Barnsley
Recruitment lead details and meetings continue to increase our communication pathways directly with care providers we currently have 86 direct links with recruitment leads in social care created.
We have a small amount of funding for 16 years to 19 years to be able to access the proud to care pathway to employment
A short expression of interest has been developed and triaged via Barnsley councils existing system for recruitment through the employability and skills team, but candidates are directed to all system partners.
Vacancy collection – we are currently receiving between 20 and 25 per month from care providers, which are being circulated to all employment agencies including the Princes Trust to support them to find people work quickly.
Our first hyperlocal event was implemented by Barnsley council which was a success with approximately 152 people attending the Salvation Army and 26 new referrals were signed up for UKSPF and the salvation army identified 16 people for training.
We expanded the Proud to Care hub team with the introduction of the Proud to Care Officer to oversee the everyday running of the hub supported by the Proud to Care Administration role.
The Proud to Care hub partnered with Barnsley College in the development of two branded classrooms. One was branded as the NHS, this classroom includes a simulated ward environment, whilst the second is in the process of being branded as Proud to Care, highlighting the partnership working within Barnsley.
The King’s Trust in Barnsley have won the Partnership Award at Barnsley Councils BU4 Business Unit Awards Ceremony. The King’s Trust and NHS Partnership were also nominated for an NHS Heart Award reaching the final three.
Experience of the workplace - Barnsley has its first GP practice offering experience of the workplace and Everild Hindley has been working with 4 care providers who will hopefully be offering experience of the workplace soon.
Everild Hindley is also working in conjunction with Barnsley College and the King’s trust, to support students to enter the workforce via a 4-step recruitment process, cumulating in a Get hired event run by the King’s Trust. This has been successfully implemented summer 2024 and is planned to be part of the curriculum moving forward.
The 2nd We care into the future school's career event took place in November with almost 800 children and adults in attendance from years 6 and year 9 across 26 schools, it was also open to college students and the public in the afternoon. Feedback shows that 60% now said they would consider a role in the health and care. We are planning to run the event again in November 2025.
Bespoke recruitment events have been undertaken for both Barnsley Facilities Services with 5 of the 7 candidates securing work. Barnsley Healthcare Federation have also worked in partnership with the King’s Trust on a similar model 6 people attended, all of whom received job offers or further training.
The King’s Trust are currently working in partnership with Barnsley Trust and SWYPT offering staff and new recruits the King’s Trust offer.
We have partnered with Migration Yorkshire who kindly provided training sessions in partnership with the Proud to Care Hub in relation to the legalities of sponsorship, the sessions were open to all partners, over 2 sessions with approximately 50 people attending.
The Proud to Care Hub secured a grant of £250,000 over the next three years from the Rayne Foundation to develop “better careers for better care” primarily focused upon social care, the team leading this project, attended a meeting in London to meet the other grants awardees in October 2024, we also met with the Bean Foundation to discuss the plan and evaluation.
SWYPT have offered to provide support to upskill Barnsley college health and care staff in relation to clinical skills and Crossroads have also offered to provide 4 first aid courses per year and Northern college are providing support and training for Personal Assistants both new starters and current staff.
The Proud to Care Hub in partnership, developed a provider failure pathway and a displaced worker pathway, utilising the existing Proud to care pathway already in place, with some additions and amendments.
The Proud to Care Hub was put forward for a Parliamentary Award Excellence in Education and training, although shortlisted to the last 7, Oliver McGowen National Training Programme won in our category, but it was an amazing achievement for the collaborative partnership to be recognised for the work.
We continue to run our existing proud to care pathway including a 2-week employability course, 6 week Get into Care course, wrap around support from the King’s Trust and employability mentors within Barnsley council to support people into work, once in work they have regular contact with the Proud to Care Officer and the King’s Trust mentor if required at regular intervals. We are also able to provide access to digital skills, Functional Skills via BMBC and health and wellbeing courses via Northern College if required, the pathway is built around the needs of the individual and is not compulsory.
We continue to increase our communication pathways and relationships with providers by running regular lunchtime showcasing events weekly for the hub.
We continue to run our ‘Get Hired online 'employability group bringing together employers with employment agencies from across Barnsley to support people into work faster.
We are currently in the early stages of discussions with partners and NHSE in relation to a structured monthly collaborative ‘Get Hired’ event, we have secured the venue of the Lightbox for the year starting in April 2025 aimed at easing access to roles.
