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Fit for the future? Rethinking the public services workforce Contents

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Chapter 4: Recruiting people

Efforts to boost staff numbers

102.The Government has set targets to address certain staffing shortages, including:

• 50,000 more nurses in England by 2024;161
• 6,000 more doctors in general practice; and162
• 20,000 new police officers.163

103.The planned trend towards increased staff numbers is not consistent across the public sector. In May 2022, for example, the Prime Minister announced an intention to cut 91,000 jobs across the civil service over three years.164

104.Taking the nursing target as an example of an upward trajectory, a complicated picture of increasing demand emerges. In March 2022 there were 27,000 more nurses working in the health service than in September 2019, suggesting strong progress towards the Government’s target, although as of June 2022 there was some debate around this.165 Despite the increase in recruitment, the nursing vacancy rate rose from 34,700 in March 2021 to 39,700 in December 2021.166 Possible reasons for this discrepancy include an increase in workloads which has led to vacancies.167

105.Public service careers can be interesting, rewarding and personally fulfilling. However, many public service employers are falling short and failing to make an offer of employment that is appealing enough to a sufficient number of candidates.

106.This is particularly important in the context of the current labour market: a difficult environment in which to attract candidates. For the first time since records began, there are fewer unemployed people than job vacancies.168 This creates competition for qualified candidates, which applies to all employers.169 We heard that, “everybody has problems” in hiring and retaining staff and that private sector bodies (including investment banks) struggle with “hiring [and] retaining”.170

Pay

107.We heard a lot about public sector pay. Comments such as: “you will not fix these things without pay,”171 and pay “is a huge issue”172 were representative.173 Along with overstretch, low pay contributes to turnover: Mark Adam, Chief People Officer at the Ministry of Justice, described a high turnover of prison officers as being partly “pay driven”.174 The Police Superintendents’ Association said that, since pay cannot keep up with the private sector, “we therefore lose countless skilled, talented individuals who cannot see a reason to stay within policing.”175 Trade unions were vocal on this. Without action on pay we were told that employees will “vote with their feet and look for work elsewhere”.176

108.Skills for Care said that some care workers earn 21 pence less per hour than other low-paying (and potentially less stressful) occupations such as sales and retail assistance.177 Unison said that their survey of school support staff found that 96% said their pay isn’t enough for them to cope with increasing prices.178

109.Without action to address pay, it will continue to constitute a significant barrier to the sustainability of the public service workforce.

110.Pay is part of the attraction of any career and the public sector in general does not match private sector pay. There are “entrenched” pay disparities between public and private sectors.179 Witnesses characterised the situation as “an uneven playing field”.180 Witnesses argued that the public sector “will never compete with the private sector on pay”,181 particularly when looking at specialisms or those roles that require technological expertise.182 However, many witnesses acknowledged that the purse strings are too tight to match the “golden hellos” offered by some companies.183 Any approach must recognise the limits of what the taxpayer can afford.

Enhancing “the offer”

111.Multiple witnesses referred to “the offer” that employers present prospective employees. This refers variously to training and progression, salary, culture, and terms and conditions.184 Collectively, these were described as “vital”, a “key issue” and “key drivers” for a loss of staff in public service delivery.185 We have not attempted to address all aspects, but focus on two elements of the terms and conditions of employment which could significantly enhance “the offer”.186

Pensions

112.Public sector pensions are often seen as being attractive, with Joanne Roney describing them as “a hugely significant part” of why public service careers were appealing.187 We heard though, that they are inflexible and that difficulties in transferring them present “as much of a barrier … as an incentive” to some who may otherwise move into public service.188

113.Public sector pensions work differently from private sector pensions, and pension arrangements are not uniform across the public sector. While there is some consistency across central government departments, every non-centralised public sector employer seemingly has a different set of rules. Transferring pensions from one scheme to another can incur exit penalties, transfer costs or loss of existing benefits. The terms may change between schemes, meaning that those changing jobs may face different benefit structures and contributions.189 Some public sector pensions simply cannot be transferred.

