he Healthcare Support Worker (HCSW) role is an entry level role and a fantastic starting point for a rewarding career doing caring work across the NHS.
As a Healthcare Support Worker you will be supervised by a healthcare professional such as a Nurse, Physiotherapist, Midwife or Radiographer. Support Workers have lots of contact with patients and their families and they help individuals remain comfortable through their NHS journey.
The following roles all fall under the umbrella of Healthcare Support Worker:
The responsibilities of the Healthcare Support Worker vary depending on the specific role and where you are employed.
The Healthcare Assistant (HCA) is one of the main support worker roles and they work in hospitals and in primary care settings such as a GP practice or a health centre.
In a hospital you may:
In a GP practice or a health centre you may:
Other support workers will carry out more specialist tasks such as:
To be a Healthcare Support Worker you will need to be:
Key core skills:
Healthcare Support Workers start on Band 2 meaning your salary will be around £20,270 and with experience could rise to £26,282.
Your standard working week will be around 37.5 hours and may include a mix of shifts, such as nights, early starts, evenings and weekends. It is likely that there will be more unsociable hours working in hospitals than in community settings like a GP practice.
Healthcare Support Workers could work in:
As Healthcare Support Work is an entry level role, people can come from a wide range of backgrounds. Those who have lots of work experience might come from other care roles such as Care Assistant in elderly residential homes or domiciliary care. However, potential new HCSWs may have experience of dealing with the public in other jobs such as retail, hospitality, education and community work.
Equally important is to demonstrate a commitment to helping others. This could come from voluntary work, providing personal care for family or friends or being someone who has a lived experience of certain health conditions and/or disability.
Progression into Healthcare Support Work
This is an entry level role and people can come into it from a very wide range of backgrounds. For staff within the NHS, there is the potential of progression for hospital porters and administrators. Indeed, in local primary care networks administrators are often seen providing initial health screening, acting as triage with relation to appointments and sometimes they are even receiving training to do some of these basic tasks. The number of administrators committing to working in the NHS, makes this a fertile pool for future recruitment of Healthcare Support Workers.
Progression of Healthcare Support Workers
This role can provide a springboard into lots of the health professions.
There are now degree apprenticeships in Nursing, Physiotherapy, Radiography and Midwifery to name a few.
There is also a Nursing Associate apprenticeship route which is at foundation degree level (Level 4 and 5). It can be a steppingstone into Registered Nursing.
Healthcare Support Workers can also progress to other roles including that of the Assistant Practitioner- they are experienced practitioners from one of the support worker specialisms. Therefore, Assistant Practitioners work across all departments within the NHS. You can become one of these if you hold the Level 3 Healthcare Support qualification.
There are lots of opportunities for sideways progression too. For example, moving from a Healthcare Assistant into a support worker specialism such as Radiography Assistant. Once working with an organisation like the NHS, the progression opportunities are vast.
There are no set entry requirements to become a Healthcare Support Worker. Employers expect good literacy and numeracy and may ask for GCSEs (or equivalent) in English and maths. They may see a healthcare qualification, such Level 2 or 3 Health and Social Care, as desirable but this is not essential.
Employers may expect you to have some experience of healthcare or care work whether this be from paid or voluntary work. For example, during the pandemic the public volunteered in huge numbers to administer vaccinations and protect and support vulnerable members of society.
If you’re applying for a role in the NHS, you’ll be asked to show how you think the NHS values apply in your everyday work.
Your training as a Healthcare Support Worker will include studying towards the Care Certificate, developed by Skills for Care, Skills for Health and Health Education England.
Find out more about the Care Certificate here.
Depending on previous qualifications you may be offered the chance to study towards the Level 2 Certificate in Healthcare Support Services and/or the Level 3 Diploma in Healthcare Support. This study could be part of an apprenticeship programme.
There is no requirement for Healthcare Support Workers to have a degree, however there is also nothing to say that graduates could not apply for these roles, and then subsequently progress into NHS professions via degree apprenticeship pathways (if required).
Level 2 Certificate in Healthcare Support Services
Level 3 Diploma in Healthcare Support
