Caring Care at the Aaina Community Hub: Supporting Women Back Into Work in Walsall

Our Managing Director Manjinder Joshi was invited to speak at the Aaina Community Hub in Walsall. The event was open to the community, and the subject was one we feel strongly about — supporting women returning to work, particularly in the care sector, and exploring what flexible employment can really mean in practice.

It was a meaningful afternoon, and one we want to share more widely.

Why this matters

There is a longstanding gap in the UK labour market between the work women want to do and the work that is structured in a way they can practically take on. For women who have stepped away from a career to raise a family, support an elderly parent, or simply make the maths of life add up, the route back into employment is often less about ambition and more about access. Childcare costs. Inflexible shift patterns. A sense that careers are something other people have time for.

That gap matters in care more than in almost any other sector. The home care industry depends on the people who do the work, and the people who do the work overwhelmingly are women — many of whom are juggling care responsibilities in their own families while caring for someone else's. If we want a stronger care workforce in the West Midlands, we have to think harder about how to make the work fit around real lives.

That is the conversation Manny went to Walsall to have.

The morning at Aaina

On Wednesday 4th March, Manny was joined by Zaaima from our HR team and Preeti from Caring Care's Training and Recruitment team. Together they sat down with women from across the community — a wide range of backgrounds and life stages, drawn from across the West Midlands.

The conversation was not a recruitment pitch. It was an honest exchange about what stops women from going back to work, what makes employment workable when it is, and how Caring Care — and the care sector more widely — can play its part.

Manny was born and raised in Walsall, and that local connection matters to her. She spoke openly about her own experience of balancing family life with professional ambition, and the points along the way where she had to make difficult choices about which side of the equation to lean into. Many of the women in the room recognised that story. Some shared theirs in return.

A few themes came up again and again:

Flexibility is not a perk — it is the difference between being employed or not. Several women said the hours they could realistically commit to fluctuated week to week. They were not unreliable; their lives simply didn't fit into a 9-to-5 box. The kind of employer that could work with that, rather than against it, was the kind of employer they could actually say yes to.

Training is the bridge. Many people interested in care didn't know whether the role would suit them, or whether they had the right experience. A structured route — shadowing, supported training, paid induction — turned a "maybe one day" into a "yes, I could start".

Respect matters more than money — but money still matters. Care work has historically been undervalued. Pay matters, of course, but the women in the room were quick to say that being treated like a professional, listened to about their schedules, and trusted to do the job well, was what kept them in roles long-term.

Local matters. Travel time and cost are a real barrier. Working in your own community, supporting people you might pass in the supermarket, makes the job feel meaningful — and the commute manageable.

What Caring Care is doing about it

The conversation was not a one-off. It is part of a longer-running approach we have been building at Caring Care, and we want to share where it is heading.

We are continuing to design care roles to be flexible by default. That means we work hard to build rotas around the lives of our carers — school pickups, second jobs, study, family responsibilities — rather than asking carers to bend their lives around the rota. It is harder work for the office, but it is the right way round.

We are investing in training pathways. Caring Care recently celebrated the completion of our first Level 2 Diploma in Health & Social Care, and we are encouraging more team members to pursue further qualifications. If you are joining us with no previous care experience, we will train and support you properly — not just on day one but as you grow into the role.

We are deepening our community partnerships. The Aaina visit is one example. We are continuing conversations with local councils, community hubs and training providers to ensure the path into care is as clear as we can make it.

We are listening. The most valuable part of the morning at Aaina was not what we said. It was what we heard. Every conversation like this one shapes the next decision we make about how the company works.

If you are thinking about a career in care

You do not need previous experience. You do not need a particular set of qualifications. You need to be kind, patient, reliable, and willing to learn. The rest we will show you.

If you have been considering a return to work and want to talk through what flexible employment in care could look like for your circumstances, our team would love to have a conversation. There is no commitment to anything by getting in touch — just an honest chat about whether it could be a fit.

We are particularly keen to hear from women in and around Walsall, Wolverhampton and the wider West Midlands who are looking for an employer that will work with their reality, not against it.

Thank you to Aaina

A sincere thank you to the Aaina Community Hub and everyone who came along to the session. The work you do in supporting women across our community is something we want to keep being part of. We will see you again.

---

Caring Care | Trust. Professionalism. Compassion. For career enquiries email people@caringcare.co.uk · Visit caringcare.co.uk · Call 0330 056 3111