114.Mark Adam described this as “a real challenge”.190 He gave the example of prison officers who, as civil servants, would not readily be able to transfer their pensions to another public service role (such as a police officer).191 If the aim is to attract staff from the private sector (which includes many in social care roles), there is a need to address barriers to doing so: “they may be put off if they cannot move their previous pension with them.”192

115.The Local Government Association (LGA) suggested a “public sector transfer club” which would ensure that benefits accrued in one role would be protected, and that some would be able to remain in their previous scheme. They also argued that those transferring from the private sector should always be allowed to keep their private sector pensions.193

116.With 30% of nurses expecting to retire in the next ten years, we were also attracted to the idea of flexibility in pensions for those who may be incentivised to return to the workforce part-time after official retirement.194 Joanne Roney thought that there was potential to have a more “agile, flexible working offer … that does not get tied up with bureaucracy that limits the capacity to bring people in short term, fixed term, or for short periods at points of capacity.”195

117.She did, though, caution us against “mess[ing] around” with the offer, and warned that requiring uniformity in public sector pensions could run the risk of adhering to the lowest common denominator.196

118.The importance of this issue was noted by the Government, and officials referred to a “a shared view … that this is something we are going to have to consider.”197 Little action is apparent, however. The Civil Service Pensions Board have commissioned work on the issue,198 though it is the Government, rather than that Board, who has responsibility for setting the relevant policy.199

119.There should be a comprehensive review of how pensions operate across the public services workforce. The goal should not be uniformity but flexibility to enable those coming to—or moving between—public service roles to do so without a financial penalty.

Flexible working

120.We heard evidence on various models of flexible working, which encompassed remote or hybrid working, job shares and flexible hours. We were told that this was a significant benefit that could be made available to people working in public services, and that “if the public sector is to compete with the private sector it must offer flexibility and a form of hybrid working”.200 The Department for Education wrote:

“Flexible working practices can help schools to recruit, retain and motivate staff. They can also improve staff wellbeing, promote equality of opportunity and diversity in the workforce and play a central role in ensuring that staff are deployed effectively and efficiently.”201

Other witnesses described flexible working as a “huge benefit”,202 and noted that it had the potential to widen the “talent pool”, with the attraction of flexible working being particularly strong for some groups.203 Joanne Roney felt that the traditional working culture of 9 to 5, Monday to Friday, “does not fit with modern young people”.204 Sian Elliott told us that, where employers advertise flexible working: “employers report a huge increase in women and disabled workers applying”.205 Such flexibility need not be limited to a remote working offer, but could examine other approaches, including compressed hours, a four-day week where workers take on 80% of their usual hours at full pay,206 or allowing workers to take on extra hours and be paid overtime.

121.As with flexibility in pensions, more flexible forms of working could be used to retain public services staff approaching retirement. Joanne Roney emphasised the value of “flexible retirement”, allowing people to come back into the workforce at a later stage or take on more flexible working later in their careers.207 Richard Lee’s company, Willmott Dixon, acknowledges the potential of flexible working for those people approaching retirement to increasingly work part-time.208

122.Such flexibility could also be used to attract people nearing retirement in other sectors to work in public services. The Government has shown interest in this possibility, with then-Minister for Schools Robin Walker sharing that:

“I have been discussing with colleagues having more of a ‘teach last’ approach to attract more people who have other life experience and may want to come into teaching towards the end of their careers. In a world in which people undertake more careers and work across more sectors, we need to make sure that the offer of teaching is there for people at all stages in life as well.”209

Richard Lee suggested private sector partnership could facilitate this—reflecting on the different roles Willmott Dixon employees had taken on when approaching retirement: “[staff had] gone to be governors for schools, people who are doing paid work in the NHS… people who have gone back into the Armed Forces as reservists”.210 The Government could also explore options of how to encourage staff to work beyond retirement age, for example through tax incentives.

123.Steven Littlewood, Assistant General Secretary of the First Division Association, a trade union for public sector managers, noted that the move to flexible working has, over the pandemic, been “effectively done for us”.211 The Police Superintendents’ Association said that their workforce had “shown without question that it can deliver without the restrictions of office-based hours”.212

124.We heard concern, though, that there is no central commitment to flexible working and that understanding varies. Matthew Lewis, UK and Ireland Director for Public Services within the recruitment firm Hays Recruitment, thought that “for a lot of organisations flexible working is often part-time”.213 Jade Hamnett noted that even some voluntary roles which were directly seeking people with disabilities were limited in flexibility. Having looked at a call for magistrates with disabilities, she found:

“… you had to commit to full days. If I could have done that part-time, I would have loved to have been involved … reading the form, I thought, ‘They don’t genuinely want people with disabilities, because they’re not willing to put the adjustments in place to allow that to happen’. I know that is a specific example, but that kind of thinking blocks us from getting involved.”214

