Care escort

Care escorts travel with elderly or disabled people to help them get to their appointments.

Also known as: Community transport passenger assistant, patient escort

• Typical hours10 to 30 a week

What you'll do

As a care escort, you could:

• take people to and from appointments
• make sure passengers, wheelchairs and bags are secure before setting off
• deal with emergencies
• supervise passengers at all times
• keep the vehicle clean and tidy
• fill in paperwork

Working environment

You could work from a vehicle.

You may need to wear a uniform.

Skills and knowledge you'll need

You'll need:

• sensitivity and understanding
• a desire to help people
• the ability to work well with others
• patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations
• excellent verbal communication skills
• active listening skills
• to be thorough and pay attention to detail
• the ability to understand people's reactions
• to be able to carry out basic tasks on a computer or hand-held device

How to become a care escort

You can get into this job through:

• a college course
• volunteering
• applying directly

College

You could do a course in health and social care, which may help you to get a job as a care escort, though this is not essential.

Entry requirements

There are no set entry requirements for this route.

Volunteering

A common way into this role is to volunteer as a care escort with your local community transport organisation.

There are no set entry requirements, though it may be helpful if you have experience in care work or customer service. A driving licence might also be useful, though not essential.

Direct application

You apply directly for jobs. Experience in healthcare or social care can be useful when looking for work.

Restrictions and requirements

You'll need to:

• pass enhanced background checks

Career path and progression

With experience and further training, you could move into related jobs, such as:

• care worker
• medical dispatcher
• ambulance care assistant
• healthcare assistant
• community transport driver

Guides for this industry

• Health & Social Care: pay, interviews and getting started →

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• Job roleCare worker
• Job roleFamily support worker
• Job roleAdvocacy worker
• Job roleNurse
• Job roleAmbulance care assistant

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0