198 care employers in Dorset could find you

Working in care in Dorset

Dorchester, Weymouth or the east Dorset towns: which part of Dorset suits your care work?

Dorset Council's area wraps around Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, which run their own services, and splits into two quite different halves. In the west, Dorchester and Weymouth are almost level as the main centres for care employers, with Sherborne up in the north. In the east, Ferndown and Wimborne sit close to the BCP conurbation and have sizeable clusters of their own. Between them lie miles of farmland, market towns and coastal villages.

Age shapes the work here more than almost anywhere in the region. The ONS reports that Dorset's median age rose from 47 to 51 between the 2011 and 2021 censuses, the joint highest in the South West and eleven years above England. Home care agencies and residential homes are roughly level in number here, and nursing homes add a good share more, so there is steady work in both settings. Outside the towns, a car is close to essential for home care.

Dorset Council explains that a personal assistant is usually hired directly by the person who needs support, paid from their own money or a personal budget, and sometimes by a family member acting for them. The role can cover personal care, mobility, medication reminders, housework and companionship, often for just one or two people.

On the NHS side, Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust runs the main hospital just outside Dorchester, serving Weymouth and Portland, west and north Dorset and Purbeck, and shares its chief executive and chair with Dorset HealthCare. Coastland College, which brings together the former Weymouth College and Kingston Maurward, teaches Health and Social Care at its Weymouth campus, including a mock hospital ward and a T Level in Adult Nursing.

94% of the inspected care employers in Dorset are rated Good or Outstanding by the CQC, above the 90% across the South West and above England as a whole (85%).