care assistant

healthcare assistant

support worker

field supervisor

care coordinator

Westminster Homecare

The service users were great people. Shame the management can’t organise anything. They set you up to fail and let you take the fall. 

They ring you every day to pester you to do more shifts, and will put you on without consent but just email you a new rota/time sheet and tell you that they’re the boss and you’re the worker. 


So many horror stories here about incompetent and ignorant management. 

I got to work one day to see someone who had only had 3 days on the job, with no previous experience, running a shift on their own with multiple service users because management (though they’ve worked in the sector for years and won’t let you forget it) feel it’s above them to help the poor person. That same person was called into the office after making a mistake with medication on that shift when left alone and blamed, when management were too incompetent to realise they were alone in the first place, and too proud to lower themselves to the support workers level.

When I told a certain manager that I could not commit to the full time hours anymore as I had to provide care for my mother, his response was “if you change your contract, you begin to look unreliable, and if we decide to cut back, it’s those that go first.”

They fired one of my colleagues, who was a good friend of mine, because they found out she had been diagnosed with depression. In their contract of employment, it states that if you become of unsound mind, they can terminate your employment. This was my final straw.

It is amazing that this company without a moral compass is allowed to exist. Its senior management is utterly immoral, with no sense of decency, fairness or care. They sit smugly in their offices covering each other's backs, believing themselves to be untouchable and impenetrable. 

Whilst they proclaim their desire to listen to staff who wish to complain, the truth is far removed. They are devoid of morality and common decency, believing they can ignore valid complaints and expect that by doing so, the complainants will just go away. They are experts in manipulating the truth whilst safeguarding their favoured staff and their excessive salaries.

If the local authorities with whom they work knew how they treat some of their staff, I wonder if they would so readily be given packages of care? 

This is an organisation that believes it is invincible because, in this day and age, employment law seems to so heavily favour employers. They feel smug in the knowledge that it is difficult for their poorly paid employees to take them to employment tribunals. 

If you care about human beings and believe in fair and equal treatment in a workplace environment, then please steer clear of this organisation. Seek employment with an employer which values and cares about all its staff, not just a select few. One where its senior management set excellent leadership examples and are not corrupted by power.

My hope is they will not respond to this by their usual cut and paste defence. This may fool some but those of us who have experienced their despicable practices know much better.

Office staff come across nice & helpful when joining the company, that changes quickly. I loved the job & my services users, but the company however, I would NOT recommend any1 to work as a career or use the company if u want ur loved 1s looked after.  I witnessed & reported many times 2 office staff of missed calls, medication Not been giving, carers being rude & disrespectful 2 service users, left in soiled clothes, food not fit for the birds in garden, doors left open overnight, medication going missing...I could go on an on. The pay is Not £8.00 per hr ur working at all, office staff dont answer out of hours number...I've evan been sent 2 a service users house, that had actually passed away 2 days before. Rota always being changed an resent, key codes not Available....would never recommend 2 any1 2 work their or use in home care service either. My GP eventually signed me off sick, as my depression an anxiety was being seriously affected by the stress an pressure of this job & office staff & problems with my wages an miliage allowance...which is peanuts. I've since found out that apparently I no longer work their as I "apparently " terminated my zero hr contract...correction I said I couldn't go in2 work as I had no money in my account for petrol...i got told 2 go an loan the money off family...since then I've had no response to my emails or anything, Not evan an exit interview!!!!

If you want to work in care then don’t bother with Westminster Ipswich.
The management ‘ office do not care for the careers or the service users, they just want to look good and cover mistakes.
Zero hour contract means one week you could be overworked with not even any travel time (Making you late for other clients) then the next you could have one or two hours dotted about randomly. The average call is half hour so hourly rate is meaningless.
The Rota’s are terrible, they say that they will fit in your availability which is rubbish! They move it to suit what they need you to do and favour who they give hours to. Don’t get me wrong, if you are a favourite and a yes person then you are in for a sweet ride, but don’t expect much respect from the careers who actually care about their job and other people.
Mistakes get made and then pinned on people, this can be careers, seniors who don’t bow down to the managers constantly changing decisions. Don’t bother complaining as it doesn’t get logger and if it does it’s not the full extent.
If I could get away with marking them zero or minus stars then I would.
They tell you they are sorry for the experience of the bad reviews but they don’t improve so don’t know why they bother.

