Cooking Policy

Your role as a Home Care Assistant will almost certainly involve food preparation, but it is beyond our capacity as a care provider to give you comprehensive training as a cook.

We expect you to abide by your food hygiene training, but we advise that you should 'dynamically risk assess' your own capability with regard to cooking. Understandably, you should also give some thought to the time you have at your visit.

Practically speaking this means that if a service user requests eggs on toast for example and you feel capable of preparing it safely, it's fine to do so. If you decline support with cooking based on your capability though, we'll stand behind you. We explain to our service users that cooking ability among you will vary & that there will be limitations because of this. In any case, if something is routinely being requested by a service user it should be risk assessed first.

Occasionally we will restrict you from cooking altogether with a particular client for reasons of safety, for example where the equipment is unsafe to use. If you feel that something may be unsafe or at least has not been properly risk assessed, please contact the office directly - particularly with regard to equipment.

It is our policy to never leave something in the oven or similar for a service user (or their support) to remove themselves once you have left, except where it is provided for in the care plan. This is due to the high incidence of cognitive issues with our service users that are not always obvious.

What is generally expected from care assistants with your level of training is simple cold meals such as cereal or sandwiches, microwave meals and the full compliment of hot drinks we're all accustomed to making.

If you feel any of these would be an issue for you, you should speak to us & we'll be happy to instruct and guide you how to do them - we could even provide simple training in the office for you. These tasks are deemed to be common knowledge and we won't routinely train you on them. We do have a diverse workforce however & we know a cup of tea & cornflakes is not everyone's idea of breakfast.