To date we have interacted with 1894 people, of which 1334 have stayed in active communication and 429 have been supported into work across the health and care industry
The Proud to Care course has had 178 referrals 55 started and 49 have complete the course. 26 have entered employment, 3 have entered volunteering and 4 have continued to functional skills.
Doncaster
Rotherham:
The Ambassador Programme is now well established to support Rotherham’s schools and colleges. We have over 20 ambassadors who attend careers events at schools to promote the Health and Social Care sector. We have spoken to around 1800 students over the past year providing invaluable insights into specific roles withing the sector. The programme goes from strength to strength and will be scaled up moving forward.
Skills Street
We have been working closely with Skills Street to develop our Health and Social Care pod to promote our sector to children and young people. This will enable young people to gain a wider understanding of the types of roles/pathways that are available within the sector. The project is due to open on April 1st and had been funded jointly by RMBC and TRFT.
Widening Participation
We are working in partnership with the HCSW lead at TRFT to help fill vacancies. Candidates identified by partners are now guaranteed interviews under the widening participation agenda. We have had a number of candidates that have successfully secured positions via the project. We will be looking to roll out this model to other departments at the Trust.
Volunteering Programmes We work closely with VAR (Voluntary Action Rotherham) to support the volunteer programmes for Rotherham Foundation Trust and RDASH. Last year we ran some successful volunteer recruitment events in partnership with RDASH at Riverside House. We are also working closely with Rotherham College to place students into volunteering roles across the sector.
SEND/Supported Internships
We work closely with colleagues from the SEND team to increase the number of supported internship places in Rotherham. We have had some success over the last few months supporting this agenda with RMBC departments taking on more placements. We now have 39 placements across place secured which has almost doubled from last year. We also had a very successful employer engagement event in June which secure some additional placements. This year we will be running a series of webinars for employers during the summer months to help secure more placements.
Primary Care
We are working with the PCN managers in Rotherham that are linked in with GP practices. We will be working with them moving forward to see how we can support their recruitment programme. We are also developing local partnerships between GP practices and schools to support work experience and recruitment into the sector. Maltby Academy Trust are now connected in with their local GP practice and are developing the partnership.
Apprenticeship Strategy
We now have a working group looking at how we can develop the apprenticeship offer across our partner organisations. RDASH have implemented an “Apprenticeship First” initiative which guaranteed anybody coming into a band 2/3 role will be able to do an apprenticeship. This is something other partners are looking to replicate where possible.
RMBC Recruitment Process – the council have set up a working group to look at how they can improve their recruitment process. This was based on my recommendations and the work done with the one of the teams at the council. They are looking to use the bespoke recruitment model we developed.
T-Levels
We continue to work with schools and colleges to support them with placements in T-levels. We have secured 4 placements at Rotherham Hospital for Rotherham College. We also have two students going to RDASH on placement. We ran an event in November with social care providers to promote work experience and T-Level placements. Our aim is to provide placements across all partners at place to maximise students’ placements as T-Level numbers increase. We are looking to secure some T-Level placements with the AHP department at Rotherham Hospital in September 2025.
Social Care Development
In the last year we ran a number of bespoke recruitment events for social care providers. The recruitment model matches candidates directly into vacancies removing the barriers to employment in the process. In January 2025 we begun to roll out a SWAP (Sector Based Work Academy) Programme in Social Care in partnership with DWP and Rotherham College. This is also part of the widening participation strategy to recruit candidates from all parts of society.
Rotherham College
We have established a strong partnership with the college. We are now looking to maximise work experience and job opportunities into our sector. On September 25th we are delivering a business networking lunch across the network to connect employers with the college. We have 40 people attending the lunch. In late March, we will be running a Careers and Recruitment event for the college. The event will help secure work placements, recruit students into live vacancies and help build the partnership between the college and our Health and Social Care employers in Rotherham.
NEET Inclusion
We have established a NEET inclusion Group in Rotherham. This is in response to the growing number of NEET young people that need support. We will be doing some preventative work with schools to reduce the number of NEET young people. Another part of the strategy is to run some SWAP programmes for 18-24 NEET young people to place them in employment. This project dovetails into the work that will begin under the Pathways Programme in April, as a key focus will be 18-24 NEET young people.
Delivering Workshops for Partner Organisations
Delivered a wide range of workshops promoting health and social care sector. These included 50+ sessions for DWP and how to apply for NHS vacancies for staff from partner organisations working with candidates. Also attended a wide range recruitment events to support partners from the Recruitment and Employability Group. This enables us to promote the sector to wide range of candidates looking for work.