Please don’t ever go work for any Barchester Healthcare care home, I was working for them for five months as a senior carer, during this time the staff had no respect for senior carers, they were very much a click and would make your life a nightmare if you didn’t fit in.
There was zero respect for senior carers and the staff were unruly and disrespectful to senior members of staff.
The nurses were no better a few of them were into a bullying culture of bullying carers and nurses! Yes nurses into leaving their job due to their treatment of them the management knew about this and completely ignored this was even happening.
The next issue was there was always a lack of staff ok duty one day there was only 3 care staff and the nurse on the unit for the shift with 28 residents who needed care only 8 of them had been done by night staff and these were all singles so most of the residents that were left were all doubles which isn’t ideal when you have 3 members of staff on duty and the nurse refused to give us any help or get anthore member of staff on duty.
So spent all morning playing catch up and me and colleague didn’t have our morning or afternoon break we only had a lunch break.
In the afternoon it got worse and there was only two members of staff and the nurse on duty which was even worse for 28 residents, we got a tiny bit of help for half an hour when it was at a quite point but the other member of staff who helped us barely done a couple of residents to
Staff you are "just a number"
Residents sadly..."just a number"
Person centred care... as a member of staff you do your best and stretch yourself so thin and still get pressure when its out of your control what time/resources you are given. Expectation from managers aren't feasible.
Witnessed various unfair treatment and dismissals.
When you take things high up its brushed under the carpet...or should I say the expensive cars they drive around. That money should go into the care of elderly. Not "status" run.
Managers point blame on the "workers" that are worked to the bone or arent given extra bodies to complete tasks that the managers are asking
(Witnessed countless times)
Residents are people and to give person centred care. A rule in which senior managers certainly do not practise.
I resigned from my post willingly. Reluctantly to leave those residents I knew so long and had been on a long downward journey with.
I "personally" experienced heartbreak there with no formal and respectful apologies or further investigation. This led me to do what was best for me, to leave after years of seeing strain and a conveyer belt of staff come and go and residents for that matter. The buildings fantastic. The top of the food chain is the issue. Take on residents which care staff are untrained and incapable of caring for with multiple needs lack of resources for. Residents given promises or high expectations on arrival which again not feasible with lack of bodies/resources. Sell th
Horrible place to work, very very poor pay for the work load, staff to resident numbers appalling. could be left in a unit alone for 12 hours a night with 20+ residents and one nurse covering three units. Residents are not being given the care they need as there just isn't enough staff. Most of the 'seniors' don't have any qualifications and those who have are still on low wage.
No extra pay for extra work loads and most of all not even a thank you.
Promises of courses and nvq's but no outcome at all.
I love the work i do, i would never work for this company again.
Other care staff i can't fault all hard workers, management on the other hand need to have more communication towards staff
cowards, nurse's having screaming fights in front of care staff, so unprofessional.
No free meals for night staff, no help with the endless amounts of paperwork and care plans to do.
The pride and joy of the home is the decor and quite frankly the cleanliness is disgusting not to mention the rats inside the building.
Carers so lovely, genuinely caring & supportive, management not so…. No regard for staff “if you don’t like it then leave”. A lot of very unhappy staff. Unorthodox practises such as interviewing for a post when it’s already been filled. No enhanced rate for overtime, breaks considered a “luxury”.
The company is only concerned with making money. Residents pay extortionate money for less than luxurious rooms. Answer the phone in a couple of rings or get into trouble for missing a “potential new resident enquiry”. Irrelevant that you might be doing a drug round or chatting with a resident.
They get their money’s worth with staff doing multiple people’s jobs.
I wouldn’t put a family member in one of their homes. That says it all.
ProsFree lunch.
ConsPay, lack of support, so genuine care for staff.
On the outside this company have it all beautiful homes. At this home if you don’t know staff that already work there you are totally isolated. If you complain about things you see that are wrong you are isolated. You are totally supported by the general manager she is approachable and very fair and making positive changes but the nurses and some of the seniors don’t listen as they know best and talk to you as if you are stupid. I did think about transferring to nights but there’s only 2 of the night staff that I think would welcome me. The team leader is very knowledgeable and will help you with anything but she’s new herself but other night staff are unapproachable and unfriendly. You have to be part of a click to enjoy your working day.
Having worked for this company for quite a while (Barchester Ludlow) I can honestly say that I would not recommend this place for anyone seeking employment, very poor management, constantly understaffed and over worked, bullying is rife, concerns are never followed through and cutting corners (against policies aswel as the residents welfare is very common) CQC really need to pay this company location a visit , the residents are so lovely and they deserve far much more than what they receive, and not only are the management cutting corners but are also falsely doctoring paperwork too , ( im a personal witness to this) on top of false claims of adequate staffing !!