Dr Bryan McIntosh expressed a similar view:

“Some of these changes, such as offering the agility of part-time working, are so simple. Often we see rules as if they have come down from Mount Sinai with Moses. We take them like holy writ, and we do not use independent judgment in their application”.215

125.Despite this reported inflexibility, we heard indications that hybrid working is under consideration as a permanent fixture for many council employees. There is a case for extending this ambition more ambitiously across public service careers.216 In some areas the Government has embraced this. For example, the Places for Growth programme enables civil servants to work remotely as part of efforts to move civil service jobs out of London, and the Ministry of Justice advertises vacancies and allows non-operational jobs to be done from anywhere to England and Wales.217 Joanne Roney said: “It is perhaps about making sure that we are not putting barriers in ourselves around the hours of work, the terms of work”.218

126.The Government should encourage public service employers to offer a broad range of flexible working options by default, with this provision being unavailable only if it would have a negative impact on service users.

Packaging the offer

Refining the message

127.The importance of public perceptions in recruitment was repeatedly emphasised to us. Recruitment relies (in part) on the ability of public services to develop an identity which potential candidates are attracted to. Some witnesses characterised this as employer “brand” and argued that the public sector was not doing enough to present the offer of public service careers in an appealing way, creating a “value proposition that candidates can buy into”.219

128.James Darley, founder of Transform Society (a network of social transformation organisations) spoke about the perception of a teaching career: “if you did brand perception research at the moment, I do not think you would necessarily get lots of people, particularly at that senior level, saying ‘yes, that’s the sector I want to move into.’”220 We were told that there was an opportunity to take “control of the narrative”221 because “the public sector has a huge awareness and brand appeal issue”. Referring to his work on the charity Now Teach, James Darley said: “we need to reposition what the public sector is and can offer”.222

129.One successful “branding” exercise was cited as an example from which the whole public sector should learn. Teach First is a teacher training programme credited with bringing “an injection of dynamism” into education.223 Despite being highly selective, it attracts more than double the applicants of other teacher training courses.224 James Darley led the development of Teach First, and he told us that these successes had been achieved by focusing on “brand profile and brand appeal”.225 There had been intensive research and creative thinking on how to attract candidates, resulting in a promotion which asked: “Are you the kind of person who can succeed at this challenging career of teaching?”226

130.Similarly, the NHS was described as having “a strong national brand … close to the hearts of the British people”.227 Unison thought that this “nationally known, and highly respected brand” created a “sense of identity, of pride, of belonging” which has been partially responsible for attracting prospective employees.228

131.This, however, had the consequence of creating a difference in perception between professions in the NHS and in social care. Health Education England was among those who thought that perceptions of disparities between different areas of the public sector had a negative impact on social care recruitment. It argued for a “joined up and integrated approach” to recruitment between the NHS and the care sector.229 While an interesting approach, whereby the care sector could benefit from the positive messaging on NHS careers, the problem of public services branding is broader.

132.One potential tool for public sector branding is the idea of a “vocational calling” to public service.230 Public service and social impact are powerful differences between the public and private sector and, we were told, had potential to attract candidates.231 The Police Foundation argued: “the service needs to nurture and promote a strong value proposition to its potential future workforce, as an agency of authentic public service and a force for positive social change.”232 Others felt that there is an opportunity to present “the contribution that people make and the purpose of these organisations as an attractive proposition”.233 Based on the understanding that a motivation of public service staff is “a sense of giving back to their community”, New Zealand’s Public Service Commission has promoted (and legislated to embed) a “spirit of service” in public service work.234

Reaching candidates

133.We heard that, typically, the public sector had a “single-dimensional approach to candidate engagement”. Positions are often advertised in only one place: “if you are in the NHS you will put a posting on NHS Jobs; if you are in the Civil Service you will post on Civil Service Jobs”. Clearly, this reaches only those individuals who are actively monitoring those sites and therefore limits the talent pool. We were told that employers need to consider a multichannel approach to candidate engagement, with “video content, social media, constant noise in the background”.235 This would reflect shifts in media consumption, particularly for young people. Richard Lee gave an example: a TikTok video by a female bricklayer had been viewed millions of times and succeeded in changing the perception of women in the construction industry.236

134.Boosting young people’s awareness of public services careers was also raised. Skills for Care, a workforce planning body, wrote that “there is a general lack of careers advice in schools about the social care sector and minimal opportunities for school-aged children to engage with the sector”.237 Alongside the role of social media in reaching young people, Richard Lee stressed the value of “influencing the influencers” of young people, particularly careers advisors, teachers, parents and Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics advisors. Reflecting on how public services staff could boost young people’s awareness of such careers, he asked:

