Overview
Many organisations, large and small, reach out to the local communities around them and engage with residents to widen participation. This not only enables them to embed themselves further within the community, it helps them forge links with potential new employees.
This section shares top tips to support your organisation to widen participation.
Key challenges
- Educational attainments, particularly maths and English GCSE, are below average in the region
- Digital access and literacy
- Limited awareness of opportunities available
- Levels of confidence and experience
Benefits
- Valuable opportunity to work directly with under-represented groups
- Tackles health inequalities by addressing the social determinants of health
- Helps ‘grow your own’ workforce supply to address short and long term recruitment challenges
Takeaway tips
Establish community access points
Create priority access to jobs
Undertake locality based recruitment activity
Case studies
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) has a dedicated Widening Participation Team that delivers programmes aimed at attracting and recruiting local people. The team works closely with local schools, colleges and organisations to widen participation and increase access to and raise awareness of its career opportunities.
Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust
Almost 60% of Northern Care Alliance (NCA) staff are from the local community. Like MFT, NCA has a Widening Participation Team that’s dedicated to opening up better opportunities for local people to access NHS careers and develop in their role.
Useful links and resources
- A guide to inclusive recruitment for employers
- Confident with difference
- De-biasing recruitment
- Employing disabled workers in adult social care and health: a guide for employers
- Hidden Talents: refugee and asylum seeker community recruitment
- Inclusive recruitment case studies
- NHS equality, diversity, and inclusion improvement plan
- Supporting a diverse workforce
- The Inclusive Recruitment Toolkit: Workforce Transformation
- Updated guidance on recruitment of young people
Next » Supportive organisations
There are local and national supportive organisations on hand to help people overcome any barriers that may be preventing them from starting work.