Recruitment and retention best practice in social work - children’s, adult’s, and mental health

Addressing your capacity challenges starts with understanding your social care workforce needs. For teams this means having an effective approach to workforce planning. It will be beneficial to have a social care service focused plan to operate with. Understanding the skills your teams currently have and where the gaps are is beneficial for recruitment planning. Consideration needs to be made towards short-, medium- and long-term objectives.

Consideration may be required for a plan to encourage individuals to return to work in Social Care services. This is an opportunity to utilise the wealth of experience for the sector. 

Social Work services offer different career paths for potential employees and a career that can make a difference. Recruitment into this service can be challenging, meaning it is important to promote what social care services do and the benefits of working in this sector. As the labour market becomes more and more competitive with higher rates of employment and scarce skills due to a lack of supply in many graduate based professions it is vital that teams present a strong employer value proposition within their brand. 

Promotion will vary depending on the candidates you seek to hire but to be competitive you need to be confident you have a strong local employer brand. For certain roles you can raise your profile through professional networks promoting your successes. Always take advantage of and use existing promotional tools and recruitment platforms to widen your reach. Longer term workforce planning, and an engagement strategy focused on future talent will address the short-term problems faced now in the future. Engaging young people is an important first step to create a talent pipeline (see section below on ‘people’ to see what support is available to target specific candidates)

Your Social Care service will need to be innovative with its recruitment plan and how you engage and communicate with potential employees. Creating a positive recruitment and onboarding process, will create a more welcoming environment for potential candidates. As a service you may need to think of new ways of recruiting and engaging new employees. You will also need to ensure the vacancy advert appeals to and reaches your target audience. More flexibility in the role will be another way to increase the number of individuals considering local government as a career path

Consider which partners you are working with to build your recruitment pipeline. Working with Further Education/Higher Education institutions will allow you to promote your Social Care service as a career path. Depending on the role you may want to partner with professional bodies to devise strategies for increasing the number of people entering the workforce. Your service may want to review the partners it is currently engaged with and the opportunity to widen your partnerships. Consideration may be required on how you promote your adult social care service careers to these partners (linked to stage 2).

A focus on retention and your current employees is an important part of your plan. As a service, you will want to create a positive working environment and give people a reason to stay in the sector. Consider what rewards and benefits you can implement, as well as offering a clear career progression plan. Your rewards and benefits can be promoted both to current employees and potential candidates.

Working together with other Social Care services is a great opportunity to share best practice, which can aid inspiration and allow councils to implement successful strategies. This can enable an opportunity to understand how other teams are engaging with current and potential employees.