Last Updated on October 17, 2017
Skills for Care has launched four innovative projects to encourage the sector to ‘look past the label’ and recruit under-represented groups in social care.
Employers are facing increasing competition for high-quality staff and the projects challenge them to think differently and more creatively about their recruitment practices.
The four projects explore how employers can meet the recruitment and retention challenge by tapping into the huge potential of people who are under-represented in adult social care – many of whom have the right values and behaviours to work in our sector.
Thinking differently might include recruiting people who experience mental ill-health, homeless people, ex-offenders, recovering addicts, military veterans and the long-term unemployed.
The projects link closely to the Government's See Potential campaign and aim to put individuality, diversity and life experience at the heart of adult social care recruitment.
Skills for Care, Cheif Executive Sharon Allen said, 'Given we know we will need to find people to fill up to 275,000 new job roles by 2025, looking at how we tap into the untapped potential of under-represented groups makes perfect sense, especially as they will bring lots of skills and life experience to our sector.'
The four projects are:
Inspirative Development Ltd – Enabling homeless and socially-excluded people to fulfil their potential in the social care sector. Inspirative Development will work with the YMCA to support homeless people through a pre-employment work programme.
Lincolnshire Care Assocation (LinCa) – Inspire to Influence: A recruitment project to work with under-represented groups. LinCa will work with local Jobcentres, schools and colleges to identify 17-24 year olds from under-represented groups, including care leavers, with the right values and behaviours to do a work-based placement in the sector.
Association for Care Training (ACT) – Recruiting for potential from under-represented groups. ACT will support people in Herefordshire from under-represented groups, including both young (18-24 year olds) and older people (over 50s) who have been out of work or training for over 12 months, to complete the Level 1 Award in Preparing to Work in Adult Social Care over a 12-week placement.
Care Plus Group – Employability services health and social care voluntary placement scheme. The Care Plus Group provides employment opportunities for all ages through a multi award-winning ‘pathway model’ of initiatives, which include voluntary placements, apprenticeships and internships.
To help employers who want to think differently about how they recruit people, Skills for Care’s Finding and keeping workers website has lots of practical resources to help providers to attract, take on and keep workers with the right values and behaviours to work in adult social care.