Recruiting from your community

Three podcasts from NHS Employers on recruitment:

• Recruiting from your community - episode one
• Engaging with and recruiting from your local community - episode two
• Recruiting from your local community episode three

Sponsorship guidance for migrants updated (Tiers 2 and 5)

The Tier 2 and Tier 5 guidance for sponsors has been updated following the publication of the UK immigration rule changes. 

This guidance is to be used for all Tier 2 and Tier 5 sponsor licence applications made and certificates of sponsorship (CoS) assigned, on or after 11 January 2018.

Briefing on rotational posts published

NHS Employers has published a new briefing document exploring how rotational posts can be an effective response to the challenges faced by employers in attracting and retaining staff.

It looks at the need to be innovative with workforce supply strategies to attract, develop and retain staff, and how this can be done through rotating substantive staff into different departments, organisations, or across a range of organisations.

Programme launched to support AHPs and healthcare scientists to return to practice

The Department of Health, in collaboration with Health Education England (HEE), has launched a new initiative to support allied health professionals (AHP) and healthcare scientists (HCS) return to practice.

 It supports AHPs and HCSs whose registration has lapsed or for those who have not registered for over five years since qualifying. Upon completion, this programme will allow them to return to the register.

International recruitment quick guides updated

NHS Employers has updated its range of quick guides on international recruitment.

This resource is designed to help employers identify the right tier for different professions when recruiting individuals from outside of the UK that require a sponsor to work in the UK.

Immigration and the Tier 2 recruitment process
This guide sets out the recruitment process that an employer should follow to meet the Home Office UK Visas and Immigraion (UKVI) requirements to sponsor migrants under Tier 2 (General) of the points-based system.

Step-by-step guide to applying for certificates of sponsorship (CoS)
This step-by-step guide highlights the differences between the unrestricted and restricted certificates of sponsorship and the process that employers should use when applying for them.

Changes to data protection requirements under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

This factsheet from NHS Employers, developed in conjunction with Capsticks, outlines the key changes that will affect the way that employers in NHS organisations carry out tasks involving personal data, particularly around employment checks and recruitment processes.

Language Competency Good Practice Guidance for Employers

This guidance, from NHS Employers, outlines the importance of English language competency assessment to help NHS organisations enhance any existing protocols and support employers to effectively assess language competency where appropriate.

The language competency good practice guide has been updated to ensure additional clarity for employers.

New case study on how to run a successful recruitment fair

NHS Employers has published a new case study focusing on how Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust successfully ran a recruitment day to increase its nursing and health care assistant workforce.

The study looks at how the trust targeted nurses wanting to return to practice in the NHS, as well as more traditional groups such as nurses in training. The organisation reached out to experienced nurses working outside of the NHS through a variety of communications channels to secure over 160 attendees at their event. They interviewed 110 people leading to 95 job offers to both registered nurses and healthcare assistants.

There for us: a better future for the NHS workforce

This report from NHS Providers warns that uncertainty over international recruitment is threatening safe, high quality care for patients. It says there are no domestic “quick fixes” to the severe workforce shortages in the NHS, and that any significant reduction in the number of overseas staff in the next few years is likely to have a serious and damaging impact on services for the public. It calls for urgent steps to ease pressures on front line staff, and to develop an NHS workforce fit to meet the growing and changing needs of the population.

Updated employment check standards

NHS Employers has updated the employment check standards for 2017.

While the legal requirements have remained largely unchanged, this year’s review has responded to requests for additional clarity on certain elements of the requirements.  The check standards cover six areas:

• identity
• right to work
• employment history and references
• professional registration and qualifications
• criminal record
• work health assessments.

See also the updated employment checks document cross reference tool.

Measuring up: your community and your workforce

There are groups of potential candidates in your community who could help you to address your workforce supply challenges, now and in the future. In order to help employers think about recruiting from these groups, NHS Employers has launched a new digital tool to help you compare your current workforce data with data from your local community. 

