Recruitment and retention
Careers opportunities for home based care providers
A new 'It's not just care... It's my career' film has just been launched. Commissioned by the local authority and filmed using contracted home based care providers in Nottinghamshire, the film shows the importance to people of having the choice and control to remain in their own homes and the rewarding careers available to support people to do just that. It is for providers to use locally and nationally as part of their recruitment drives to encourage people to choose a career in care.
Nottingham Jobs
Nottingham Jobs is a partnership between the City Council, DWP and Futures that offers a single publicly-funded free at the point of use recruitment, skills and workforce development service to all local employers in the Nottingham area. Its vision is:
To be a proactive, innovative and sustainable local labour brokerage service providing high-quality account management to employers for all their workforce development and recruitment needs, whilst promoting employment, apprenticeship and training opportunities to local jobseekers.
The main elements of the offering are:
Nottingham Jobs website
- Employers can post their job vacancies free of charge on the Nottingham Jobs website
- Nottingham Jobs will distribute your vacancy via email to c. 4,000 active job seekers in the Nottingham area
- We will proactively contact our current candidate caseload to match any suitable applicants to your role
- We will invite you to any relevant jobs fairs and recruitment events to actively promote your vacancies
Grant funding
- Nottingham Jobs Fund: If you employ a Nottingham City resident who is unemployed you will be eligible for a grant of £5,000. This will be paid monthly in arrears over a 12 month period.
- StayAhead Training Grant: If you would like to upskill your existing workforce, a training grant is available for companies that employ under 250 people. This grant can be used to cover up to 40% of the cost of accredited training courses and employers can claim up to £2,500 per organisation.
For more information about Nottingham Jobs and the available grant funding contact Fiona Robinson, Development Officer at Nottingham Jobs, by phoning 0115 876 4508.
Career opportunities in social care
Landermeads Nursing Home has created a fabulous video to help raise awareness of the wonderful career opportunities within social care. This has been achieved with funds from FoNS. We are all keen for this to be used as widely as possible. All care providers are invited to use this at careers events to promote social care generally, or in their recruitment campaigns as may be appropriate.
Optimum recruitment initiatives
We have been working in partnership with Neil Eastwood, founder of Sticky People, and a renowned expert on care recruitment.
Read Neil’s top tips [PDF] for simple ways to transform the way you find, attract, select and keep a caring workforce in Nottinghamshire.
Access Neil’s presentation on recruitment [PowerPoint], delivered at the Optimum Workforce Leadership 2018-19 Annual Conference.
Work experience placements
Do you need help with your recruitment?
Work experience programmes have been shown to be effective ways for organisations to attract students directly from local schools and to develop a potential pool of recruits with the right values. There are major benefits for employers including:
- opportunities to promote apprenticeships and future recruitment
- developing the learning and development of existing staff
- raising the profile of your care home in the local community.
The Nottinghamshire Work Experience Hub has been established for nine years and provides a centralised point of contact for students wishing to apply for a work experience placement in the health and care sector in Nottinghamshire. It is an efficient process that keeps the amount of paperwork that staff have to complete to a minimum. It carries out the following on your behalf:
- publish a directory of placements on Health Education England’s website
- process application forms
- deliver monthly inductions including dress code, infection control and confidentiality
- produce ID badges
- send out evaluations forms
- produce reports for management.
The employer’s liability insurance covers work experience students and no DBS is required for supervisors or mentors. Risk assessment templates and induction check lists are available to help you set up the placement. The length of the placement and the number of placements you offer throughout the year can be flexible.
Skills for Care has produced a useful work experience toolkit specifically for care homes [PDF].
If you are interested in offering a work experience placement or to find out more information please contact Louise Storry, Work Experience Co-ordinator, on 01623 848871 or email: louise.storry@nhs.net,
or visit the Health Education England website.
Further resources
| Organisation | Description | Website/Document |
|---|---|---|
|
Skills for Care |
Tool created to support anyone interested in finding out more about a career in care. |
|
|
Skills for Care |
Finding and keeping workers. |
|
|
D2N2 |
Guidance on recruitment and retention in social care |
Health and Social Care Recruitment and Retention Handbook [PDF] |
|
Notts Help Yourself |
Guidance on identifying rogue agencies and illegal workers |
|
|
Norfolk County Council |
What motivates people to work in social care is different for everyone. To get a glimpse into the lives of those already working in the sector, Norfolk County Council has created a series of bite-size films to share their stories and find out what motivates them. |
