Resources to support the recruitment and retention of disabled people

Skills for Care is currently undertaking a new project to establish how we can support social care employers to fully utilise the skills of disabled people within their workforce. This project is part of the I Care recruitment and retention programme of work and links to the Recruitment and Retention Implementation Plan developed by employers, for employers. The social care sector is one of the few growth industries that has real vacancies despite the current climate and offers career progression opportunities. It is an industry in which the diversity of employees can contribute to service quality yet we know that disabled people are under represented within the workforce. This project aims to explore the barriers that prevent successful employment and progression of disabled people. We will use our findings to develop sector specific resources to support adult social care employers tap into this under represented group of potential employees to build their businesses and deliver high quality care solutions for the range of people who use their services.

What are we doing now?

Skills for Care is working with one of our Board, Nina Osborne, who will be leading this project. Nina has experience as both a disabled worker within the social care sector and as a social care employer. We will be contacting interested parties and experts for their support and involvement. The intention of this project is to build upon existing research and best practice. We recognise there are many specialist organisations already providing information and hope to utilise their expertise and contextualise best practice for the social care sector. The Care Providers Alliance (who chair the Department of Health Recruitment and Retention sub-group) and a number of employer representative organisations have already expressed an interest in supporting this project and we are currently seeking to identify other groups who may wish to do so.

To ensure our work has relevance and addresses both the real and perceived barriers that block entry and progression into the social care workforce we are devising a questionnaire that will be sent to disabled peoples representative groups and independent networks.

What next?

The returned questionnaires will be analysed and we will consult on the findings and ascertain where good practice lies which will challenge or redress any barriers. We will seek to engage with adult social care employers and disabled people already working within the sector to identify a full range of good practice case studies. These will add to Skills for Cares range of I Care... products as well as forming the basis of any new resources to support social care employers to employ disabled people. Alongside these activities will be the core resources that already exist from specialist groups. We will ensure that where appropriate, the resources produced signpost to further information and guidance that can add value to their recruitment and retention activities and support them to develop a more inclusive and dynamic social care workforce.

What we will not do?

This work is about best practice in recruitment, retention and progression of disabled people within the adult social care workforce. It is not meant to be a separate strategy that further alienates or compartmentalises disabled people. Skills for Care has already produced a recruitment and retention toolkit for employers and work from this project will be used to update that toolkit. This project seeks to provide further support and guidance for employers to integrate into their wider recruitment and retention strategies when looking at this particular aspect of diversity.

Get involved

If you would like more information about the project or you would like to become involved in the work please contact: Annette Baines, Skills for Care Programme Head, Recruitment, Retention and International Work email annette.baines@skillsforcare.org.uk or call 07866 740 642 Nina Osborne - email ninaosborne@btinternet.com or call 01905 351635