Care Assistant

Advantage Healthcare; Birmingham; On-site; GBP 15,000 - 22,000; Full time

Job summary

Advantage Healthcare in Birmingham is recruiting for a compassionate care assistant to join our Complex Care team. You will support a bright 8-year-old child with a life-limiting condition at home, assisting with daily activities, PEG feeding, and safety monitoring.

You will travel with her mum in the family car each morning and return on the school minibus, providing gentle interaction and ongoing companionship while coordinating with hospital visits and care routines.

Qualifications

• Experience in suctioning.
• Complex paediatric care experience is required.
• Reliable, punctual, patient and compassionate approach.

Responsibilities

• Support daily activities for a paediatric client at home.
• Travel with the family in the morning and accompany the child to school/appointments.
• Assist with feeding via PEG tube and monitor wellbeing under supervision.

Skills

Suctioning

Communication skills

Reliability

Patience

Job description

You will be supporting a bright, affectionate 8-year-old who lives at home with their mum, dad, twin sister, and baby brother. The family home has CCTV and sensors to help keep her safe, including CCTV in her bedroom. She has a life-limiting genetic condition called Late Infantile Metachromatic Leukodystrophy, which affects her brain and nervous system. Over time, her motor skills have reduced, and she now requires full support with daily activities. She also experiences:

• Mild global developmental delay
• Severe motor impairment
• Constipation
• A sleep disorder

Every Wednesday afternoon, she attends hospital with her mum for a new drug trial, receiving IV treatment with medication shipped specially from abroad. Daily Care & Support Chest physiotherapy is an essential part of her routine, completed daily when she is well. She also uses a cough assist machine during morning and evening physio - only her parents operate this. During the day, she may require oral or nasopharyngeal suctioning if she cannot clear secretions independently. She is nil by mouth and receives all nutrition and medication through a PEG tube. This also supports her communication, and she may need extra time to express herself. She still attends school, which she loves. You will travel with her and her mum in the family car in the morning and she returns home on the school minibus. She enjoys chatting about what she sees and staying engaged during journeys.

Her Personality & Interests

She loves:

• Being read to
• Spending time with people
• Playing with her special box of toys
• Gentle interaction
• Most of all - cuddles

If she would like a cuddle, you can safely hoist her to the floor and position her comfortably between your legs. She enjoys cartoons, though screen time is limited, so please check with her parents. She adores spending time with her sister but also appreciates quiet moments. Her mum will guide you on activities and how best to keep her engaged throughout the day.

Qualities and attributes

• Reliability and punctuality
• Excellent communication skills
• Patience, kindness, and a calm nature
• The ability to respond appropriately and professionally in all situations
• A commitment to promoting dignity, respect, and choice
• Observational skills and willingness to deeply understand her needs
• A genuine desire to bring joy, reassurance, and comfort into her day
• Accurate and timely record-keeping skills, Calm
• Gentle
• Kind
• Compassionate
• Patient
• Non-judgemental

What you'll need:

• Experience in suctioning
• Complex Care experience in a Paediatric setting

Pay: £13.50 per hour

Shifts: Days and Nights - Full-time, Part-time and bank hours available

We are CCH. With 14,000 colleagues across 32 care companies, we have one purpose: to make sure no one in need of care is ever forgotten or left behind. We're not only changing lives, we're transforming the care sector. Our people-first approach puts care professionals at the centre of everything we do. Our goal is simple: to be the best place to work in care. What makes CCH a great place to work? The results speak for themselves:

• 5,243 care professionals have referred a friend to join our company.
• 135 internal promotions were earned in just 12 months
• Every Operational Director began their career as a care professional

At Advantage Healthcare, part of CCH, we live by our values of Community, Courage, and Heart, and we're looking for like-minded people to join our growing Complex Care team in Birmingham.