Social Care Kickstart
An innovative solution for attracting, selecting and developing new talent.
Advertising, shortlisting, vetting and inducting new workers is expensive, time consuming and holds no guarantee of success at the end of it all.
So why not leave the hard work to someone who is an expert in recruitment instead? We can save you time, effort and expense – leaving you more time to do what you do best – provide excellent care to the people who use your services.
To date our KickstartTM programme has successfully placed over 2,100 people in employment with local authorities, voluntary organisations and private care organisations across the UK.
Who is KickstartTM for?
Training Synergy, the company behind KickstartTM works with some of the UK’s leading companies and public sector organisations – including more than 180 local authorities and almost every NHS trust and MOD facility.
KickstartTM can work for any social care and health organisation faced with medium to high-volume staffing requirements.
…so how does it work?
1. We get to know your needs
The KickstartTM programme works with employers to locally source carefully selected and suitably trained candidates for either temporary or permanent work. Understanding your organisation, your work and your needs is critical to the overall success of this.
Through effective research and analysis of your specific staffing needs, we build a recruitment and training solution tailored exclusively to your organisation’s business culture, objectives, employment profile and vacancy profile.
2. We advertise on your behalf
Our marketing team will run an effective marketing campaign using your company’s distinctive branding. We use local press and on-line advertising as well as local job centres to promote your organisation directly to candidates.
Additionally we have access to a vast database of people on our national system who are looking for new opportunities and career moves in the social care sector.
3. We screen and assess your candidates
We conduct initial pre-screening of all applicants via telephone. Based on criteria agreed with you, our consultants assess candidates on their key experience, qualifications and skills to develop a short list of candidates who meet your core requirements and are best suited for providing good quality care.
All successfully pre-screened candidates are invited to an assessment day. The assessment day is a highly interactive event, giving you the opportunity to assess pre- screened candidates through a series of tests, group discussions, and interviews in an organised and controlled manner.
Training Synergy will work with you to develop the content for the day and use a series of proven evaluation and profiling methods to assess candidates.
4. We invite candidates to an open day with your organisation
Designed in partnership with your organisation, our open day gives candidates an honest and accurate understanding of the role they are taking on in the challenging, yet rewarding field of social care.
The day focuses on what candidates can expect on a day-to-day basis in a residential or nursing home, day centre or any other care setting, and we also highlight the career opportunities available to committed and dedicated staff.
5. We run your KickstartTM training programme
Our intensive KickstartTM training programme is developed around the core skills and competencies you require and aligned to the Skills for Care Induction standards.
This focused learning builds awareness, knowledge and understanding of your organisation’s ethos, values and practices. Kickstart’s flexible, innovative training uses continuous assessment and encourages attendees to develop and enhance their skills, whilst learning how to apply their knowledge to care and your business needs.
Our typical KickstartTM social care training programme includes:
CIEH Level 2 Award in Health and Safety in the Workplace - 1 Day
CIEH Level 2 Award in Food Safety in Catering - 1 Day
CIEH Principles of Manual Handling - 1 Day
HSE Emergency Aid for Appointed Persons, including Infection Control - 1 Day
Protection of Vulnerable Adults - 1 Day
Communication, Patient Confidentiality and Team Working - ½ Day
Fire Safety Awareness - ½ Day
Managing Violence and Aggression - ½ Day
Organisation Policies and Procedures - * 1 Day
Service Users and Diversity - * ½ Day
Values and Attitudes - * ½ Day
NVQ Level 2 Health and Social Care - 10 week course
6. We evaluate candidates skills and interview them for you
Course completion gives candidates the opportunity to prove their knowledge and understanding during a concluding formal assessment session. Training Synergy then evaluates the candidate’s skill, competency and proficiency against a benchmark of performance indicators agreed with you. Finally, after successfully passing through all the above stages, the successful candidates are available to attend a final selection interview with you. Aftercare… now all it’s up to you (not quite!)
Training Synergy can offer a programme of mentoring and support following successful recruitment. This can include the provision of onsite consulting support, mentoring your new recruits, undertaking on-going reviews and appraisals, or supporting your HR department in conducting full Training Needs Analysis of your new recruits.