ok at first and then gradually began going downhill this continued and was caused by a variety of factors. It has a high staff turnover so you may be working with new faces on a near weekly basis this means the challenging behaviour becomes even more challenging from residents that you support. Complaints and queries were very much swept under a rug and hardly dealt with or very under exaggerated to make the home appear to be well run and no problems arising. These coupled with the fact that anyone who works above home management level i.e. regional management and above, care so little about what staff are facing and going through they would rather replace them than help them makes this a very harsh environment to work in. In short if you can face being under valued, over worked, expected to live to work, face verbal abuse from supervisors and above, have any concerns and complaints ignored meaning your workplace is potentially dangerous and then be expected to be paid less than what other homes are paying then this would tick them boxes. My time in heathcotes came to an end abruptly when I raised concerns about staff being assaulted ona near daily basis and my concerns were ignored they do not do a good job at ensuring staff have a good welfare and are happy within their job.

So, where do I start? 

I was at Heathcotes for almost two years and I can honestly say, they are by far the worst company that I have ever worked for.

The service users are amazing, and most of the staff are quality, it's the management and head office side of things that let it down majorly.

Head office simply only care about filling their pockets and massaging their own egos. They are just a bunch of friends that sit in an office in Chesterfield and doss around all day acting like they are professional workers.

As far as Management goes, Heathcotes will bring in anybody to manage their homes, as long as their face fits. It's not about your experience, or your qualifications, if your face fits, you're in.

Head office have a tendency to only care about staff and service users' welfare when something goes drastically wrong, and even then, they just try and coerce the staff into covering things up so that word doesn't get out and it gives the company a bad name.

The finance department at Head Office also have a tendency to underpay staff, or even not pay them at all. And if you do complain about anything, or even report any issues to CQC, management will easily fabricate a reason to dismiss you. 

They also pop to the local cafe to hold their disciplinary meetings, which is a huge breach of confidentiality.

I have much more to say, but I'll write that in a later review.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Nothing was good pay was not good, staff never worked together Managers couldn’t care about their he staff. Who you supported were difficult to look after, you wasn’t supported, owners where always abroad, and could not give two monkeys, as long as staff always picked up the pieces. Not a good company.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The company itself you are undervalued as a support worker, they just want the job done, those that you support are neglected the company needs CQC need to look into the company as they cover up lots of issues, and they book overtime, when they should be working they go home.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Greedy from the top out.for what ever they can get at the expense of those they care for, the lack of real care meant that those that where looked after got locked away by the same system that said they cared, if I had my way they should be shut down.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
It had its good points, but on the whole I was scared as to what I was walking into. It was the managers don’t care attitude, they was just in it for what they could get, and this was the CEO of the company, those we cared for was just pounds shillings and pence.

working for Heathcotes was one of the most stressful unorganised and unprofessional companies I have ever had to deal with.
 The hours changed weekly, I was never given a contract (I was suppose to) you were spoken to like rubbish, treated like rubbish and , some of the staff are extremely unprofessional INCLUDING MANAGEMENT. 
Service users was lied to daily, treating like they were children. one senior member of staff told me that I needed to SWEAR at a service user because they liked it, after speaking with the service user they denied this.. 
staff turn over is crazy, managers dont care.
I could go on and on...

you HAD to pay £20.00 a month to eat food or drink however yes you got food or drink the first few weeks however then you were told that the service users needed more money so your money was paying for their food and you had to buy more. if you refused they would take anyway or make your life a nightmare until you leave (Happened to a friend) 

TRUST ME , SAVE YOURSELF THE HASSLE!!

The job its self, its very rewarding,The service users were fantastic and it was a pleasure to work with them.
as for the company, I would suggest finding a more reliable and professional company than Heathcotes as the job is actually amazing.

The company is corrupt and purely a money making organisation with no real interest in the individuals they provide a "service" for nor the staff they employ.
Management overall is terrible, however the manager at the specific home i worked a was brilliant and fully invested in her staff and service users.
The company as a whole denied responsibilty where they were at fault and did what they could to avoid paying out monies owed, e.g. for damaged caused to staff property by service users both on and off the site.
The wages scheme used to offer long standing staff a possitive incentive for staying on with the company increasing staffs hourly rate ased on their years of service. They also used to offer increased levels of pay for mor qualified employees but have since removed these features and pay a flat rate accross the board at £7.50 for all support workers regardless of experience and years of service.
Team Leaders receive a pittance more than standard support workers for a much greater responsibility. Theyreceived no pay increase this last year.

I have worked for l Heathcote’s for around 3 months and I absolutely love my job. This is by far the best company I have worked for and in my experience the most supporting. Our management is the best, very approachable and supporting with any issues we have, work or our personal life. The service users we support are brilliant, no two days are the same. We support our individual to access the community or complete activities, we also offer our service user support around cooking, cleaning, living day to day life and personal care if needed. Meeting our service users need are very important to our job role and understanding person centred care. When I joined heathcotes, I was a support worker, after 3 weeks a team leader vacancy become available which I applied for and was successful, I am now working towards my level 3 Heath and social care. I support my staff just like my manger does me. The training that is offered for both support workers and team leaders is incredible the detail to each subject is key to our job role; the training is very well organised and the training staff are very approachable and understanding. 

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Registered manager 14 salaries reported	£29,321 per year
Supported living manager 5 salaries reported	£31,900 per year
Deputy manager 7 salaries reported	£22,714 per year
Trainer 6 salaries reported	£24,458 per year
Service manager 5 salaries reported	£29,700 per year

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