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How the National Care Forum Kickstart Scheme can help you recruit new people into the sector

As part of our #RecruitmentReady spotlight Claire Sutton of the National Care Forum (NCF) tells us about their Kickstart Scheme and how it can help care providers with recruitment and capacity, as well as developing the sector and introducing new people to a career in care.

I'm really proud to be involved with the work that the National Care Forum is doing around the Government’s Kickstart Scheme and applying this to social care.

The great thing about this programme is that it helps care providers at an individual level by supporting them in recruiting new roles, and it also develops the sector at a wider scale by bringing new talent into a career in care.

What is the Kickstart Scheme?

The Kickstart Scheme is a national government programme that provides funding to create new six-month jobs for 16-24 year olds on Universal Credit who are at risk of long term unemployment.

The scheme offers 100% of the National Minimum Wage (or National Living Wage) depending on the age of the participant) for 25 hours per week for a total of six months, as well as associated employer National Insurance contributions and minimum automatic enrolment pension contributions and a set-up grant for each job.

This means that the Government pays the Kickstart employee’s salary rather than the employer.

What is the National Care Forum’s Kickstart Scheme?

The National Care Forum has created a scheme in conjunction with -a dedicated social enterprise that supports young people with employability skills and employment opportunities - and our long term partners .

We’ve put together a unique package of support to offer the best possible Kickstart experience to the whole care sector.

This consists of:

• a programme of monthly themed webinars which has been created in conjunction with Cohesion to support workplace mentors and employers on a variety of themes
• a dedicated Kickstart forum for peer-to-peer learning and sharing of experiences to promote best practice which enables participant employees and managers to communicate with one another
• full support from Pathway CTM for Kickstart placement participants.

This unique scheme offers a package of support not just for young people employed through the Kickstart Scheme but also to care providers taking part, and their existing employees who are acting as mentors for their new colleagues.

How employers are supported

Employers benefit from support from Pathway CTM by taking part in the scheme.

Pathway CTM support with the initial application and onboarding of Kickstart participants as well as taking on the commitment to offer a package of employability support to ensure that at the end of the placement participants are in the best possible position to apply for a permanent position.

In addition to this, employers also receive support from The National Care Forum and Cohesion in the form of the package of training offered to their existing staff, as well as the support from other care provider participants through the Kickstart forum membership.

For more information on using the Kickstart Scheme care providers can contact Claire Sutton on 07796 251666 or by email: claire.sutton@nationalcareforum.org.uk

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