455 care employers in Devon could find you

Working in care in Devon

From Exeter to the Taw estuary: what does care work look like across Devon?

Devon County Council covers a huge, mostly rural patch between two national parks, Dartmoor and Exmoor, though Plymouth and Torbay run their own services separately. Care homes outnumber home care agencies by well over one and a half to one, which suits a county with so many older residents. Exeter has the biggest concentration of employers, followed by Newton Abbot and then Bideford, with Exmouth, Barnstaple and the Teign estuary towns of Teignmouth and Dawlish behind them, and Tavistock on the western edge of Dartmoor.

Age is a big part of the picture. Census 2021 figures from the ONS give Torridge, around Bideford, a median age of 51, East Devon 50 and Teignbridge 49, against 40 for England. Outside the towns, home care usually means driving some distance between scattered calls. The council's own direct payments guidance acknowledges that personal assistants can be hard to find in some parts of the county, so if you drive and live somewhere remote, your profile may be exactly what a family is looking for.

Devon County Council lets people take their personal budget as a direct payment and become an employer of a personal assistant, with responsibilities for pay, tax and pensions. Proud to Care Devon, the county's social care recruitment site, has a jobs board that includes personal assistant, live in and one to one support roles.

Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Devon's largest employer, runs the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital at Wonford and North Devon District Hospital in Barnstaple. Further south, Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust runs Torbay Hospital and community hospitals from Dawlish to Brixham. North Devon College in Barnstaple, now part of Exeter and North Devon Colleges Group, teaches Health and Social Care from Level 1 up to a foundation degree for healthcare assistant practitioners.

90% of the inspected care employers in Devon are rated Good or Outstanding by the CQC, close to the 90% across the South West and above England as a whole (85%).