Senior Care Assistant Interview Questions and Answers (2026)

Do not panic. Check the numbers, the residents' needs and which tasks are essential, then escalate straight away to the manager or on-call so they can find cover. Rearrange the team's allocation, protect essential care first, tell staff plainly what is happening and keep records.

An hour before a late shift two carers rang in sick. I called the manager and the on-call at once and asked for agency or bank cover, and phoned two part-time carers I knew might be able to help. While I waited I looked at who was on shift and who needed what: two residents needed hoists and two people to support them, one needed regular repositioning, and one had a visitor expected. I wrote a revised allocation and agreed with the team that anything non-essential, such as tidying wardrobes, could wait. When the first agency carer arrived I gave her a short induction and paired her with an experienced carer. I took a small group of residents myself, checked in with the team every hour and recorded the shortage on the incident system. Everyone got a break and no essential care was missed.

Check the resident first. Find out what was given, how much and when, then get clinical advice from the GP, pharmacist or 111 and follow it. Record it, report the incident through your system, tell the manager, and support the carer without blame so the home learns from it.

A carer told me she had given one resident the tablet meant for the person next to him. I went to the resident, asked how he felt, took his pulse and blood pressure and checked what the tablet was and when it was given. I phoned the GP, who gave advice on what to watch for and when to call 999, and I stayed with him for the next hour. I told the manager and completed the incident report, and made sure the resident and his daughter were told what happened. With the carer I went through what had gone wrong: the two residents had similar names and the medicines trolley had been interrupted. She was upset, so I made sure she had a break and thanked her for telling me straight away. We changed the way the trolley is used so that nobody talks to the carer during a medicines round.

Say no to hiding medicines as a quick fix. Find out why she refuses, record the refusal and tell the prescriber. Covert administration is only considered where she lacks capacity and a best-interests decision involving the prescriber, pharmacist and family or advocate says it is right.

A lady with dementia pushed her tablets away and her son suggested crushing them into her porridge. I told him I understood he was worried, and that I could not do that without a proper decision. I explained that if she has capacity the answer is no, and if she does not, then there needs to be an assessment, a best-interests meeting with the prescriber, pharmacist and family, and a written plan. I asked her why she was refusing and found she disliked the taste and found the tablets hard to swallow, so I recorded her refusal and reasons, as we are supposed to, and told the GP. The GP changed to a liquid form and she took it willingly. If it had been necessary we would have followed the best-interests process, but as it turned out we did not need to hide anything.

Look at what is different from her normal: observations, pain, eating and drinking. Call 999 at once for anything that could be life-threatening, such as new confusion or drowsiness with a temperature, which can be sepsis, or trouble breathing or chest pain. Ring the GP for an urgent change that is not an emergency, or 111 out of hours.

A resident who is usually bright was drowsy and confused after lunch, had barely eaten and felt hot. I stayed with her and took her temperature, pulse, blood pressure, oxygen saturation and breathing rate, and checked when she had last drunk and passed urine. Compared with her usual baseline she had a temperature, a fast pulse and new confusion. New confusion with a temperature can be sepsis, so I called 999 rather than waiting for the GP, and gave the call handler her observations, her history and her medicines from her care plan. I asked a carer to watch for the ambulance and stayed with her. She was treated in hospital for a urine infection and came back well. I told the GP and her family, and wrote up the times, what I saw and who I spoke to. If she had only been a little off her food with normal observations, I would have rung the GP that day, or 111 out of hours.

Start with the person: ask what matters to her and who knows her best, observe and talk to family. Write preferences, routines and how she likes things done, not just tasks, record risks and how they are managed, and review it whenever something changes and at regular dates.

When a new lady moved in I spent time with her and her daughter before writing anything. I asked how she liked to wake up, what she liked to eat, what scared her and what she wanted to be able to do for herself. We wrote that she liked a cup of tea in bed before washing, that she found noise at night frightening, and that she wanted to keep dressing herself with help for buttons. I recorded risks such as her unsteadiness and how we would manage them, with her agreement. I shared the plan with the team in handover and asked the carers who worked with her to add observations. After a month we reviewed it with her and changed the tea time because she preferred coffee. I think a care plan is a living document, and the person should recognise herself in it.

Make sure the resident is comfortable and checked for injury, then record exactly what you see: where, size, colour and what she says, without guessing the cause. Tell the manager or safeguarding lead straight away, protect her from any further risk and follow the safeguarding procedure.

A carer called me when she found bruising on a resident's upper arm and thigh. I looked at the marks with her and asked the resident, in a calm and open way, if she could tell us what happened. She did not know. I checked she was comfortable and not in pain, wrote down the position, size and colour on a body map and what she said, using her words, and had the carer sign the record. I told the manager straight away and she raised a safeguarding alert with the local authority and asked the GP to see the resident. Until we knew more, I arranged for her to have a carer she knew and trusted, and checked her equipment and her care plan for causes such as the hoist sling or a fall. Nothing was assumed. We were told later that it was explained by medicines that cause bruising, but we would have reported it either way.

Refuse to sign what did not happen, politely and clearly. Explain that records must be accurate, complete and contemporaneous. Offer to do the check now or record honestly that it was missed and why, then escalate to a higher manager or a whistleblowing route if you are pressed.

On a busy night I was asked by a manager to sign the repositioning chart for the checks that we had not been able to do. I said, 'I can't sign for checks I haven't seen done, but I can record that they were missed and why, and I can do one now.' I did the check, recorded the real times and added a note that the shift was short staffed. I told her I was worried because CQC requires an accurate, complete and contemporaneous record, and that we would not be able to show the real picture or ask for more staff if we signed that all was well. She was uneasy but accepted it. Later I raised the staffing issue with the registered manager. If I had been pressed again I would have used the whistleblowing policy and spoken to CQC.

Watch first so you are fair, then talk to her privately and specifically about what you saw and why it matters to the resident, hear her side, agree what will change and by when, and follow up. Involve the manager if it does not improve, and keep residents safe in the meantime.

I noticed one of my carers rushing personal care and talking to a colleague about her weekend while helping a lady wash. I watched her on two more shifts to be sure it was a pattern. I asked her to talk with me in the office and said what I had seen, and how I thought the residents felt. She told me she was struggling with her childcare and had been late to the start of her shift, so she hurried. We agreed she would swap to a later shift, she would talk to the resident during care and I would shadow her for two shifts and give feedback after. Her care improved and a resident's daughter wrote to say how kind she was. I made notes of each conversation and told the manager, so that if it had not improved we could have followed the formal process.