576 care employers in Hertfordshire could find you

Working in care in Hertfordshire

Watford, Stevenage or a village in between: caring in Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire has no single big city pulling everything towards it. Instead it is a string of busy towns, several of them post war new towns, with countryside in the gaps. Watford has the most care employers, with Stevenage, Hemel Hempstead and St Albans close behind, then Hatfield, Welwyn Garden City, Hitchin and Potters Bar. More than half the employers are home care agencies, so a typical week for many carers here is a run of visits around one or two of those towns.

The county council has been open about what makes care recruitment hard here. Its adult social care workforce strategy points to pockets of rural Hertfordshire that are hard to staff, a reliance on carers who own a car, high housing costs and the pull of better paid jobs over the border in London. For you, that means a carer who drives and lives near a quieter patch is genuinely useful, so put both on your profile.

Hertfordshire County Council lets people use direct payments to employ a personal assistant, and says this gives them the most control over their help. A free county support service advises people on setting up direct payments, employing a PA and being a good employer, so one to one PA work is a real option alongside agencies and homes.

If you are weighing up NHS work, West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust runs Watford General, St Albans City and Hemel Hempstead hospitals, and East and North Hertfordshire Teaching NHS Trust runs the Lister Hospital in Stevenage and the New QEII in Welwyn Garden City. Oaklands College teaches Health and Social Care at its Welwyn Garden City campus, including an evening Level 2 certificate, and Hertford Regional College has care courses for adult learners.

83% of the inspected care employers in Hertfordshire are rated Good or Outstanding by the CQC, close to the 82% across the East and in line with England as a whole (85%).