The role of a care assistant is to tend to the needs of their clients who often require help with day-to-day activities such as maintaining hygiene, administering medication and helping with shopping. A care assistant may also take the patient out of the house for various reasons including visiting friends and family.
Care assistants can work in a variety of settings, including in a care home, in the client’s house or in the community. There are no specific qualifications or experience usually required to work as a care assistant, but soft skills are necessary, such as the ability to communicate well with others, and a caring, patient nature.
To land one of these plentiful roles, you’ll need a great cover letter which highlights all the important aspects of your experience and skills to date. With 125+ cover letter examples and writing guides, Resume.io is here to help. We have created this care assistant cover letter example and guide to give you a point of reference when creating your cover letter. Here’s what we will discuss:
- How to structure your cover letter
- Tailoring your care assistant cover letter to the role you are applying for.
- Ensuring your cover letter is error free and maximises your chance of being hired.
There is a huge demand for care assistants, and this has grown throughout the ongoing pandemic. Some media outlets have predicted that there may be 170,000 vacancies for care workers by the end of 2021 as many workers leave the field for other opportunities.
Best format for a care assistant cover letter
The cover letter is a brief synopsis of your experience and skills. The maximum length of your care assistant cover letter should be one page while ensuring you cover all the main elements.
This is the suggested format for your care assistant cover letter:
- The cover letter header
- The greeting / salutation
- The cover letter intro
- The middle paragraphs (body of the letter)
- The ending paragraph of your cover letter (conclusion and call-to-action)
You can check out our comprehensive cover letter guide for more formatting and writing tips. Below you’ll find our adaptable care assistant cover letter example.
Dear Ms. Rose,
I am a professional care assistant with 5 years of experience working within care homes. I am also currently undertaking a degree in health and social care with a view to becoming a manager in the sector one day. I have experience in a range of elderly care environments, in particular adults with special needs. My grandmother suffered with dementia and it is the years spent by her side that motivate me to help however I can.
As a caring and reliable individual, I have a passion for supporting those who need it most and helping them to make the most of their lives. The smallest gesture can make a difference, so I try my best to be mindful and open to anything that is required of me.
The care assistant position can be challenging, but I enjoy solving problems and improving myself both professionally and personally. Glasgow Community Care was recommended to me by a current care assistant, Janet Green. She talked about your supportive care team and focus on the mental wellbeing of your people. It is a tough job sometimes.
I would love the opportunity to discuss my skills and experience face to face, as well as to learn more about how I might be able to assist.
Yours sincerely,
Jacob Green
Cover letter header
The hiring manager needs to know how to contact you and the cover letter header will give them all the information they need, including your phone number and email address. You may also want to include a link to your LinkedIn profile, particularly if you have some good recommendations that might add some extra interest to your application. Care home employees often have recommendations shared with them by previous residents (or their relatives), so why not share them publicly on LinkedIn.
You do not need to include your full home address as this may cause data protection issues. You can share this at the offer stage. Also, there is no need to include the "inside address" of the care home in the letter. It is sent electronically, so this letter writing convention no longer applies.
Where there is a severe skills shortage, such as there is in the care sector in the UK, the hiring manager may choose to call you after reading your cover letter so make sure this information is clearly displayed there.
Check out the header on our care assistant cover letter sample.
The reason for the cover letter header: To inform the hiring manager of how to reach you – include your key contact details.
Cover letter greeting
It is important to start your care assistant cover letter on the right footing, and this means being professional. Your initial greeting should be formal, and where possible, should include the name of the recipient. Sometimes the contact details are on the job advert, or you may need to try and find them. For instance, if you know the department you will be working in, you might want to use the company website or LinkedIn to find the contact details. Care homes will always have the manager's name on their website as a matter of public record, so this shouldn't be too tricky.
If you can’t find the contact details of the hiring manager, you can just direct it to the ‘Hiring Manager’ or ‘Recruitment Team.’ Refrain from using ‘Hi’ or ‘Hello,’ as this is too informal. Use ‘Dear’ instead.
