The Challenge
A recruitment process that pulls a manager away from their day-to-day tasks is not what any client wants to implement. Their time should not be spent sifting through CVs of temporary workers, but rather it should be spent delivering the service and supporting both their service users and Social Workers in their roles.
Oxfordshire County Council is no different. They needed an innovative but budget-sensitive solution to clear a large backlog of cases. As one of their leading, specialist suppliers, both Oxfordshire County Council and their vendor supplier Comensura, approached Caritas to help with their challenge.
One of the key specifications of the project was to ensure the project was inside IR35, as the client wanted to keep case management and control.
With open communication and trust between all parties, Caritas presented a solution that answered the clients’ challenges whilst working to ensure all spend went via the contract solution, Comensura thereby supporting the client and keeping costs to a minimum.
With our in-depth knowledge of the social worker market and a very clear client specification, we were able to package together with an offer to potential candidates, meaning we had the tools to go to market and find the volume of experienced candidates required to fill the roles in a quick timeframe.
Client Objective
- To Clear a Backlog of 120 assessment within CIN and First Response.
- ‘Front Door’ pressure relief team, to clear cases within timescales.
- Provide support to teams for short time during peak demand.
- Candidates must start within 4 weeks.
- Hire highly experienced Social Workers.
- Within Budget Supply – no ‘off contract’ spend.
- Access expert market knowledge to aid recruitment.
Client Success
Comensura’s thoughts
Rapid & Outstanding Supply:
“Within less than two weeks of receiving the go-ahead from the client, Caritas secured a total of 8 Social Workers, 2 of whom have already started, the rest starting within a couple of weeks. Where there was one social worker who was unable to start a project, Caritas was able to replace them that same week. Throughout the entire process, Caritas has been extremely professional, has exceeded all expectations, and has fully delivered on all their promises.”
Great Communication:
“This project required Caritas as the specialist to speak directly to the client (hiring managers) so they could fully understand the brief and deliver upon the project specification. Caritas and their account manager kept the client and Comensura fully informed of their progress throughout and the client was never left out of the communications, meaning there was a true partnership of supply. I was really grateful for this.”
True Specialist:
“Caritas is able to provide expert knowledge of market conditions and advise on what the current recruitment challenges are and provide solutions to the recruitment of temporary staff. As a result of this, Caritas understood the brief perfectly. The account manager provided suggestions on how we could generate interest in the roles along with information on other local authority pay rates and reasons why this would make the project a success. Without this knowledge, I do not think the client would have been as open to signing changes to the original parameters.”