Case Study: Slough Children First
By Andrew Pirie
When Slough Children First (formerly Slough Children's Trust) approached Sanctuary Personnel, they had a remarkable vision for turning round the life chances of children and young people, but they were struggling to recruit locum and permanent children’s social work professionals.
Having tried and tested a number of traditional agency ‘solutions’ without success, the trust invited Sanctuary Personnel to provide a bespoke master vendor solution. A solution that combines concentrated on-site social work recruitment, zero vendor costs (free technology) and social work marketing to attract locum and permanent social work professionals.
Eager to share the exciting and rewarding journey it is on to transform the lives of children and young people in Slough, the trust was immediately taken with Sanctuary Personnel’s solution.
The solution was to create a highly-targeted master vendor social work ‘bank’ of professionals; those interested in what the trust has to offer as an employer. The community Sanctuary Personnel has been successfully reaching out to, includes:
Sanctuary social workers within an hour’s commute of Slough
Social workers engaging with Sanctuary’s Social Work Hub
The trust’s existing supply permanent and locum supply
Those who had previously attended interviews or submitted CVs
All social workers who have attended Slough training events
On-site expertise
As a recruitment partner, we always place people first. What this means is that we always look to place the right person into each role. One of our specialist Account Managers is regularly on-site and acts as a point of contact for HR, Procurement, Finance and Management.
For the trust, the benefits are improved communication, greater transparency and swifter decisions. This makes the recruitment of social workers far quicker.
Real-time resourcing insights
We provide the trust with real-time management information detailing all spend to identify where savings can be made.
We’ve also introduced a dedicated online timesheet system making is easier for temporary social workers to log their time.
Fully-managed permanent recruitment solution
To help build a resilient workforce that can withstand the test of time, the trust is supported by our team of permanent recruitment consultants.
Understanding the market, we’ve worked with the trust on creating an excellent offer. We reach out to social work professionals we know who value working in new ways with manageable case-loads, supported by a fantastic relocation package.
From there, we shortlist those interested in a permanent position, prepare them for interview, deliver conditional offers, manage the entire compliance process and agree a start date.
Targeted recruitment marketing
To support our locum and permanent recruitment efforts for the trust, we’ve created and manage sloughsocialworkjobs.com. More than simply a job listing site, the website provides an insight into what it is like to work at the trust.
As a hub of information, social workers discover the exciting journey the trust is on to improve services for children and their families.
We also use our digital recruitment marketing expertise to create tailored job alerts and manage the digital outreach for the website. We also place free advertorials within our Social Work News magazine that has more than 50,000 registered subscribers.
Our aim, as always, is to find the most suitable and able professional for each role rather than simply the most available. We find this approach benefits both the employee and the employer.
To find out more about the roles available at Slough Children First, simply visit sloughsocialworkjobs.com. If you are a trust or council looking for an innovative outsourced recruitment solution, please contact us.