The purpose of the cover letter greeting: Say ‘hello’ to the hiring manager, but in a formal way.
Cover letter introduction
The cover letter introduction should give the hiring manager a quick insight into your main attributes that will be useful to them. Only a few sentences at the most is necessary with the aim of making an impact quickly. Lead with your motivations at work - what gets you through those long days and nights when everything is going wrong and the residents are getting demanding? What do you bring to the workplace?
Check out the introduction from our care assistant cover letter example below.
Dear Ms. Rose,
I am a professional care assistant with 5 years of experience working within care homes. I am also currently undertaking a degree in health and social care with a view to becoming a manager in the sector one day. I have experience in a range of elderly care environments, in particular adults with special needs. My grandmother suffered with dementia and it is the years spent by her side that motivate me to help however I can.
The purpose of the cover letter intro: Give the hiring manager an insight into what you can offer, introduce yourself with the most favourable aspects of your expertise.
Cover letter middle part (body)
After you have introduced yourself, you can move to the body of the care assistant cover letter, where you will provide the hiring manager with some key information relating to your experience and skills. You can also mention any specific achievements you are proud of that are relevant to the role. In the case of a care assistant cover letter, you want to talk about the ‘soft skills’ you possess as these are the most important in this type of job. Do just describe what you do in your day job; share how you go about it. See the body of our cover letter sample below.
As a caring and reliable individual, I have a passion for supporting those who need it most and helping them to make the most of their lives. The smallest gesture can make a difference, so I try my best to be mindful and open to anything that is required of me.
The care assistant position can be challenging, but I enjoy solving problems and improving myself both professionally and personally. Glasgow Community Care was recommended to me by a current care assistant, Janet Green. She talked about your supportive care team and focus on the mental wellbeing of your people. It is a tough job sometimes.
The main purpose of the body of your cover letter: Provide the hiring manager with key information about your skills and expertise that will impress them.
How to wrap up your care assistant cover letter (conclusion and sign-off)
The last section is your cover letter conclusion. You can confirm your interest in the role and personalise your closing based on the company you are applying to. The conclusion should contain a call to action which politely encourages the hiring manager to get in touch with you to set up an interview. End with one last expression of interest and the hope that you might get to visit the care home and see how they operate. See the conclusion from our cover letter sample below.
I would love the opportunity to discuss my skills and experience face to face, as well as to learn more about how I might be able to assist.
Yours sincerely,
Jacob Green
The purpose of the conclusion: Let the hiring manager know why you are applying and reinforce your interest in the company/role.
Typical mistakes in a care assistant cover letter (and how you might avoid these)
Although a care assistant role may not require you to be computer literate, it shows professionalism if your cover letter is free from errors. It is likely that you will need to do admin within your role, such as writing up customer notes, so ensuring your care assistant cover letter is accurate is paramount. You will be looking after the residents, responsible for handing out medication, etc, so a responsible and detail-oriented attitude is critical.
These are some of the fundamental areas to look at when writing your cover letter:
- Spelling: The main mistake made by candidates is spelling errors. We have the benefit of spell checks these days, so there is no excuse for getting it wrong. Make sure you read your work and put it through a spell check to avoid any errors.
- Too detailed: The cover letter should be brief and just give the hiring manager enough insight that they will be keen to move forward to reading your CV. One page is sufficient.
- Formatting errors: Poor page design sends the message that you don’t take the position seriously. Make sure to leave a balance of white space to text and create a visually attractive header.
Costly formatting errors can be easily avoided by using a professionally-designed cover letter template which allows you to focus on the writing while still personalising the look for your preferences and the company’s.
Key takeaways
- Structure your cover letter in a way that makes it easy to read, make sure it is clear and concise.
- Tailor the cover letter to suit the role and company to which you are applying. It may only be small tweaks, but these are important.
- Give your cover letter a check before you submit it, make sure you run it through a spell check.
- Check out our care assistant cover letter example for more ideas on creating a great page layout.
