817 care employers in Hampshire could find you

Working in care in Hampshire

New Forest villages or a growing Basingstoke: which Hampshire suits your kind of care work?

Hampshire County Council covers a huge and varied patch, from Andover and Basingstoke in the north to Fareham, Eastleigh and the New Forest coast in the south, but not the cities of Southampton or Portsmouth, which run their own services. Fareham and Basingstoke are level as the largest clusters of care employers, ahead of Winchester, with Fleet, New Milton, Eastleigh, Andover and Farnborough each holding a smaller group of their own.

The towns are ageing at very different speeds. In the New Forest the 2021 Census found a median age of 51 and a slightly shrinking population, which fits with New Milton having so many care services for a small town. Basingstoke and Deane grew by about 10% over the same decade and its median age is close to the England average. Home care is the largest single part of the market across the county, and outside the main towns it nearly always means driving.

Personal assistant work is easy to look for here. The county runs a free Hampshire PA Finder that links people who want a PA with people who are, or would like to be, one, and it explains payroll, holiday and sick pay. The council also says direct payments can fund small retention rewards, such as wellbeing support or discount cards, once a PA has stayed around six months.

Hampshire Hospitals runs Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital, the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester and Andover War Memorial Hospital. Basingstoke College of Technology has a clinical practice ward for its care students and offers apprenticeships up to Level 5 for future care leaders.

86% of the inspected care employers in Hampshire are rated Good or Outstanding by the CQC, close to the 84% across the South East and in line with England as a whole (85%).