Train
Training staff regardless of how they have been recruited is essential to ensuring you have skilled, confident staff, who are empowered to undertake their role to the highest of their ability.
This includes ensuring you support your care workers to register with the Scottish Social Services Council within the first 3 months of employment, and continually support them to complete their qualification and undertake additional CPD.
Internally, having robust induction and onboarding processes will support your employees to thrive within their role, and also build confidence and satisfaction which leads to improved retention.
Induction and Onboarding
Getting started
A robust induction is imperative for all staff starting within your organisation to ensure they have the right knowledge, behaviours and competencies to do their job to the highest possible standard. For internationally recruited staff, this should involve equipping them with the right knowledge and information required to facilitate a seamless transition into commencing work. Ample time (2-3 weeks) should be given to allow the new staff to learn about the organisation’s ways of working embedded in company policies and procedures which support effective working and service delivery.
The SSSC has developed a National Induction Framework to support induction for adult social care across Scotland. It is intended to complement the induction and Continuous Professional Learning (CPL) provided by employers. It supports workers, together with their employers to identify what knowledge and guidance they need to be equipped with, and be confident of, to safely provide person-centred support to people in their new role. More information can be found here:
- SSSC – National Induction Framework
Registration
If registration is required to work within your organisation (usually because your organisation is registered with the Care Inspectorate) you must signpost and support newly recruited employees to register with the SSSC. Information on this process can be found here:
- SSSC – Who can register?
Qualification
Scottish Vocational Qualification (SVQ) is an occupational qualification obtained whilst working and is aimed at helping individuals work effectively and confidently. It consists of core and mandatory training which helps to maintain training standards. Where applicable, when facilitating registration organisations should ensure employees understand what SVQ is necessary and how to obtain it. More information can be found here:
- Scottish Care – Qualifying Care: An exploration of social care registration and qualification in Scotland
- Scottish Qualification Authority – SVQs and SQA accredited qualifications
Continuous Professional Development (CPD)
CPD is relevant in assisting the candidate develop a career within their world of work. Knowing that there are good opportunities to develop within the role and to progress to other roles within organisations can be a key factor in retaining a worker within an organisation. Early commitment by managers and collaborative work with newly employed staff members will ensure clarity of purpose and motivation in fulfilling employment and career goals. More information on CPD for care workers and the organisations that employ them can be found here:
- SSSC – Careers in social care
Functional Skills
Ensuring your employees can continually learn within their role is important. Skills for life such as functional skills should be a core element of this learning. More information on functional skills can be found here:
- Health Education England – Skills for life
Driving in the UK
Many care roles, particularly with a Care at Home employer, require an individual to have a valid UK driving licence. The rules concerning the use of an overseas driving licence, and the ability to exchange it for a UK driving licence, do vary depending upon which country has issued the original licence.
Here are some of the rules, but for full details and to check individual circumstances go to the UK.Gov site ‘Driving in Great Britain on a non-GB licence’.
- Some insurance providers will only cover individuals with a full UK driving licence, so check with your insurance provider.
- If the licence was issued in Gibraltar, Jersey or the Isle of Man, or one of these countries: Andorra, Australia, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Japan, Monaco, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Republic of North Macedonia, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates and Zimbabwe, then it is permitted to drive in Great Britain on a full, valid licence for 12 months from when the individual became a resident and to exchange the licence for a UK licence within 5 years. The DVLA state a turnaround time of 3 weeks for exchanging a foreign licence for a UK licence, so not a prohibitive time period.
- An individual from Ukraine can use a valid driving licence in Great Britain for 36 months after becoming a resident.
- If the licence was issued in the European Union or European Economic Area then the individual can use that to drive in the UK, there is no 12-month time limit on using that licence, generally you can use it to the age of 70. However, the individual can also exchange the licence for a UK one without the need to take a test.
- If the licence was issued in a country not mentioned above (that is anywhere else in the world), then someone can drive for 12 months, after which an application will need to be made for a provisional licence, and the practical and theory tests will need to be taken and passed. There is a requirement for an individual to have lived in Great Britain for at least 185 days in the 12 months before the day of the test.
The ability to drive company vehicles is a requirement for many roles, so where this is the case, it will need to be factored into any recruitment plan. Some flexibility will need to be adopted, for example, perhaps the individual could pair up with a qualified driver until they are able to drive on their own. Another option could be to employ the individual in a care home, without the need to travel, gaining experience until they are able to drive. Alternatively, perhaps some rearrangement of routes could allow a care worker to walk, cycle or take public transport between visits.
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