Effective messaging to attract new demographics into care work

People who receive care expect to be supported by skilled staff who have spent time getting to know them, and whose company and care they enjoy.

With so many vacancies for care workers, it can be hard for providers to deliver good quality care. It is costly for care providers to hire and train new staff.

Care work seems to be much less attractive to some groups, for instance, fewer men and few young people enter the care workforce, and yet their recruitment is likely to improve the quality and demographics of the care work offered. Low pay is a universal problem and explains some of the difficulties attracting people into the sector. Yet this is not the whole story.

Some of the problem might be how the sector presents and talks about ‘care work’ in its recruitment efforts.
 

• Aims

  This research aims to understand whether how we describe care work makes a difference to how appealing social care work is to different groups of potential jobseekers.

• Methods

  Throughout the research, our research collaborators will be consulted to inform and shape every aspect of the study.

  Studies that report on this topic will be reviewed to learn lessons to shape our study. Feedback gathered from individuals who are thinking of applying for care work, and care recipients and care providers of care homes and home care will help in producing a shortlist of key attributes of the care worker role for use in care worker job adverts. This will include the role of pay rates and information about the size and set-up of the employer organisation, the role and preference for the stated values and ethos of the employer organisation and the care workers working for them.

  Based on the evidence and consultations which have shaped development of this research to date, the key priority groups will be young people and men and their preferences will be explored for types of information contained within care worker job adverts. We will, however, collect data on other characteristics and groups where stakeholders identify other gaps and under-represented groups in the care workforce, such as men and younger people, preferences. will be explored for types of information contained within care worker job adverts. A small group of study participants who are considering undertaking care work will be consulted to explore preferences for attributes (characteristics) of a care worker job advert. A much larger group will be invited to participate in an online survey to explore the relative importance of the different attributes for use in a care worker recruitment advert.
   

• Planned outputs

  Experts, including a young adult carer, a male care worker, Skills for Care workforce leads, an external Workforce Lead at Leicestershire County Council and academic experts, have supported us in designing this project and will continue their support over the duration of the project. Their expertise will shape the evidence generated in this project to ensure knowledge transfer for impact.

  Research findings will be disseminated through online webinars and lay summaries produced with and for relevant stakeholder audiences, as well as via the NIHR SSCR annual conference/ academic conferences and via a journal article that is practitioner focused. The EconomicS of Social CarE CompEndium (ESSENCE) project and the Social Care Economics NEtwork (SCENE) will also be used to shape and share the use of the study findings.