I worked here for only 2 or 3 months.  As a graduate, I was looking for a job with good experience in a health and social care role that I also enjoyed.  They  offered me a job on the same day as my interview and i accepted.  Money for induction was terrible considering it was a week of 9-4 learning.  The job itself I loved, but the company are a joke, especially management.  Unprofessional, bullying, condescending and rude.  Even the clients and their families would complain about the manager and how the company was run.  Not to mention as a walker I was given calls completely out of the way of my run and was expected to do as I was told even after complaining.  You would be made to feel scared to call in sick.  Not to mention that if you don’t stay with the company for 6 months minimum they will take your shadowing and induction hours out of your final pay, which for me was HUNDREDS.  The ONLY good thing about working for westminster was the clients and the difference you could make to their lives.  I loved my job and wish there was a way I could have continued without the disgusting management team.

Excellent 3-day training in Tunbridge Wells. Good e-learning training. Good company for new careers in the field. A good amount of work over the weekend. Not much work through the week, though. Not all clients are nice. I encountered rudeness, clutter, and homes with unacceptable levels of hygiene, which made me feel unsafe at work. The employer provided no face masks and PPE for footwear. Concerns about clients are getting discouraged. No feedback is given when safeguarding is raised. The pay is above average for this type of job on the market. Not all staff members in the office were polite. Not all careers meet the expected standards, so it can be challenging to pick up handovers or do doubles with some of them. The company expects you to drive other non-driver careers with you when you are on a double, but don't communicate that. In my case, I often found myself in situations where I had no choice but to drive my peers to every visit, as otherwise we would not have been able to complete the visits on time, since the clients were not within walking distance. 

Chelmsford branch is dieing on it feet bullied into doing calls my reason for not allways picking up extra work is because sevice users suffer becuse of badly run office.office staff are working there whill waiting for dbs to come which is wrong because there access to home address details and keysafe numbers.Chelmsford branch love a meeting for meeting sake which goes nowhere. On call is a joke can not be trustes to put calls in your name as pay is allways wrong coordinators dont no area there covering manergera very rarely go out in the field and when they do they forget to fill in care notes and mars sheets chelmsford branch.not allowed to take new sercices users as company are still in trouble with cgc lots of s/u after a year still without care plans or in some cases a folder this wrong as in an emergency yoi needs rhis information your dealing with lives.office love a gossip you can gauntee tell them something privite and in an hour or 2 eveeyone will no this .i LOVED this company when i joined was so professional.but has just gone downhill shame realy .all that iv said jas been told to management and cordinotors uet no 1 give a rat aboit it.

I LOVED the Service Users, they were the best thing about the job.  Working on a zero hours contract wasn't very good because we were given work all over the Leicester and Leicestershire, with only 5 minutes travel time between calls (even if it was 11 minutes) so everyone was always running late making the care staff and the service users very stressed.  

You never knew how many working  hours we would get per week so financial insecurity was constant.  The office staff and Coordinators were not very supportive towards the carers and care staff were generally treated as the lowest of the low.  There was no one to talk to about any of these issues within the business as everything was always brushed under the carpet.  Office staff and coordinators were not always truthful with staff so the culture there was one of low trust and suspicion.  
Office staff lacked people management skills.  The Branch was poorly led and lacked transparency.

DO NOT WORK THERE.  BECAUSE THERE ARE LOADS OF BETTER PLACES TO WORK FOR.  TRUST ME I FOUND ONE AND LOVE IT.

I've worked at this company for two years now (Two being this year). The office team have been really lovely to me especially the trainer and continue to be even though I am no longer apart of the team. The shifts were endless and forever coming in even on my days off, which meant you were never out of work, although I would pick some up on my days off! I would often work with a lot of variety care groups such as the elderly being the main one, valuable, mobile&Non moblie. I have enjoyed gaining the experience from my job aswell as from my colleagues. It has been a rocky ride with this company but I know I can relie on them to always welcoming me back with open arms. It's a great company to be apart of as I started with no experience and now have two years worth! Even it's just for part time, you'll get the hours along with great pay. 

I was trained by one of the most genuine, kind lady, who taught me to be thorough and compassionate with care. The service users and families adored her. My hours were ideal, and they planned my timetable beautifully.

In fact, my experience with this company was incredibly positive, until I called in sick prior to the start of Covid.

According to our manual, I had to give 1hr notice if off ill, as you can't go in if you're contagious.

I received abusive messages from a team leader, an aggressive phone call from management, and when I asserted myself, repeating what was written in the code of conduct and I was adhering to policy, I was dismissed.

This experience was disappointing, because the start of this role was incredibly promising. The other team leader was great at introducing me to the role, and the people out in the field were amazing to work with.

They were fair upon my leaving, I didn't return my uniform, due to Lockdown, but they ensured that I received full pay- less the DBS charge.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Care assistant 10 salaries reported	£14.12 per hour
Healthcare assistant 1 salary reported	£13.13 per hour
Support worker 2 salaries reported	£13.35 per hour
Field supervisor 5 salaries reported	£18,000 per year
Care coordinator 5 salaries reported	£18,200 per year

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