Guidance to Support Employers to Hire People with Convictions in the Adult Social Care Sector

Care England, teamed up with Working Chance, are proud to launch guidance designed to encourage and support employers in the adult social care sector to employ people with convictions into their workforce.

The new paper Hiring with Conviction highlights the huge potential that is there to be tapped by the sector, only days after Care England launched its annual Sector Pulse Check with Hft, reporting that a third of providers have had a decrease in the number of job applications received in the last year. Further to this, the CQC reported that 87% of providers are facing challenges with recruitment.

With 12.3 million adults of working age in England and Wales with a conviction, employers are becoming increasingly open-minded about employing people with convictions. Employing people with convictions can help an organisation become more vibrant and bring in a useful range of backgrounds and experiences.

People with convictions can often go overlooked when employers are thinking about attracting talent, or enhancing their organisation’s diversity. But hiring people with convictions makes sense on so many levels. It’s good for the individual, it’s good for their family, it’s good for society because it reduces reoffending and it’s great for business.

Care England and Working Chance’s report states the case for employing people with convictions, and provides guidance on best practice when considering those to join and complement the social care sector’s greatest asset – its workforce.

Click here to download the report

Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care England commented:

“Becoming more inclusive in how the health and social care sector approaches recruitment demonstrates that we are dedicated to providing the best possible care. Opening our doors to people who have served their sentences and have left the criminal justice system in their past makes good sense for our organisations and the people we exist to serve. People with convictions deserve a chance to rebuild their lives and forge meaningful careers in the health and social care sector. This guidance from Working Chance is the first step to understanding the benefits, as well as easily implementing practical changes to processes. I hope your organisation will consider the merits of this approach to hiring, and start having bold, forward-looking conversations.”

 

For further information on how to use this guidance, please contact Working Chance’s Lizzy Jewell (lizzy@workingchance.org)