I was originally here when Ottley House very first opened as a care assistant, I left to follow my passion to become a nurse, I then spent time advancing my skill and knowledge and then in 2015 I had the opportunity to join Ottley house again as a Head of unit on Memory Lane Community. I spent 18 month at Ottley and left to take up further experience. In 2018 a post came up as Deputy Manager, I was keen to come back home.
Ottley House is a fantastic place to work with a great team, it’s like coming home.
There are plenty of opportunities for training and progression
ProsTraining and progression. great team and support.
I work at Drummond Grange Care Home as a care assistant. I enjoy my job due to residents and colleagues but we are ALWAYS understaffed and have been since I started the job a long time ago, despite many members of staff reporting unhappiness with the staffing issues over a long period of time. Management do not care about being understaffed, we are just expected to do much more work for the same amount of money.
Colleagues are lovely, care practitioners and lower down nurses are good to work with.
Not much room for advancement as training is so slow and disorganised.
Stressful Environment, working an hour over in my time and not paid.
I felt so stressed working here, I was literally doing two peoples jobs and stressed to the max.
I didn’t get a proper lunch break it was always rushed.
Lots of paperwork had to be completed at certain set times meaning losing a lunch break or ending up staying over an hour of my own time.
Constantly tired and unappreciated by management.
Management had a very one sided view on everything.
Not a great place to work.
ProsGot on well with staff in my department
ConsNot getting a proper lunch break, working an hour over my time and not being paid.
Sad to say that money comes before resident safety
Staffing based on dependancy and not real life events in daily home running
Not valued for contribution and hard work
All hours put in with no thanks
Resources not available for homes that need help when in crisis
Each home should be looked at individually not as a whole
High Private paying homes should have more staff and luxuries
Huge salaries for those at the top than on the ground who do the grafting
ProsNice homes
ConsNational minium wages for carers other providers pay more.
Having worked for Barchester for 4 years, I can say the 1st year was enjoyable but once that Manager left it all went down hill very quickly.
I worked on the Memory Lane Community, it was such a lovely Community to work on, all Staff, Residents and Families were very close - this was the main reason for me not leaving earlier.
I will review the main points I think let this company down:
Management - this is both in house Management and Higher Managers (Regional etc) they make me so furious, if you are privileged enough to have them come out of their Office and visit your Community/Unit then all you get is constant bashing and criticism, they don't both focusing on the good or praising their Staff, Staff moral was always low and we never got incentives or anything extra for constantly picking up shifts. Often I'd do 9 days on the run to stop Agency usage as it wasn't fair on the Residents and I was made to feel so guilty or you'd get the silent treatment for God knows how long.
There has been several General Managers since the original one I was taken on under, he was lovely but since then they have been horrendous - worse than that actually.
I've been swore at via phone call, I've been brought in the Office over very personal matters and told to "get over it", when pregnant and bleeding at work I was told if I didn't phone around for staff cover that I couldn't go to the Emergency Maternity Triage to see what was wrong and when I phoned in sick during pregnancy due to
If I could rate - 0, I would! I worked here and am advising anyone who wishes to progress, has a smart streak or be part of a team to avoid this home at all costs. As you can clearly see the company is bothered about how the 'Show' of the home looks rather than the residents actual rooms. The manager, previous manager, previous deputy manager and Admin staff are cliquey bullies who enjoy getting paid big bucks for very little effort.
A particular staff member is always late as she has been out drinking the previous night, but the manager doesn't care, has no effort and eats every five minutes rather than helping people. The manager has no consideration for the staff that work extremely hard, figures why she won the recent competition. There are members of staff that are really hard working but the majority are like a herd who like to discuss everyone's business. There is no progression (unless you dote on colleagues like a blue fly).
Pay increased by about 10p a year. No real management and there is no fair and equal treatment. This runs through all the way to the regional directors ie: one particular lady whom I cannot name N. Starbuck - you are a shame to all care homes. None of these people should be getting away with how they run these homes for their own profit.
Barchester's regional directors got a nice 100% salary bonus ( roughly between £80- 120,000), whilst the staff who actually do all the hard work got a miniscule £60-£150.00 - Real caring place.
Wou
ProsResidents
ConsEverything. PAY/STAFF/MANAGEMENT/CONTRACT
2.0
Resident Care Associate | Kidderminster | Mar 16, 2020
No work life balance, expected to work extra hours with no agreement
Having been accepted for a job at Kidderminster branch of Barchester, my wife was expected to start after a few weeks pending 2 references, then 3, then 4, then 5, eventually started over a month late. Started under the premise of working alternate weekends as childcare for a 3 year old is required. Took 2.5 months to get a uniform and had to use own clothing until then.
