Care First Careers

24 November

I have become very heavily involved within the Department of Health with workforce related issues in the last few months, so involved in fact that I was recently invited to be the Co Chairman of the Recruitment, Retention & Career Pathways Working Group which I was pleased to accept.

Yesterday I attended a meeting of the Adult Social Care Strategy Board Meeting and there are some key projects underway being led by the Department of Health to help all care providers to recruit and retain staff:

Care First Careers

Care First Careers is a new government initiative to support employers to recruit young people into jobs in adult social care.

Attracting a younger and more diverse workforce will enable the identification of talent early on, nurturing potential core employees of the future from an early point in their careers.
Focus is on sustainable employment with recruitment activity promoting adult social care as a sector of choice and generating more interest in this sector.

Promoting sustainable employment will lead to reduced staff turnover, generating savings and reducing waste.

£1500 is available to the employer if the jobseeker stays for 6+ months and works for an average of 16 hours per week.

Young people bring into the workplace potential new ideas, energy and enthusiasm.
Lots of young people are eager to get into the workplace and demonstrate their high quality skills and attributes. By recruiting from this age group and taking advantage of the ongoing training and support available for young people, you can realise their potential and build your future workforce.

The initiative will be rolled out in all areas from January 2010.

National Recruitment Campaign

· National Care Association has agreed to support the National Recruitment Campaign which will be carried out on TV, radio and other media opportunities in the Spring next year. We hope that it will increase the number of applicants to work in social care either through the campaign or directly to your business.
· We will keep you posted with latest developments as they emerge.

The two projects above involve large financial investment into the social care sector and I hope that you will be able to take advantage of both schemes during 2010.