Kirklees Together

Our life-changing scheme has been nominated for a national award after supporting hundreds of people into a career in social care – making sure vulnerable people get the support they need.

What award have we been nominated for?

The In2Care Kirklees initiative, established in 2017, aims to attract more people to
work in social care and has been shortlisted for Guardian Public Sector Award in the
Recruitment and HR category.

The growing need for social care

With an ageing population, there is an ever growing need for social care. The
Kirklees care sector has a workforce of approximately 12,800 but, according to
research, care jobs could rise by 25-45 per cent by 2030. This would require an
additional 5,700 workers.

Historically, care providers struggle to recruit, causing major issues on their ability to
provide services. This leads to a high volume of people waiting for services and
delays in hospital discharges. Many potentially excellent care workers are taking up
careers in other industries.

Determined to change this, and to make sure elderly people in Kirklees receive the care they deserve, our Adult Services team started to look at how they
could increase the borough’s social care workforce.

What is In2Care Kirklees?

In2Care Kirklees provides a local personal matching service between applicants and
employers. The team pull together the applicant’s skills and personal requirements
and circulate their details to potential employers. This removes the barriers of
traditional application processes and means people aren’t applying for roles which
are not right for them.

They also work alongside local employment schemes to help people requiring
additional support. This includes supporting harder to reach groups and giving them
opportunities to receive training, job shadowing and support to find employment.

In2Care has also engaged with Kirklees care employers to establish a ‘one stop
shop’ advertisement space on Facebook for current job opportunities.

The team also builds relationships with care providers to challenge poor practice,
identify missed opportunities and inspire change.

What has the scheme achieved so far?

Since 2017 the scheme has already had a huge impact and has supported over 530
local people into local social care jobs – including 190 in domiciliary care, 178 in
residential care and 67 personal assistants. 43 per cent of applicants appointed were
previously not in work and 39 per cent were new to the industry.

Cllr Mus Khan, Cabinet Member for Social Care, said:

“There’s a social care crisis. Our population is ageing and we have a rapidly growing demand to deliver the care that vulnerable people need and deserve.

We need more people to take up a career in social care and this is an issue that the
whole country faces. It sadly means that people are having to wait for the care they
need in many cases and this simply isn’t good enough.

What the In2Care scheme has done so brilliantly is reach out to people who would
make great carers but need more flexibility because of their family or home life. For
example, hours or days they can work, specific shift patterns, non-drivers, and
unsociable hours. They also offer people the extra support they might need to get
their foot in the door.

Jobs so important such as these need to be made more flexible so everyone has an
equal opportunity to apply and our vulnerable people aren’t missing out on potentially
excellent carers.

It’s a fantastic scheme which is not only helping people into work but helping to
ensure that some of the most vulnerable people in Kirklees get the care they need.

It’s absolutely worth of being shortlisted and deserves the recognition for the huge
difference it is making to people’s lives.”

When are the winners announced?

Winners of the Guardian Public Sector Awards will be announced on 26 November.