Placing wellbeing at the centre of candidate care
By Gemma Raw
As a recruitment agency, we never lose sight of one of our core values, which is to place people first.
We may be a recruiter but we’re also a compassionate and dutiful employer. We understand that caring for vulnerable people is not without its pressures and its impact on staff wellbeing.
That’s why, in 2016, we took the decision to appoint Clinical Safeguarding Lead, Junaid Dowool. As a highly-skilled Clinical Senior Manager and Forensic Mental Health Nurse, Junaid has created a clinical governance pathway that we’re exceptionally proud of. One that supports our candidate community in navigating challenging work and personal issues so that they are safe to practise.
We thought we’d catch up with Junaid to find out more about his role and why it’s so important.
Junaid, could you summarise the service that you offer?
“My role is to make sure that the professionals we place deliver excellent care to patients and clients. This is not just part of our clinical governance commitment as a framework provider and health and social care employer, we provide this level of support and guidance because we care.
“Our support ranges from listening to someone who has had a really tough day at work to providing clinical support to those who’ve experienced a trauma or death in service. Our focus is on making sure that these things do not impact an individual’s practice and that they can access the right support at the right time. We do not only value our workforce CPD (Continuous Professional Development) but also their wellbeing in doing their role effective and safely.”
Could you walk us through the clinical support provided?
“Our support to candidates starts at their clinical interview before being placed. Either myself or another clinician assesses whether a person is right for a role and that there are no clinical reasons why they should not take the position.
“Once in post, we’ll follow up with the candidate at either the six or nine-month mark (depending on the framework they are appointed through) where a clinical appraisal (a performance development review) is undertaken. This is not just a tick-box exercise. We make the time to fully understand how the person is feeling within their role - professionally, mentally and physically - and explore their future objectives in their ongoing development. For example, we may chat about their career goals and where they want to be in three to five years, which can prompt a move into a new post if they’re ready.
“We also deliver informal and formal supervision to support staff wellbeing, which can be extended to become more regular if a candidate is struggling with their mental health or needs help processing and recovering from a traumatic event.
“We do not just signpost candidates to services. We deliver most of the mental health and wellbeing support ourselves. We put clinical personalised care plans in place that cover a wide range of therapies tailored to the individual’s needs. Our aim is to help the person get to a place where they are happy and safe to practise.”
How do you make candidates feel valued?
“Our involvement is not all about supporting candidates through challenging times. It’s about helping them to grow in confidence and develop their careers.
“We even go as far as to support nurses and other health and social care professionals through the revalidation process, which can be quite a relief.
“Recognising when a candidate has gone above and beyond or had an excellent performance review is also something that’s important. It’s not unusual for us to send chocolates or flowers to say congratulations. Likewise, I’ll also put candidates forward for certain training if I think that it will benefit them and their practice. We promote a reflective and learning approach to review incidents.”
What support do you offer Sanctuary’s recruitment consultants?
“One of the first things I do when a new recruitment consultant joins Sanctuary is to train them on what it’s like in the day of a working life as a nurse, social worker and so forth. I explain what it feels like to have that amount of clinical responsibility and what a typical day looks like.
“This helps them to understand why candidates may sometimes feel frustrated and to always approach matters with compassion, which makes them even better at their job. At Christmas time, for example, I ask consultants to let me know if anyone they know could benefit from support, and I reach out to them.
“Of course, wellbeing support is extended to all of Sanctuary’s staff. After all, it’s important that we take good care of ourselves and exercise the same levels of care to one another that we do to our health and social care community.”
How do you manage complaints?
“Thankfully, complaints do not happen very often, but when they do, we have a clear process in place for handling them.
“As the Clinical Safeguarding Lead, my role is to seek to understand and not to judge as I am there to reduce clinical risk and look after the wellbeing of the candidate. A client may, for example, call Sanctuary to complain about a member of staff being late to work several times. The first thing I do is speak to the person concerned and explore whether anything is going on within their life, either at work or home, that could make them late. If there is, we talk through the challenges they are experiencing and possible solutions, and then I report back to the client. We also explore the clinical risks associated with such concerns and the impact on the service.
“In this situation, the candidate feels supported and understood and the client is reassured that Sanctuary is resolving the problem.
“If a situation with a candidate is considered a serious incident, we have a specific procedure we follow that’s in line with framework and professional body guidance. Again, we’ll always approach a situation without personal judgment.
“If there are clinical concerns about a particular candidate, which is rare, we’ll never just move them on to a new position in another setting. Part of our clinical responsibility is ensuring we are accountable for the people we place. We place emphasis on patients'/service users' safety and the continuity of safe care.”
