Recruitment & Retention Meeting
Held on the 30th April 2014
Practice Development Centre, Maidstone
Present:Donna EldridgeDeputy Director of Nursing
Madeline LambieService Manager for Thanet MHSOP
Lorraine JacobsPractice Placement Facilitator
Mike CurtinLead Nurse, Acute Service Line
Emma BowlerLead Nurse, Forensic Service Line
Apologies:Michele StreatfieldLead Nurse, OPMHN & Specialist Service Line
Ruth BaileyAssociate Director HR
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9. / Minutes of Previous Meeting
1.3 should read re-branded. The minutes were then agreed as correct.
Matters Arising
CRSL Service Line
Difficulties in other areas as well as the Beacon.
Recruitment Strategy
Donna has had discussions with Ruth and she is putting a Strategy together for everyone. The Safer Staffing group want the first draft by the end of May. It will outline areas that are difficult to recruit and what we are going to do about that. Ruth is on leave so there was nothing to show the group.
Donna asked if there was anything that we wanted included in the Strategy. Lorraine spoke about the length of time it takes for something to go to advert especially for those working for us. Donna has raised this at the Safer Staffing group and Nikki Prince is taking this forward. The CQC also criticises Trusts about their recruitment process.
Discussion took place around the length of time it takes for DBS to come back and Donna stated that internal staff should be able to start at risk and Emma said that this is what she does.
When staff give a months notice it takes a long time to recruit so the process should start as soon as someone hands in their notice. Donna stated that this was discussed yesterday as the blockage is in the authority to recruit. Jonathan Manser from Finance is going to take this forward
Recruitment Fairs Local/National
There are two National recruitment fairs one in Manchester and one in London. The RCN are putting on these events for nursing. Donna would like one representative from each Service Line to attend so there would be six in total including Donna going as Deputy Director of Nursing from the Safer Staffing Group and Mike.
Mike already had nominations from the following.
- Amanda Hatfield-Tugwell – OPMHN
- Tom Clark – Acute
- Nikki Grieve – Forensic
Emma explained that Kevin Halpin is not sure about Manchester so Donna asked Emma to find out why not and let her know. Donna stated that it would be good to have full SL representation as they would have the in-depth knowledge of the SL.
Local events need to take place to target the Kent population. There is difficulty recruiting to Thanet and Donna is meeting with Jon Parsons, Madeline and Michele to look at recruitment.
Lorraine talked about an open day where people can get the feel of what a Mental Health Trust is like and TGU will be having an open day on the 30th May and Andrew thought we could look at the Universities.
Donna wanted to know from the Service Lines where the hotspots were to recruit from and it those we want to target. Lorraine stated that Nicky Dawber was going to the University of Greenwich for end of course evaluation so it would be an opportunity to mention not just our vacancies but alsohighlight West Kent Neuro Rehab.
Donna explained that at the meeting yesterday there was a long discussion about recruitment being a National problem and how we need to look at things differently. At road shows we are the poor relations as everyone else has freebies to give away. Donna was able to obtain quite a lot of money so she showed the group the mental health bag which will attract people to the stand and the contents included.
- Stress Ball
- Pen
- Sticky note pads
- Mints
- Bugs
Donna discussed with Mike that they will not give everyone a bag only those who are interested in taking a pack.
Donna discussed the Guardian website and Nikki Prince has agreed to fund an initial recruitment banner on their site.
They also target an international audience on a ‘like for like’ basis from Australia. They also use Facebook and LinkedIn.
Along discussion took place around this and everyone thought it was a good idea as we have nothing to lose.
Donna asked if there were any other ideas around how we can recruit. Lorraine mentioned the return to practice nurses but we do not have the funding for the course and she has asked Lorna if we can have at least two as recruitment of staff is such a high priority.
Donna asked if everyone would go back to their Service Lines and start to ask about vacancies.
- National Job Fairs
- Local Job Fairs
- Guardian Website
- Social Media
- Links on Linkendin – tapping in to all job adverts
It is also worth looking at colleges who are doing Health & Social Care and all schools have websites. Mike went through the websites. He said that at the previous meeting they had discussed how Forensic had put a video on
Youtube. Emma stated that Tarentfort is out on Youtube and it is about 8/9mins long. She also explained that TGU are doing something smaller about “my journey in the NHS” and Catherine Ayles and Nikki Grieve have been doing this. It was agreed that this needs to be done for all Services.
Information Packs for Recruitment
Mike said that the packs are coming from Comms and there will 1000/2000 We also need to market KMPT so they are getting a marketing company in to do a résumé of all our services. Leaflets about marketing Kent and what Kent offers. Donna is going to talk to Comms about how we market this and put together an information pack.
