Donor Carer

Job Summary

It takes all types of people to help save and improve lives. As a Donor Carer with NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), you’ll be at the heart of the donor experience, supporting the people whose generosity helps provide life-saving blood and blood products to patients across the UK. This is an exciting opportunity to build a career in healthcare, with comprehensive training and ongoing development to help you grow your skills and confidence. Working as part of a supportive team, you'll make a meaningful contribution every day by delivering excellent care, creating positive donor experiences and helping ensure a safe and reliable blood supply for those who need it most.

The role involves working a variety of hours, including evenings, weekends, and bank holidays, but no night shifts!

The team mostly works between Sunday and Friday. Rarely, such as some bank holidays, Saturdays may be required.

You will be working 75 hours over 9 days per fortnight on a shift basis and the rota is created at least 6 weeks in advance.

Early shifts may start at 08:30 and finish at 17:20 and late shifts may start at 10:30 and finish at 19:20.

Main duties of the job

• Provide a caring and professional experience that helps donors feel welcome, informed and supported throughout their donation journey.
• Learn and develop clinical skills, including donor screening, haemoglobin testing and blood collection procedures, supported by comprehensive training.
• Monitor donor wellbeing and provide appropriate care and advice before, during and after donation.
• Help maintain the highest standards of quality and safety by following clinical procedures and regulatory requirements.
• Accurately record donor and donation information using electronic and manual systems.
• Encourage donors to return and continue making a life-saving contribution through future donations.
• Work closely with colleagues in a multidisciplinary team to deliver exceptional donor care and efficient donor sessions.
• Contribute to a culture of continuous improvement by embracing learning, developing new skills and supporting colleagues.

About You

Experience and Knowledge

• Have experience of dealing with the public
• Have experience of delivering a quality customer service
• Be willing to learn new technology skills and undergo digital training

Qualifications and Training

• Have a good standard of numeracy and literacy
• Be willing to undertake development and training to upskill yourself including completion of the Skills for Health Care Certificate

About Us

It takes all types of people to deliver the kind of service that saves and improves lives. At NHS Blood and Transplant, you’ll join a team of more than 6,000 people who are making a genuine difference to communities, families, friends, relatives and more across the UK. We play a unique and special role in the NHS by helping people do something extraordinary- donate blood, blood products, organs, tissues, or stem cells to save someone in need.

Our three core values are what set us apart. They guide and inspire everything we do.

By being caring, expertly meeting the needs of our patients and our people, and accepting nothing less than the best quality, we can do extraordinary work and help our people to do something extraordinary in their career, too. Three small words, one big difference - Caring, Expert and Quality. Together we'll save and improve more lives than ever.

You will join us on our journey to create an inclusive workplace and aim to reflect the diverse communities we work with, and we positively encourage applications from all sectors of the community.

What we offer:

• 6-week training period to fully prepare you for your career with us, including your Skills for Healthcare Certificate.
• Rotas published 6 weeks ahead of time.
• No night shifts.
• Payments for unsociable hours, overtime, meal and driving allowances where applicable.
• Flexible working options we promote flexible working where the role allows. We’re happy to discuss what flexibility might look like for you.
• Generous annual leave - 27 days annual leave (pro rata for part-time) plus Bank Holidays, increasing to 29 days after 5 years’ service and to 33 days after 10 years.
• Inclusive pension scheme - the NHS Pension Scheme is a defined benefit scheme (not dependent on investment returns). Further details and outline of benefits can be found at: www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/information-about-nhs-pensions
• Supportive learning culture - we’ve fostered a culture of continuous learning where colleagues are well-led, engaged, and encouraged to grow. We support you in reaching your full potential, both in your current role and future career. Our Thrive program embodies our commitment to learning and development, offering a wide range of activities to support your personal and professional growth. It’s open to everyone at NHSBT, ensuring you have the resources to succeed and shine in your role.
• Health and wellbeing support we offer confidential services including occupational health, employee assistance programme, and wellbeing resources. Our support is available to all colleagues and we endevour to provide tailored workplace adjustments where possible.

As a Disability Confident Employer, we welcome applications from disabled candidates. We will talk with you to explore any adjustments that may help you during the recruitment process.

You can find more information about accessibility, our culture, and how we support applicants on the NHSBT Careers website:

• Read about our application process
• Learn more about our culture at NHSBT

To learn more, please see the Recruitment Profile which is a combination of the job description and person specification. These can be accessed via the link below, or by clicking ‘Apply’ if you are viewing this advert on another site.

Next steps

This vacancy will close at 23:59 on Thursday 22 October 2026.

You will be invited to complete an assessment following your application. You must complete the assessment sent to you by email from @ArcticShores.com. The deadline for this assessment is 4 days after your application is submitted. It will take an average of 35-40 minutes. Please check your junk email box if needed. When you complete the Donor Carer assessment, the result will be used for any future applications made within 12 months. Therefore, please complete your assessment before applying for any other Donor Carer vacancies. If you have previously completed the assessment, you will not need to complete another one.

For further information, please visit Candidate Support Arctic Shores

If you’re shortlisted, we’ll invite you to see the role for yourself by visiting a blood collection session, followed by a face-to-face interview. Unfortunately, we’re unable to offer virtual options, and travel expenses aren’t covered.

The session visit and interview are planned for Wednesday 4 November 2026 from 11:00 to 17:30, subject to confirmation.

For informal enquiries please contact Jenny Wright, Donor Centre Manager at Jennifer.Wright@nhsbt.nhs.uk.