Questions about working at Arnfield

Once you’ve expressed your interest in a vacancy and passed initial screening, you’ll be provided with a full job description, person specification and application form for the role. When completed, application forms are reviewed internally with successful applicants invited to a first face-to-face interview. This takes place at our head office and training facility, generally involves a couple of people, and lasts for around an hour. It’s a conversation not an interrogation. Shortly after the interview, you’ll be sent a brief written exercise to complete. Normally, we consider the first interview and written assessment as a whole before making a decision about offering candidates a second and final interview. For care workers, you’re likely to be invited into the setting where the job is based to answer some questions posed by one or more of our children and young people.

For many of the roles we advertise, specific academic qualifications are not required. This is particularly true of entry-level carer roles where real-life experience can often be more valuable. More senior or more specific roles do require some qualifications, but these are always detailed in the relevant adverts. Whatever the role, you’ll benefit from our highly rated and extensive training programmes.

Yes, you must tell us though. As we work with vulnerable children and young people we are exempt from the 1974 Rehabilitation of Offenders Act which means that all applicants must declare any convictions, even if they are already spent. Depending on the nature of your previous offending and how long ago it was, we are often able to discount it as an impediment to your candidacy.

Yes. All staff working in roles as carers or educators must possess a full manual driving licence, valid for the UK. And, ideally, we need to see at least 12 months’ driving experience.

Most candidates complete the process from initial expression of interest to offer within two to three weeks, depending on diaries and role complexity.

It’s more difficult for us to consider anyone under the age of 21 as there needs to be enough of a gap between our oldest young person and our youngest employee to establish the right kind of professional relationships. At the other end of the spectrum, there’s no real age limit. We’re an Age-Friendly Employer and are happy to consider applications from interested parties of all ages.

Yes. Arnfield Care is proud to be a Disability Confident (level two) employer. We are an inclusive employer and stand against discrimination in any form. We endeavour to make all necessary reasonable adjustments for individual employees and are happy to discuss what might be needed during the interview processes.

Yes, in fact people with previous lived experience or personal knowledge of the challenges our young people face often make great care workers. Obviously, we’ll need to understand your circumstances and consider your background carefully as we take our duty of care to prospective staff as seriously as we do to that of our employees and young people.

Unfortunately, at this time, we do not sponsor visas.

Sometimes. It really depends on the role. In many instances, jobs are role-specific but some positions, particularly in back-office roles, can involve an element of hybrid working

Yes — we always welcome expressions of interest from exceptional candidates. Get in touch directly and we’ll keep your details on file for when relevant roles arise.

Review the job description, reflect on relevant experience or transferable skills, and think about the reasons why you want to work for Arnfield Care. Look at our website and, if you need to, ask us questions. You don’t need to revise textbooks or Ofsted reports. Just be yourself, and if at all possible, try not to be too nervous — it’s just a chat!

Smart-casual is the order of the day throughout the business. We work with young people, so traditional business attire is out. Sweatshirts, jeans and trainers are fine. We value comfort and functionality over formality.

We aim to provide feedback within a couple of working days. We always offer constructive feedback to help you in future applications, and we encourage re-applications, especially if you’ve gained relevant new experience.

Typically, from the date of offer, we can get you through onboarding in around four weeks, although we are able to complete the process within a week. This assumes a reasonable response to all requests for information and the relatively swift return of references and your DBS clearance.

During the recruitment and onboarding process, your information is encrypted and stored securely through our recruitment portal. It is used only for recruitment purposes in line with our privacy policy and GDPR legislation. If you are unsuccessful at any stage, this data is scheduled for secure destruction after 6–12 months, depending on how far through the process you got.