The National Skills Academy for Social Care, working in partnership with Skills for Care and MacIntyre, has just launched a new values-based recruitment toolkit for employers.
At present, employers in social care face two key challenges: how to find and attract sufficient applicants of the right calibre and how to check that they are suitable for the work and are likely to stay, develop and progress.
One way to do this is by adopting a values-based approach. Values like compassion, dignity, integrity, respect and responsibility are part of leadership and sit at the heart of the government’s drive to transform social care.
There are ways, well-established in other sectors, in which employers can assess candidates for values. But although some larger social care employers are already using them, it’s not invariably the case, and smaller employers and Registered Managers may not have the time or in-house HR expertise available to familiarise themselves.
This toolkit, which is being piloted over the next twelve months, aims to bring values-based approaches within everybody’s reach.
The toolkit includes:
- An introduction to values in social care and why they are so important;
- Guidance in plain English on how employers can recruit and select for social care values;
- Examples of draft job advertisements and interview questions;
- An online Personality Profiling tool which employers can use with candidates;
- Signposting to the Leadership Qualities Framework with an explanation of how it can help in recruiting for values;
- Signposting to information on Finders Keepers, Common and Managers’ Induction Standards and other sources of information.
Employers don’t have to use all these sources of information and help – they can select the ones that are useful to them at any particular time.
We believe this is a really important step for the sector – a workable model in support of values-based recruitment, especially of front-line care and support staff. We believe it will improve outcomes for people being supported and for workforce retention, so it has the potential to create both multiple benefits for the sector and contribute to the transformation of social care.
The recruitment toolkit is available here or alternatively for more information, please contact: debbie.sorkin@nsasocialcare.co.uk
Information supplied by: Debbie Sorkin, Chief Executive, National Skills Academy for Social Care.
2 comments
Comment by doreen posted on
It's about time something was done to tighten up on the private agencies providing care. They run as a business, and are not person centred. I worked in care for 15 years and noticed standards decline with the introduction of privatisation.
Comment by Mike posted on
I find this comment not based on any factsd as a Private Care provider, do you think that managers work better in Councils or Charities because they get guaranteed incomes? The income seems to come no matter the standard of performance.
Private companies are easily dropped if they do not perform, do you have an alternative to your local council?