Careers with Surrey County Council
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Surrey County Council Early Careers: Housekeeper

What is a Housekeeper?

When someone is in day care or residential care, they need clean laundry and a clean environment. In this career role, you’ll make sure everything is shipshape so that residents can feel like cared-for individuals.

Tell me more…

You’ll support with domestic and cleaning tasks, either in a residential care home or in a person’s own home. You’ll maintain clothing, bed linen and other linen items as directed to a high standard of repair and cleanliness to ensure that items remain personal to individuals with the quality they would expect. It helps if you’ve used a sewing machine before or are a dab hand with a needle!

What will this role involve?

You’ll maintain levels of stock by regular checks and reporting to ensure that adequate supplies of material are available.

You will be responsible for a range of cleaning and domestic tasks within the service by following the agreed procedures to ensure hygienic standards are maintained.

You will perform a range of kitchen/dining room duties if required.

You will care for, and repair as appropriate, all linen and clothing in use in the service, by washing, ironing and sewing, as necessary, to ensure that agreed standards are met.

You will ensure that all individuals have a supply of their own clean clothing by allocating clothing and linen to ensure that individuals’ clothing remains personal to them.

You will also maintain equipment and laundry areas through regular checks and by taking appropriate action to ensure continuous high standards.

What skills do you need?

The most important thing you need is an ability and willingness to respect the confidential nature of the service you work in, and to have a passion for making sure people are treated with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.

You will also need:

• Basic numeracy and literacy.
• Ability to understand basic health and safety and hygiene and other relevant procedures.
• Able to operate basic equipment.
• Good listening skills and enthusiasm to learn.
• Accuracy and ability to follow instructions.
• Able to exchange basic information verbally or in writing.
• May be required to undertake manual handling and physically demanding work.