Policy

At The Care Worker Agency & We Care we recognise how important pets are to the wellbeing of our customers and we aim to support them to care for their pets in overall support of them.

We are accepting of any kind of pet and are non judgemental about individual’s homes and how they chose to keep their homes. We do however have the following safety criteria that all customers must follow with their pets in the event of us coming in to care for them as follows:

1. Pets are to be put out of the way while care and support staff go in to deliver personal care to our customer (this can be done via the staff letting the dog out to toilet etc., while they are supporting the customer to have a wash or shower)
2. Pets are to be kept out of the way while any moving and handling of the customer if going on (for example if we need to hoist a customer to their chair from the bed, the cat or dog needs to be off the bed and out of the way for everyone's safety)
3. Pets are to be kept out of the way while medication is being managed for a customer (so there are reduced risks of the pet ingesting the medication etc)

We are happy to support you to feed and walk your pet once we have completed your care tasks and you are welcome to have a booking for both human and pet care during the same call if you wish to.

Procedure

Care and support staff will come in and greet you and your pet and then look to get the care call activities underway. They will aim to put your pet out of the way while this is being done, which may mean putting them out in the garden to toilet, putting them in their cage if this is appropriate or putting them behind the puppy gate in a designated room out of the way. Care tasks can include supporting you to move with a hoist or walking frame, supporting you with personal care, changing of clothing and taking/applying medication.

Once your care tasks are completed and you are settled and comfortable, care staff will then ask if you are having something to eat and will aim to allow the animal back into the room at this point. They will also ask if you want them to feed your animal and put out water in a bowl for them.

Once you have both been fed, if there is time and you wish it to happen, they can offer to support you to walk/groom/clean for your pet.  

All of these activities need to be identified in yourcare planning document and we will reis assess for them to make sure everyone involved is safe and happy with the arrangement.

Some of our customers ask the care staff to take their pets to the vets etc., and this is fine as long as we have planned the activity and have the appropriate restraining divide in place while the pet is in transit (such as a cat carrier, dog seat belt, transport box for the rabbit etc.) This is classed as an outing in terms of booking type and you can talk about this with the office and care staff directly if you require this assistance.

Reviewed April 2025 by Fay Townsend-Jackson