“Could they get into secondary schools and talk about the one thing perhaps that the public services have over and above the private sector: the sense of putting something back and making a difference. That appeals to young people”.238

Inclusivity

135.The messaging around public service careers should come with the acknowledgement that certain public services, such as the police, face a perception issue with minority communities who are often also underrepresented in the workforce.239 It was clear that the public service workforce should be made up of people that reflect an area: a workforce that is representative of the local community can better respond to that area’s needs.240 The Local Government Association (LGA) emphasised that, in working towards this, there is a need to: “continue challenging stereotypes … changing wider perceptions about who should do particular roles”.241 The LGA’s Diverse by Design guide encourages employers to consider equality, diversity and inclusion in job descriptions and adverts, challenging stereotypes by carefully considering the photographs and language used.242

136.We were told that understanding of underrepresented communities is crucial to attracting them as part of the workforce. Employers need to know “where to look” to find candidates for roles.243 Social work charity Frontline’s Inclusive Recruitment Principles recommend that recruiters and organisations develop an understanding of the needs of “target communities”; this was valuable in enabling employers to craft images and to “personalise” recruitment approaches.244 This could include targeted discussions to examine the perspectives of existing staff from underrepresented groups, or those from working-class backgrounds who, we were told, are much less likely to be represented within senior management.245

137.This sort of flexible, local approach can be more impactful than national efforts. Operation Uplift, which aims to increase the proportion of minority ethnic police officers, has had mixed reviews. The Police Foundation says it is “too soon to judge” the extent of success but so far it has had “negligible impact on BME representation”.246 The College of Policing differed, saying that Uplift has had “relative success” with some evidence of higher ethnic minority police officer representation.247

138.The lack of a cohesive national brand to public service work is a missed opportunity for the Government to convey careers which have a positive social impact in a way that will attract candidates.

139.Teach First has demonstrated the potential of imaginative branding to attract people into public service work. Prior to recruitment campaigns, public sector employers should conduct in-depth research to establish what messages will resonate most with potential candidates. Guidance on developing compelling messaging should be agreed centrally and distributed widely.

Alternative routes into public service careers

140.We heard calls to broaden access to public service careers, which often referred to reducing or changing the required training or qualifications. As it stands these can take years and cost the future employee many thousands of pounds, because many public services career pathways require degree qualifications.

141.Witnesses referred to training and entry requirements as significant barriers to opening routes to public service careers. Teaching, for example, requires a degree. People with disabilities, BME people and people from lower-income backgrounds are all less likely to hold a degree, which presents an obvious issue: a degree requirement makes it less likely that people with these characteristics will become teachers.

142.It is unclear that a degree is required to become a good teacher. Without endorsing any particular viewpoint, James Zuccollo, Director for School Workforce at the Education Policy Institute, asked:

“… do you really need a degree to go into teaching and be a good teacher? There is lots of evidence from the US that it is very difficult to know who will be a good teacher before they become a teacher. Their grades, whether they have a degree and that sort of thing, do not really tell you much about how good a teacher they will end up being.”248

143.There are time considerations arising from requirements to undertake lengthy training, including degrees. Joanne Roney used the example of town planners. This profession requires a three-year qualification; but in order to deliver levelling up priorities, she needed them in “one, or two [years]”. She argued that “we could find faster pathways through to a high level of expertise”.249 Place2Be agreed that “training mental health professionals at the current pace and using existing formats cannot be scaled sufficiently.”250

144.The same issues (barriers, time, and relevance) can apply in healthcare, social work and the civil service. We were told that providing a more diverse range of routes into public service careers would maximise the number of people available for the future workforce.251 While “removing or adapting degree requirements is ultimately a decision for professional regulators to make”252 as pointed out by then-Minister for Health Edward Argar MP, the Government could encourage regulators to urgently address this issue.

Apprenticeships

145.Apprenticeships provide an opportunity to maximise the number of public service professionals.253 Witnesses described them as “vital”, stating that they had enhanced the ability of various services to attract wider groups of people who would be able to qualify, including attracting more women into policing.254

146.It was pointed out that self-funded training or pursuit of degree qualifications through traditional routes “is not realistic for many workforce groups”.255 Apprenticeships, conversely, enable people to earn money whilst qualifying, rather than self-funding and often getting into debt.

