Building on the fantastic pilot in Lincoln Green, this programme sees the city work in partnership to provide attractive and progressive careers within disadvantaged or under-represented communities in Leeds, removing traditional barriers to recruitment and employment, and providing practical support to help people succeed.
By engaging with people directly in the communities where they live, we are able to help them find the career that’s right for them, signpost them to local vacancies, education and training courses, employability programmes and volunteering opportunities, and ensure they have the support they need to thrive when joining Team Leeds employers.
The Connecting Communities with Health and Care Careers programme (CCHCC) was built on a ‘hub and spoke’ model. The ‘hub’ was the data control centre, and data was collected through a QR code that was included in numerous different pieces of promotional material that were distributed within target communities. A person could submit their data to the hub via a form that the QR code linked to. The hub then filtered that person through to the most appropriate ‘spoke’ for them – CCHCC was one of these spokes.
Campaign 1 (July-Oct 2021): Armley and New Wortley
This campaign focused on recruiting local residents for Leeds & York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust’s newly built Children and Young People’s Mental Health Inpatient Service, Red Kite View. Candidates were also supported to access social care roles via Leeds City Council’s We Care Academy and engaged with further employability support.
Campaign 2 (Feb 2022-July 2022): East Leeds
This campaign focused on Clifton and Nowells, Lincoln Green and Boggart Hill. Learnings from Campaign 1 highlighted that this programme engages the highest number of people when we interact with residents face-to-face, so we toured local schools and community centres to enable us to have direct conversations with residents. The people engaged were then referred for further 121 support. As part of this campaign, we also held work experience events within communities, where we aimed to inspire and attract our future workforce by engaging with them through the use of interactive activities.
IMPACT:
- 152 people from the target communities engaged with the project via the hub and spoke model.
- 211 people were supported through another spoke of activity, as well as accessing support through CCHCC, which included volunteering, work experience, pre-employment programmes, direct employment, training and education.
- 130 people received conditional offers of employment as a result of the project.
- 131 people achieved an accredited qualification as a result of the project.
- 17 COVID-19 vaccinations were administered during the process as the programme worked in partnership with the Bevan Nurses at a community outreach event. Three of these were first vaccinations, issued two and a half years after the start of the pandemic.
Please note: people could access more than one spoke. For example, somebody could access a qualification through one spoke, and then be filtered into a different spoke as their circumstances and experience changed, resulting in continuous data flow and support.
Case Studies:
We’ve spoken to a number of candidates, employers, recruitment and learning partners about their experience of the Connecting Communities with Health and Care Careers project.
Click on the links below to read the stories of people who’ve been directly involved in the programme:
- Candidate: Munashe Makoni – Business Support Apprentice at LTHT
- Candidate: Rahel Hagos – Apprentice Clinical Support Worker at LTHT
- Recruiting Partner: Joe Eastell – Senior Team Leader in Recruitment at LTHT
- Employer: Elissa Matley – Director of Operations at People Matters
- Employer: Ami-Rose Connor – Assistant Business Support Manager at LTHT
- Learning Partner: Beckie Perkin – Apprenticeship Assessor at Leeds City College
Click here to access a visual map that outlines how each of the above roles interacts with each other throughout the project.
Connecting Communities with Health and Care Careers Stories
For further information or ways to get involved, please contact Emma Holford, Project Manager at e.holford1@nhs.net.
