273 care employers in West Northamptonshire could find you

Working in care in West Northamptonshire

Northampton or the villages: where will your care work take you?

West Northamptonshire only came into being in 2021, when Northampton was joined with the old Daventry and South Northamptonshire districts. The result is a big, mixed patch: the county town itself, the smaller towns of Daventry, Brackley and Towcester, and a wide spread of farming villages in between. Care employers are not spread evenly across it. The great majority are based in Northampton, Daventry comes a distant second, and home care agencies make up well over half of the total, so much of the work is visiting people in their own homes.

It is a growing place. The population rose by about 13.5% between the 2011 and 2021 censuses, one of the fastest increases in the East Midlands, and the number of people aged 50 to 64 grew by more than a sixth. The median age is 39, slightly younger than England as a whole, but that large group moving towards retirement is the next generation of people who will need support. Outside Northampton, visits between villages usually mean driving, so be clear on your profile about whether you have a car.

Personal assistant work is unusually easy to find here. West Northamptonshire Council advertises PA vacancies on behalf of people who receive direct payments, sorted by area such as Northampton and Daventry, and some of them ask for a full driving licence and a car. You are employed by the person you support, not by the council, and the council's Personal Budget Support Service helps those employers with interviews, DBS checks and payroll.

If NHS work appeals, Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust runs the main hospital near the town centre and outpatient and day surgery services at Danetre Hospital in Daventry. For qualifications, Northampton College runs Health and Social Care courses from Level 1 to Level 3, plus a T Level in Health with an adult nursing route, at its Booth Lane campus.

69% of the inspected care employers in West Northamptonshire are rated Good or Outstanding by the CQC, below the 82% across the East Midlands and below England as a whole (85%).