147.Apprenticeships can also be an effective way to boost representation from different communities. Joanne Roney stated that:

“Local apprenticeships are incredibly important. They are how we end up with a workforce that represents the communities that we serve. We need to do more about apprenticeships across all aspects of public service, and we should do more about apprentice pathways giving people the opportunity to experience different aspects.”256

Contributors thought that apprenticeships “should be used to entice” talented people to public service careers, removing financial barriers.257 Matthew Lewis noted that they could be used to reach people who were economically disadvantaged and needed an “opportunity to get into the workplace, get a leg up and begin to acquire skills”.258 Apprenticeships can widen the talent pool and allow public services to benefit from the skills and capacity from communities who may not be able to access public service careers through more traditional routes.

148.Apprenticeships can be utilised in a range of skilled professions including environmental health officers, town planners and social workers. Health Education England supported the development of flexible routes into healthcare professions, such as apprenticeships, which widen participation and enable progression from varied educational backgrounds.

149.Contributors outlined several instances where apprenticeships were being or will be used.

(a)Mark Adam explained how they had been used in developing existing staff and noted that there was consideration of expanding their use in initial training for prison officers.259

(b)Alan Robson, Deputy Director of the NHS workforce, was “truly excited” about proposals for an apprenticeship to provide a different route into qualification as a doctor. There had been resistance to the idea: “everyone said that it was not doable—it is doable.”260

(c)Nursing apprenticeships were underway and were presented as a key method of reaching the Government’s target of 50,000 more nurses.261

(d)A social worker degree apprenticeship programme was launched in March 2019.262

(e)The Police Degree Apprenticeship provides a route for non-graduates to enter the police force and receive a degree after completing a three-year programme.263

(f)Teaching apprenticeships are a paid way to train as a teacher. There is, though, a degree requirement.264

150.The extent to which apprentices are used was questioned, with one witness saying they were “underutilised by the public sector”. We were told that their use, at least by local authorities, was falling.265 Though the Public Sector Apprenticeship Target required public sector bodies with 250 or more staff to aim to employ an average of at least 2.3% of their staff as new apprentices, the average in 2018–19 was 1.7%.266

Support for apprenticeships

151.Since April 2017, public sector bodies in England had been required to “have regard to” the target, and to publish information annually on their progress towards it. The target came to an end in March 2022, having been extended for a year longer than originally planned, but bodies are still asked to gather, and later report, certain top-line information. A question that had been asked, which requested reasons for not meeting the target: “what challenges have you faced?” will not now be required.267

152.The Government’s analysis shows that the two most frequently cited areas of challenge in 2018–19 were financial and regulatory barriers (51% of respondents) and the requirement to have 20% off the job training (46%). The regulatory barriers appear to be around public procurement rules. Budget limitations (particularly notable among schools and local authorities) continued as a concern for 39% of respondents—an increase from 25% the previous year. Respondents felt flexibility should be available with the levy for additional expenses, including to pay wages.268

153.We heard reference to flexibility in our evidence. The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health suggested that Government should provide funding to pay for apprentice salaries and that this would “put the future of the profession onto a sustainable footing”.269 The Royal College of Nursing identified a number of issues holding back successful implementation of nursing degree apprenticeships in England, including “the increased pressure on staff and the system, to deliver high quality placements while receiving insufficient funding support through the apprenticeship levy.”270 These are not insurmountable difficulties, but overcoming them will require the input and willingness of relevant unions, regulators, and central government.

154.Matthew Lewis also suggested that flexibility with the apprenticeship levy could mean a redeployment of where it is spent. He suggested that there was a “terrific opportunity” to “focus on the sectors of the talent pools that are not currently engaged in these kinds of roles and are not attracted into this environment: the underrepresented, the disadvantaged, the people who need an opportunity to get into the workplace”.271

155.The current apprenticeship system may also prioritise large providers over small and medium organisations that deliver public services. Department for Education statistics indicate that in 2020–21, the majority of apprenticeship starters in public administration, health and social work, and education were in large organisations, with the largest percentage being in public administration (99%) followed by education (66%).272

156.There is huge potential for apprenticeships to widen the talent pool by increasing diversity in the public services workforce. The Government should therefore be providing further support and encouragement to public sector bodies to incentivise their use. By removing the apprenticeship target, and ceasing to search for and combat challenges, it is doing the opposite.

