Recruiting More Men into Social Care
Project Background
There is a greater proportion of women in care roles compared to men. IMPACT is working with Paradise Independent Living in North London to explore ways to recruit more men.
The project seeks to identify barriers to recruiting men in the social care workforce and to understand what may help. To put this into context, Skills for Care reported that only 19% of the workforce are men despite 152,000 vacant posts reported.
Before this Facilitator project started an evidence review was conducted by IMPACT. This highlighted the multi-level change required across sectors in addition to a cultural shift.
Project Engagement
To build up a picture of what draws some men into social care and why others do not enter the workforce, Marlene is in the process of talking to men in range of different situations:
- Men currently working in social care originally from the UK.
- Men currently working in social care originally from overseas.
- Men who have previously worked in social care.
- Men who have never worked in social care.
- Residents of care homes.
- Family or friends of a care home resident.
- Male students at Further Education colleges.
During the interviews she is learning what the person identifies as the opportunities, barriers and solutions to the sector recruiting more men. Following the conversations, it will be interesting to see how what is learned from these groups compared to what was identified in the evidence review.
Project Host Organisation
This project is based at Paradise Independent Living in North London. They have provided services for over 24 years and offer specialised support to people with brain injuries. Their main focus is to ensure people maximise their independence and improve their quality of life. They believe going through such a traumatic life-changing event as they have, means their work is invaluable at ensuring people and their families can start their journey of healing emotionally, physically, and mentally. They want to be part of that healing process and help in any way they can.
Paradise Independent Living have shared their thoughts on the project below:
Why did you want to be involved with IMPACT?
We thought it would be interesting as an organisation to get further insight into how we can help encourage more men into social care. Our client group is men and we often struggle to recruit male staff. As an organisation we are always looking for ways to improve.
What are your hopes for project?
I hope it will give us some insight into how we can make a difference as an organisation ultimately improving outcomes and the support and care we provide, and of course an understanding of what prevents or may encourage men to enter a social care profession.
What potential challenges have you envisaged?
Time. There are so many demands on our time. We also work with people who health is changing as they are aging and being responsive to that means sometimes our lovely plans go out the window. So giving the appropriate time and attention may be difficult.
Why do you think a centre like IMPACT is important?
IMPACT focuses on improvement based on evidence. This means for many people there can be an improvement in the quality of care they get. This will then impact their life, and there is nothing more rewarding than knowing what you are doing could be life changing for someone and maybe help them achieve things they never thought were possible.