Mike has received information back from Older Peoples’ Services and Forensic but we are short on photos and he will put one together for Acute but he does not know who is doing this for CRSL so Andrew will liaise with Mike. It will only need an A4 type sheet which can be put in the packs. Discussion took place around including job description but the only generic one is for Ward Managers so we would not put them in the packs. We could put links to NHS jobs and a ‘day in the life of a Staff Nurse’. Youtube is a particularly good and also the patient’s story. Donna will speak to Mike Reid from Comms
A lot of work is being done with the schools but Lorraine will contact the Colleges to see if they have any recruitment events. Lorraine said that we can also target students and make sure our Trust is more appealing than Oxleas. At the Preceptorship Action Learning Set there was a large group on Band 5 nurses new to the Trust who are here instead of SLAM or Oxleas so we need to retain them.
Emma stated that we do not give any increase in pay for Band 2 but if they were to go to the Brackton it would make a massive difference. The pay is not keeping them here. Donna explained unfortunately it was a National agenda and there was nothing we could about it. An email from the RCN are pushing forward a 1% pay rise and are doing an on site survey so Donna asked that you encourage staff to do this. Madeline said that Kent is an expensive place to live.
Andrew suggested how we could help make the transition in a new job by a buddy scheme. Clinical supervision is a problem in both areas and we are not moving on. We need to tell people to come to Kent in terms of supporting them and making this happen.
We need to sell Preceptorship more as this is not reflected in the staff survey.
Donna has a meeting with Alison Grimsey looking at the website and promoting the 1.1 million we have been for staffing from the Board. Mike saw a link on the RCN website with a link to KMPT and how the staff survey was poor.
Madeline suggested that we focus on apprentices but they are not informed about them and are not clear about it. Emma has 5 apprentices and 4 are now a Band 2. They spent 6 months initially and the college has stated that they can do anything with training. Madeline asked if she would share those successes. Fiona Anderson is the lead for apprentices and she knows where people are.
Service Line Vacancies
Discussion took place around the vacancies for Service Lines and how the Acute have 100 vacancies.
Yesterday at the Safer Staffing Group it was said that we do not always advertise on NHS jobs. We need to have a vacancy update monthly per unit on a monthly basis. We also need to email and ask Michele and Jon for their vacancies and Emma and Andrew will do their Service Lines.
It was suggested that a live database be set up and Donna will take this back to Ruth Bailey.
Mike talked about the recruitment fairs and how the sub-group talked about target audiences and as well as qualified and unqualified staff do we open it up to Social Workers and other professions. Donna has spoken with Nikki Oatham and Debbie Bray about the local events and they will let us know their vacancies.
Mike talked about 6th forms and Lorraine will contact the colleges. Although we have had events here with MaplesdenSchool and St. John Fisher might thought we should invite more schools through a 1-day Conference for schools before they drift into other professions. Work experience was also discussed.
Local recruitment events were discussed and the structure of the days. Some of the points raised were that they be classroom based with 15 minute slots promoting each Service Line and arranging visits on later dates. HR also need to be present at these events.
Emma explained that they have an open day on the 30th May and they are limiting it to 20 people. In the afternoon one or two will have a short ward visit. Lorraine suggested having a skills lab where they can come and have their blood pressure taken.
Discussion took place around how we advertise:
- Local press
- NHS Jobs
- Open Day
- Guardian.
Lorraine suggested linking with national events so that they could come to an open day and look at Kent as well. We could have local event in Maidstone on a Saturday and we would capture more people that way. Discussion took place around this and the venue could be Trust HQ and we could also hold one in Canterbury. Donna stated that we could pilot this at Thanet.
Any other Business
Lorraine asked if we network with the Job Centre and Donna will ask HR if we have any links.
Mike explained that they were having problems with the marketing company and he has spoken with Comms. There is an issue with the design company and Comms have stated that they are not very good. Mike is putting it on hold at the moment as they are charge for every single change so you have to tell them exactly what you want. Mike sent 6 different photos which they put on one poster which nobody in the group liked.
Lorraine will ask Lorna if there is a possibility of raising secondment numbers which would be useful for Service Lines. They currently had 4 people for 2 places.
Date and Time of Next Meeting
The next meeting will be the 27th June in Room 300 at Priority House Maidstone.
Future Meetings
30th July in the Large Boardroom Canterbury at 2.00 p.m.
26th September and 28th October in the Large Boardroom Canterbury at 9.30 / DE
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