Management at the care home seems inadequate, cant organise rota's more than a few weeks in advance, Wife has been scheduled on for every weekend since Feb and management have even stated they do not care about her child needing care and that they need her in work. Even though my wife puts herself out to work additional shifts to help the care home, this is not reciprocated. We have found that friends and family of the managers on site get their shifts when they want, and although all shifts are meant to have been standardized, these people still get to work alternate times to suit them. Staff are paid minimum wage, when costs for residents are high, no pay rises in sight for staff who go above and beyond, just a card to say "thanks for your additional effort", unfortunately this wont pay for child care every weekend.
Certain members of staff on site are repeatedly missing or not available to offer the support to the residents, leaving at times just one member of staff to support a whole area by themselves. Whilst these staff both disappear and go for very frequent cigarette breaks, other staff are ex
Proscertain staff really look after you
Conshave to carry the dead weight, management dont really care about your personal circumstances
One RN and three carers are allocated to cover 20-30 residents on 12 hour shifts. Breaks are rarely, if ever taken by RNs due to the workload and lack of adequate working systems, which hinder progress of the working day.. ( CQC report June 2018 agrees with this point) Unattainable expectations of nursing staff are required by the management team, who regularly threaten all registrants with being reported to the NMC. There is lack of response to reasonable requests for training in using documentation. Nurses are constantly criticised for being unable to maintain documentation despite lack of training and no computerised note keeping system. All notes are handwritten. Company policies are kept on a computer in the office suite away from the clinical floors, and is inaccessible outside office hours, hence no access to supportive information, There is a prevalent blame culture. Constructive feedback is not welcomed by current management and staff are not valued or respected. Three carers and two nurses have resigned in the last fortnight due to the behaviour and attitude of the current management. The staff of all backgrounds are on the whole welcoming, dedicated and hard-working, There are always, of course exceptions, but on the whole a very supportive crew, barring a procession of managers in the past 12 months with one exception, who did not return after taking annual leave.
On commencing your post you are presented with a high quality induction file, which gives you the
ProsFree lunch if any food is left after resident food service is completed, The interior design is pleasant and well appointed.
Beware, do not work here unless you are willing to watch neglect and abuse on a regular basis towards residents.
Worked here for 10 months and it was honestly some of the worst and longest months of my life. Poor staff, poor management and nobody really seemed to give a care for the residents we were supposed to be looking after. Well, maybe that's unfair, quite a few staff cared but were not supported or given enough staff to ever be able to provide the level of care they'd like to. So many problem with this care home I don't even know where to begin.
Some long term staff hanging on purely because they were friendly with management when in reality should have been sacked years ago. Tyrants who would just expect agency staff to know what to do although they'd never worked there before. Shouting at customers for asking to go to the toilet and then shouting and terrorising them when trying to leave the toilet because they'd forgotten they even needed. Hoisting residents by themselves despite it being made clear this was not allowed and should never be done. Senior care staff regularly telling other staff not to bother changing residents or not to bother giving them their snack as they'd be fine. Bulling other members of their team and making an already stressful environment even worse.
Late shift would start putting residents to bed as soon as they started so their evening was easy and they didn't need to be so busy in the evening and could sit down and watch the othe
Having worked here for a while I finally plucked up the courage to leave after finding out my Unit is closing down, after countless lies that this wouldn't happen.
This company has no respect for the Residents, having promised there was no rush and they wouldn't close until the last Residents had left. What a laugh that was, notices were served, staffing levels were cut down to dangerous levels to the point we refused to work if it continued as it was a danger to our Residents.
The standards in the food is awful, when we were told our Unit was closing down the standards dropped, we got meals thrown together that didn't even compliment each other and not enough to go around so we'd have to mither for more.
They had promised no redundancies until our Unit was closed, countless cleaners a rounded laundry staff were made redundant shortly after, causing a shortage so our laundry was always behind and Residents were often having to wear pajama bottoms during the way, after our complaints falling on deaf ears, families complained and ended up taking washing home themselves (and sometimes the staff did!!!!)
The Management changes constantly, we are never kept "in the loop" and most Managers that come and go have no passion, no drive to make staff happy or, in most cases, to even come out of their office to see what's happening.
