Policy

All employees of The Care Worker Agency must conduct themselves appropriately at all times and be respectful and considerate towards customers and others. The company has clear guidelines regarding the acceptable use of telephones and how we respond to customers and others. The policy includes addressing the conduct of staff in respect of the use of personal mobile phones and their work phone.

There are several situations where the use of a telephone may feature in The Care Worker Agency staff daily life:

• Office staff will use the telephone as part of their daily work
• Care workers may choose to contact the office by telephone
• Care workers will use the company mobile phones to access One Touch to view their rotas and to update the One Touch system as appropriate. They can also access customer care planning and risk assessment data via this platform so they can read about the customers prior to going in to see them.
• Care staff will use their work phone to make their clinical notes up via the One Touch app and they may also use this platform to take any clinical progress pictures or picture any receipts for their customers etc. All of this data must remain on the One Touch planform for it is stored safely and appropriately as per the GDPR guidelines on data storage for the customers
• Staff carrying out on-call duties will hold the company mobile phone

Procedure

• Office staff will use the telephone on a regular basis.  Telephones should be answered promptly (within 5 rings) and correctly (“Good morning/Good afternoon The Care Worker Agency).  Staff will always be polite and will seek to be as helpful and positive as possible.  Staff will never lie or ‘stretch the truth’ when talking with customers, or anyone else, on the telephone.

• Care workers who ring the office can do so via their company phone.  It is however reasonable for an employee to ask to be telephoned back if a long work-based conversation is likely or if the phone signal is poor.  (care workers will only contact customers by telephone directly using their company device, as it is important not to overstep professional boundaries with the customers)

• Care workers using their own mobile devices must ensure that it has an appropriate password restriction for access to the device as well as pin number restriction to the One Touch app. Data must be updated in a timely and appropriate way and One Touch will store any data created and upload it once the device user resumes internet connection when appropriate. Care workers must not share their private mobile number with the customers.

• The emergency on-call service will be answered “The Care Worker Agency, what is your emergency?”  The number should be available from 0700 to 2200 except when the office is open and for our overnight packages, the on call is available to them all night while they are on shift. Voicemail systems are also switched on so if the line is busy, people call and leave a message and someone will get back to them as soon as practicable. It must be explained to all potential users of this service however that this is not a substitute for the emergency services number. In the event of an emergency that needs urgent medical attention customers and staff must still phone 999 on the customers phone and use their company phone to uniform the office on what is going on.  

• Care workers must NOT use a mobile telephone whilst moving (driving) from one customer to another,but they can use a hands-free device if one is available in their vehicle.  Care workers will not answer or make private calls using their mobile phone when in a customer’s house.

• Live-in care workers must not accept or make telephone calls from their mobile telephones whilst on duty in a customer’s house.  Such calls should be limited to off-duty or rest periods.

• Care workers shall only use a customer’s telephone to telephone the office (with prior permission) or in cases of emergency.

• Care workers shall never give a customer’s telephone number to another person which allows them to receive their own personal calls at a customer’s house.

• There is a mobile phone agreement form that all staff must sign prior to being issued a mobile phone.

Reviewed April 2025 by Fay Townsend-Jackson