The first team will be in Lytham St Annes in Lancashire, and the second team in Doncaster in the autumn.
The person specification is complete. It is in the format of a one-page profile.
We have called people Well-being Workers instead of carers, to emphasise that the role is to very different to a traditional carer.
The job description is also very different. We explain that the team will be small (no more than 12 people), self-managing and flexible.
Naturally, the way that we recruit people has to be different as well. We have designed a 10 – 2.30pm day (to try to accommodate people with caring responsibilities) that is underpinned by Values Based Recruitment principles and has opportunities for people to demonstrate how they work with others, solve-problems, use their initiative and share about themselves.
Here is an extract from the recruitment information: “Let’s start with a ten-minute chat. Please phone the office during office hours and ask to speak to Mel or Geraldine on 01253 739550. Tell them about yourself and why you are interested in this role. They will then send you more information and invite you to come and spend the day with us, and other people who want to be part of this team as well, at our Workshop Day. This is a fun day that is a cross between training, team building, and group interviews. It starts at 10 and runs till 2.30pm. When you speak to Mel or Geraldine they will give you the next date for one of our workshops. At the end of the day you will know whether this is the job for you, and we will know if you are a good fit for us. You will have built a one-page personal profile that you can use in any future job, so we hope it will be worthwhile whatever the outcome. And a request – please bring some lunch to share. This is not because we are too tight to provide lunch, it is because this is the ethos of how you will work together as team, bringing your skills and talents to the team. You don’t need to be a great cook at all, spending a few pounds on buying something is fine, it is the thought that matters here.”
It would be impossible to deliver a flexible, person-centred, empowering service, within the restrictions of task and time commissioned services in 30-minute slots. Therefore, to make this work, we can only serve people to either have a personal budget, as a direct payment or Individual Service Fund, or be funding themselves.
I have the same fear as someone organising a party. Will people turn up? Will they enjoy it? Will it work out OK? I don’t know, is the honest answer, but we are certainly up for trying.