Recruitment campaign for adult social care

A NEW national recruitment campaign has been launched to help drive people towards the 110,000 vacancies in the adult social care sector with 1,200 in Leicestershire area alone.

‘Every Day Is Different’ will locally showcase how rewarding social care careers can be, with a huge array of opportunities for progression and professional development. The campaign aims to: • Attract new people with the right values to the sector and increase interest in adult social care as a vocation.

• Highlight the array of job roles, with an initial focus on direct care roles such as care workers, where there is the most demand.

• Equip the sector with the marketing tools to support the campaign and advice to recruit the right people and help retain staff, to address a high turnover rate.

In Leicestershire, there are an estimated 1,200 vacancies in the adult social care sector at any given time, with 5,500 leaving these jobs every year out of a total directly employed workforce of 13,500 - a turnover rate of 40 per cent.

Minister for Care Caroline Dinenage said: “Adult social care is too often seen as the ‘Cinderella service’ to our NHS. I’m determined to change this perception, starting with our hardworking social care workforce.

“We must spread the word that careers in adult social care can be rewarding, varied and worthwhile. Care is a vocation where you can transform people’s lives and every day is different to the next.”

Working in adult social care is about providing personal and practical support to help people live their lives. People who work in the sector could be supporting the elderly or people with a physical disability, autism, dementia or a mental health condition.

The campaign has been developed in close collaboration with the adult social care sector and the aim is to attract a diverse range of people but the campaign will have a focus on people aged 20-39 years old as research indicated that this group were the most likely to consider a role in adult social care in the next 12 months.

Sharon Allen, CEO of Skills for Care said: “I have spent my whole career in adult social care, so I know first-hand the tremendous professional and personal satisfaction that is on offer to anyone who joins us through this campaign.”