Care Coordinator. Reading, Berkshire. Full time, 37.5 hours a week. Starting salary from £26,000 a year depending on experience. At least two years of domiciliary care experience is essential.
Are you the person who quietly reorganises everybody else's holiday plans in the group chat, and secretly rather enjoys it? Do you own a diary and actually use it? Have you ever looked at a rota and thought, no, I could do that better?
If you have just nodded three times, please keep reading.
About us
Apex Healthcare Service supports adults across Reading, Wokingham, Bracknell and West Berkshire to carry on living safely and happily in their own homes. We provide care in people's own homes, including overnight and around the clock support. We are a small, friendly team who would much rather do a brilliant job for a sensible number of people than a rushed job for hundreds.
The rota is the beating heart of all of it. Get it right and a client sees a familiar face at the time they were promised, and a carer finishes the day when they expected to. Get it wrong and everybody has a rotten Tuesday. We are looking for the person who gets it right.
What you would actually be doing
Building and publishing the rota far enough in advance that our carers can plan a life outside work, and clients know exactly who is coming through the door.
Matching carers to clients properly. That means thinking about continuity, geography, skills, language and personality, rather than simply whoever happens to have a gap.
Planning routes that make geographical sense, so travel time is realistic and nobody is expected to teleport across Reading between two calls.
Covering sickness, annual leave and the inevitable last minute changes. Yes, this means making the phone calls nobody especially enjoys making, and doing it with charm.
Being the friendly, familiar voice on the end of the phone for the care team every day, and very often the first person to hear when something is not quite right with a client.
Keeping families in the loop when visit times change, before they have to ring and ask.
Working with the management team to get new care packages up and running, and being honest early about whether we genuinely have the capacity to take one on.
Planning ahead for August and Christmas, so those weeks stop being an annual crisis.
Keeping our systems accurate and up to date, because the rota is also our evidence of safe, well organised care.
Taking a share of the on call rota, which we would agree with you rather than spring on you.
Why this job matters more than the title suggests
It would be easy to call this scheduling. It is not. Continuity of carer is one of the strongest signs of good care at home, and it is decided by whoever builds the rota. So are realistic travel times, properly staffed double up visits, and making sure carers are only sent to people they are trained and confident to support. You will have a genuine influence on the quality of somebody's day, every single day, from a desk, with a cup of tea within reach. That is a lot of good done per biscuit.
What we are looking for
Essential. At least two years of hands on experience working in domiciliary care, in other words care delivered in people's own homes. This one really is essential rather than a wish. You cannot build a workable rota for community visits unless you have lived the reality of driving between calls, running behind through no fault of your own, and knowing what fifteen minutes actually feels like on a wet Tuesday in February.
Real organisational ability, and a healthy tolerance for being interrupted mid sentence.
Calm under pressure. When four things go wrong at once, we need somebody who takes a breath, not somebody who joins in the panic.
The knack of asking a carer to pick up an extra call in a way that makes them want to say yes.
Confident on the phone, and happy to learn rostering software. If you can survive a family group chat at Christmas, our system will not frighten you.
A positive attitude, a sense of humour, and a genuine interest in doing this properly.
Nice to have. Previous experience as a Care Coordinator or scheduler, a Level 3 qualification in health and social care, or senior carer experience. None of these are essential. We will teach you the coordinating side. What we cannot teach is two years of knowing what the job feels like from the front door, and caring whether somebody's lunch call turns up on time.
The practical bits
Full time, 37.5 hours a week, based in our Reading office with some time out in the community.
Starting salary from £26,000 a year, depending on experience.
Mileage paid for business travel.
Company pension and paid training.
Enhanced DBS check, which we arrange and pay for.
A driving licence and access to your own vehicle are needed for this role.
You will need the right to work in the UK.
How to apply
Apply through Indeed and we will be in touch. No essay required. Just tell us a little about yourself, where you have worked in domiciliary care, and why this appeals to you.
Apex Healthcare Service is an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from everybody, and if you need any adjustments during the process, please just say and we will sort it out.
Pay: From £26,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Company pension
- Paid training
Work Location: In person