157.The Public Sector Apprenticeship Target and associated reporting requirements should be reinstated. Further consideration should be given to additional funding for apprentice salaries.

Local initiatives

158.There is an understanding that public sector bodies have a duty to improve employment prospects for local people, and that doing so can enhance public trust in institutions.273

159.Debra Baxter thought that local authorities were in a strong position to improve local prospects, since they understand the needs of the community. She called for local areas to “be allowed to find their own ‘local’ way of recruiting people from ‘challenged’ backgrounds”.274 While national approaches such as apprenticeship schemes play an important role in doing so, we were told of initiatives on a smaller scale.

160.Camden Council has created a local talent pool. This was an “attempt to employ local residents who have a deep knowledge of their community and borough but who are also on the end of council services.” Camden Council supports people to secure public service jobs locally, including by working with individuals to write CVs, and where possible, Camden Council also advertise jobs to the talent pool before opening the application process up to other applicants.275 One witness called for increased career entry routes for people with lived experience of using services, which talent pools like this have the potential to address.276

161.Such initiatives have the potential to draw local volunteers and a more representative cohort into paid public services roles. The skills, experience and value of volunteers was emphasised in much of our evidence,277 and the Richmond Group of Charities argued that “the system needs to better support volunteers into jobs and careers in public services”. They reported that a significant proportion of volunteers said volunteering made them think about pursuing a career in public services, and that many were currently seeking work—suggesting there is a potential untapped pool of workers for public services to draw on.278 Clearer frameworks to support volunteers into public services employment could also help address concerns raised in evidence the blurring of lines between voluntary and paid roles.279

162.The Government has committed to developing policies to “identify and support best recruitment practices locally.”280 NHS Providers indicated a need to encourage funding for local councils and businesses in areas of
high deprivation to invest in communities and improve employment opportunities.281 The Department for Education’s Opportunity Areas programme runs local projects to increase teacher supply in areas where recruitment is difficult. This, we were told, has reduced costs in schools and succeeded in filling teacher and role vacancies. While this programme in part aimed to bring high quality teachers into remote areas, it demonstrates the potential of grants in supporting local recruitment.282

163.The Levelling Up White Paper, published in February 2022, proposed the development of a national leadership college to develop future leaders.283 Solace, which represents leaders in local government, acknowledged that this would be a powerful tool which would encourage collaboration for many public service leaders, but noted that it would not address the training needs of those in local government. To do so, they recommended establishing a new scheme (similar in design to Teach First) which would attract high quality candidates to work in local government, perhaps by offering a career path with support to develop into more senior roles. Schemes like this could, Solace argued, deliver “a more geographically diverse Civil and Public Service that will better serve the public and ministers.”284

164.Local authorities should invest significant resources in developing local talent pools to support people with lived experience of using local services to enter public sector careers. These would create diverse pipelines of talented staff to deliver public services they have themselves experienced.

Making it easier to apply

165.In a “hugely competitive environment”, where public services struggle to fill vacancies, we heard that public sector recruitment, far from being “efficient and slick”285 could take “a number of weeks”, and even “six months … from the point of application to onboarding”.286 Many strong candidates will have been recruited by that point by private sector organisations who are more able to, as one witness put it, “look at a CV or whatever and say, ‘Yes, let’s go’”.287

Box 3: Case study Wigan Council

Wigan Council’s children’s services struggled with retention and recruitment in March 2020. They wrote: “we knew we needed to do something differently”. Following a consultation, they designed a workforce strategy combining work flexibility, management supervision and a dedicated Academy Team to “nurture and develop” new staff. On recruitment they worked to transform the “candidate experience” for new starters with virtual events, fast-track interviews and a shorter application form. This was accompanied by a new induction programme which made one applicant “feel valued before I walked through the door”.288 Following these changes, the use of social work agency staff reduced from 32% to 25% of the workforce. There was a 55% reduction in social worker turnover.

Source: Written evidence from Wigan Council (FFF0035)

166.By comparison, Richard Lee, Chief People Officer at construction firm Willmott Dixon, told us that a job application to work there “takes two minutes and 17 seconds”.289 Caroline Pusey, Director of the Teaching Workforce at the Department for Education, told us about the new process for applications for initial teacher training. This had recently been relaunched and had been “designed with user need at the heart”.290 Early evidence that it has been successful (positive feedback and a reduced drop-out rate) is promising.

167.The Government should impose a duty on all public sector employers to set ambitious targets for recruitment timeframes.

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