Case Study: London Borough of Hillingdon
By Luke Aldred
Sanctuary Social Care’s permanent offering has surpassed all expectations at the London Borough of Hillingdon (LBH). We have been supplying the local authority with experienced qualified social work professionals since 2016. In that time, we have put forward 123 social workers for interview, 71 of who were offered a position.
The challenge
Like many of our London Borough clients, LBH were finding the recruitment of permanent social workers problematic. This was due to the high level of competition and exhaustion of their existing talent pools.
The Solution
Sanctuary Social Care has built up the largest community of social workers residing in the UK. This, paired with the pre-existing relationships we have with social workers, means we can identify highly suitable candidates.
For example, within the first eight months of supporting LBH, we placed 32 permanent social workers, significantly reducing their vacancy rate.
A responsive model
We aid the process all the way through, from the initial stage of identifying and approaching suitable candidates to their very first day in employment at LBH. This has seen 58% of the candidates we have put forward offered a role.
Unlike other health and social work recruitment agencies, we have a dedicated team of permanent consultants.They have extensive knowledge and experience of the market and salary packages.
Most importantly, we take the time to understand and manage the expectations of both the candidate and client.
We look at the quality of each candidate’s education and training, presentation, communication and written skills. We consider how quickly they have advanced through their career. How long they have stayed working for one employer? What are their references like? And how would they fit into the existing culture? This ensures our candidates are highly suitable.
One consultant manages the entire account on behalf of LBH. They liaise with a single contact at the local authority’s HR department as well as the relevant hiring manager.
We set goals to quicken the hiring process. Once a CV is submitted, we make sure we receive feedback within 48 hours. To increase the chances of this, the hiring manager is copied into all initial correspondence regarding a potential candidate.
Tony Zaman, Director of Adult, Children & Young People at LBH, said:
“Sanctuary has given us the capacity and head room to think through our service redesign. This has contributed to our vastly improved efficiency of our children’s services for vulnerable children and young people. They understand our requirements and quickly mobilised several teams of highly experienced social work practitioners.”
