Carr-Gomm Scotland employees over 650 full time equivalent staff across the organisation based in our services and offices.  Over 90% of our staff are Support Workers with the rest of the staff being made up of managers and office staff. 

 

We also have a number of Casual Relief Workers who provide a service to Carr-Gomm Scotland, covering some of the roles of the Support staff when necessary.  Casual Relief Work provides the opportunity to learn about this work whilst pursuing other interests, offering flexibility of working hours.  Many workers have used their experience gained with the services and training to move to promoted posts in the organisation as we have expanded.

 

Carr-Gomm Scotland supports people to live in their own homes and to follow their interests. We use a person-centred approach to develop and sustain creative, responsive and reliable services for the people we support and for our workers. The people we support, and existing colleagues, need committed people who want to develop their skills and who can work flexibly and imaginatively to apply our philosophy and approach.

Carr-Gomm Scotland’s approach to support work is to work with people as individuals, not as members of "client groups" – to help them to live in their own homes, to follow their interests and to achieve their ambitions. We do not see people as a list of disabilities or "needs", but as they see themselves: as individuals with ideas for the future, strengths and weaknesses, just as we see ourselves. 

 

Support work is very skilled, which is why we have teams, training, staff supervision and a strong set of values to guide us. This helps both new and experienced workers. It is exciting, rewarding and challenging work, with an element of doing routine work as well. We see the job as helping people to achieve the aims of the support rather than as a list of tasks to be carried out. Workers may need to do personal care for some people and not for others. Some people may need a worker with them all the time, some people 2 or 3 times a day and some less often.