How can senior leaders help to recruit young people?

As the healthcare sector remains in a recruitment crisis, how can practices lean on the support of their senior leaders to recruit young people?

The most recent NHS Digital vacancy statistics for England show that full-time equivalent staff vacancies in NHS trusts in England increased from around 133,100 in the quarter to June 2022, to around 133,400 in the quarter to September 2022 – marking a five-year high. 

The health and social care workforce needs to build new pathways into jobs and careers for disadvantaged young people who may be out of education, training or employment and are unaware if the opportunities available to them across the heath and social care sector. To do this successfully, practices can lean on the support of their senior leaders and these five steps can help to get senior leaders on board.

Show them the bigger picture 

Demonstrate how recruiting young people can help the practice meet both national and internal priorities. The NHS Long Term Plan outlines a commitment to grow and diversify the NHS workforce, developing career paths for local people. For practices, recruiting young people can build a recruitment pathway to boost future workforce plans. 

Use funding incentives

Highlight the funding opportunities that are available for practices to build sustainable pathways into employment. There is a range of ongoing training and development opportunities for young people entering the workforce, such as Kickstart, apprenticeships, traineeships and T-levels. 

Utilise data 

Practices can use data to review their local recruitment approaches by using their vacancy rate and the age profile of their workforce. Practices should be using data to look at how they currently recruit young people, what works well in this process, and what can be improved to reach out to those who are under-represented. 

Celebrate success

Recognise and celebrate the good work already achieved. Communicate successes involving senior leaders and highlight the impact that this can have within teams.

Identify a board-level champion

Finding a board member to champion the recruitment aims of a practice can help to encourage other board members to engage in the process of recruiting young people. It is important that practices tailor their information so that it is relevant to specific senior leaders and their priorities and focus areas.