Half the time when you get shrugged way if you want to speak to them, having approached Management with a complaint, we were met with "sighs" and co
ProsThe Residents and Families
ConsAwful pay, no support, constant lies and bad Management
I've been at Barchester for over 2 years and I've never felt more demoralised at a workplace. Management (when it's present) expects miracles from everybody without even so much as a thank you in return - 10 to 12 hour shifts sometimes 5 to 6 days in a row on top of being called in on your days off and pressured to work extra time because so many of the staff call in sick as they don'´t want to work where they're being treated like idiots. I feel bad for the care staff that are constantly asked to come in on weekends on top of being asked to work both day and night shifts BACK to BACK and how ungrateful the company is in return.
The training is a joke and is only there to cover their own backs if something happens - and they will blame it on you first chance they get. You are expected to put aside your private life and time for them whenever they want to while being talked to by management as if they couldn't care less if you left and you aren't needed. At a staff meeting a manager told us "Don't think youre irreplaceable, every single one of you are" and this was at a meeting with our manager to work on the already terrible work morale!!!!
There are no free meals and if you are caught eating from leftovers, youre lucky if you only get disciplined.
Some co-workers are lovely, while others not so much. But I cant blame them when working at a place like this turns people bitter and unhappy and will take it out at whatever when theyre working - stealing, backstabbing,
When i first started it was such a pleasent friendly home. Staff worked well together and thr skill mix was brilliant. After my first manager left and a new one came in the home just started to go down hill. Everything was changed including the skill mix. All nvq 3s were placed downstairs with none being upstairs meaning alot of staff were re-arranged between the two floors. This left alot of the residents confused and a few angry as theyd grown close to their key workers and gained trust in them. That manager left within a few months and we got another one which changed everything again. Things got a little better there was a couple more managers but staff were leaving and alot were un reliable so we were constantly running short staffed qith no help of the managee just the nurses. The last manager i worked with there was the main reason i left. She came in and basically upset every member of staff within a week (other than the obvious brown noses) she moved staff around again brought in new uncapaple staff, training was horrendous, holidays were messed up and shifts patterns were all changed including how the rota worked. (There was nothing wrong with it to start with). Then she had the idea of getting the home refurbished. All of the money was spent on the downstairs department, yes it looks incredible but upstairs hadnt been touched for at least 10 years! After downstairs was re decorated she had decided that residents who were private paid would be placed downstairs and
Management is woeful, sort yourselfs out before employing anyone to work on admin Chalfont!
I worked at Chalfont Lodge Nursing Home as part of an apprenticeship programme which I didn't even get signed onto the programme, I soon realised after working on admin for around 6 weeks that this clearly wasn't a proper job and it was more 'santa's little helper work.' It didn't help the fact the person I had to report to to find work each day was miserable and depressing and let alone the fact my job was always going to be at risk because of how I was treated there from the select few members of staff who were supposed to be mentoring me, the small mistakes I made I was hoping to gain tips and information from staff as I I'm 17 and working with Barchester Healthcare as an apprentice was my first real job, the way the staff treated me was uneceptable and the people I was working with on a daily basis were inept and showed no skill with being reasonable with me, originally the apprenticeship was as a care assistant and I believe before the recruitment lady changed my job position at the home THREE times I knew afterwards that I regret being part of the company and although I was sacked and put out of my misery, this was because the management and my support working with the company was absolutely terrible throughout the 2 months, I shocked to come onto this website to see there is a vacant job in administration as it is not a proper job if there are other staff already doing the job there at the moment, it says a lot about the management and the poor recruitment management
ProsSOME friendly and kind staff, residents and residents family members lovely people.
ConsWoeful management, some horrible and miserable staff, the employee is treated terribly.
Questions And Answers about Barchester Healthcare
How often do raises occur at Barchester Healthcare?
Asked Aug 24, 2017
Minimum wage. Then again, if your good friends (deputy manager, administrator, Nurse) with the general manager, they more than likely will happily sign a raise form so you can earn more than the average worker.
Answered Jan 9, 2020
Minimum wage only but advertise more
Answered Dec 15, 2019
Do you give welcome bonus to a new employee at barchester
Asked Mar 2, 2019
Yes, after 6 mths, & had to ask for it.
Answered Sep 18, 2021
I don't and i never received any , cant say much more , had no bonuses
Answered Jul 25, 2019
Do you provide work tunics and trousers for staff or are we to provide full uniform?
Thank you.
Asked Sep 23, 2018
Barchester provide the uniform for their staff.
Answered Aug 16, 2020
They provide
Answered Jul 25, 2019
What is the vacation policy like at Barchester Healthcare? How many vacation days do you get per year?
Asked Jul 10, 2018
Constant recruitment nobody wanted to stay
Answered May 19, 2019
Standard the usual 28 days per year
Answered Apr 3, 2019
Do you get enhancements for weekend shifts
Asked Jan 8, 2018
No. the rate is minimum wage unless you work a bank holiday