The aim of the tool is to highlight groups in your community that may be missing from your workforce, and will signpost you to advice on how to better attract, recruit and retain from these groups in order to strengthen your workforce supply.

Disposable expertise: how nurses and teachers get taken for granted

Fiona Johnson looks at the similarities between the two professions, argues we underestimate their expertise at our peril, and suggests why they’re not appreciated enough.

The Nuffield Trust is preoccupied with the workforce challenges in the NHS, all of which, it argue, are at least as serious as the financial problems besetting the NHS.   Routes into nursing are also proliferating with the advent of the nursing associate role, nurse apprenticeships and Nurse First. It might be salutary to learn some lessons from teacher training as these new options are rolled out.

Action is clearly needed as nurse vacancy rates are at record levels, creating a vicious cycle of pressure, burnout and more pressure for remaining staff. Yet the NHS appears to have no coherent retention strategy for its nursing workforce.

Rising pressure: the NHS workforce challenge

A new Health Foundation report highlighting that national policy and planning for the NHS workforce in England is not fit for purpose. The report also finds high staff turnover and instability across the NHS, and a drop in the number of trainee nurses.

The new disability confident standard

As part of the disability confident campaign the DWP has produced a range of promotional material for employers and stakeholders to use on their internal communications, on their website and share with their customers and networks.

NHS Employers has been working closely with the Department of Work and Pensions and NHS England to encourage trusts to migrate across to the new disability confident standard. Trusts are encouraged to acquire the new disability confident standard as soon as possible as in readiness for the forthcoming Workforce Disability Equality Standard.

Find out more details on the disability confident scheme and download promotional material for your disability confident campaign.

Reward as part of an effective recruitment strategy

This new case study from NHS Employers highlights how Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust used reward, within a clear recruitment strategy to attract employees, increase applications for roles, reduce agency spend and nursing vacancies.

Falling number of nurses in the NHS paints a worrying picture

Pressures on nursing staff and the potential impact on patients are again in the news just as Jeremy Hunt promises more nursing training places – for good reason as the latest NHS workforce statistics show.

The number of nurses employed in the NHS follows a stable seasonal pattern. Numbers rise in the autumn as newly qualified staff complete their training and then decline again until the following summer as some staff resign or retire, before beginning the cycle once more as another year’s newly qualified staff arrive.

NMC to amend English language requirements for applicants trained outside the UK

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is making alternative options available for nurses and midwives, trained outside the UK, to demonstrate their English language capability.

New enhancements to DBS services

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) is introducing a number of enhancements to improve their services.

The changes, which can help employers speed up their recruitment and referral process, will either be available immediately or will come into effect in 2018.

New infographic launched on the routes into nursing

NHS Employers' infographic highlights the costs and benefits to different nursing supply options and the time scales to be expected in order to recruit a registered nurse into the system. The webpages to support this also highlight good practice and offer further information about each of the different routes to support employers in thinking about workforce supply.

The infographic also helps employers to see the new routes into the extended nursing family with the creation of the nursing associate role and the nursing degree apprenticeship.

Recruitment through Social Media

A new case study from NHS Employers about how Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (NUTH) developed a social media strategy to engage with a wider audience, improve the quality and quantity of candidates, and target passive job seekers.

The trust has organically over a two-year period grown it’s followers to 23,000 people on Facebook, reaching an average of 52,000 people via posts each week. This allows them to promote working at NUTH as a package deal, enabling the recruitment team to target and connect with specific workforce groups and keeping people informed of opportunities.

Read the full case study from Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to find out more about how they developed a media strategy to aid nurse recruitment.


See also Harrogate's social media journey:

In this blog, Richard Wormwell, a resourcing manager at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, shares his personal experience of using a digital advertising agency to help the trust develop a social media recruitment campaign. He shares how trust set up a dedicated Facebook page and the engagement that went on to ensure it reached a wide audience with engaging content.