We’re regional finalists! AFG win award for recruitment, retention and recognition at the North West Great British Care Awards

On Saturday 11 November our charity was recognised for excellence in care provision with The Three R’s Great British Care Award at their North West Regional Finals.

The Great British Care Awards are a series of regional events throughout the UK and a celebration of excellence across the care sector. The purpose of the awards are to pay tribute to those individuals who have demonstrated outstanding excellence within their field of work. Alternative Futures Group were shortlisted for six awards in the following categories; The Three ‘R’s, The Co-Production Award, The Palliative Care/End of Life Award, The ‘Putting People First’/ Personalisation Award and The Supported Living Team Award and were awarded with the Three ‘R’s Award.

This award focuses on three vital areas for organisations in health and social care; recruitment, retention and recognition. To actively tackle our recruitment needs, we partnered with a local agency to develop a targeted, multi-channel recruitment marketing campaign and transformed their internal processes. This resulted in a 67% reduction in agency spend which in turn meant that AFG could increase pay for its Support Workers by 11.1% and we were able to improve the consistency and quality of the support provided to vulnerable adults.

We also needed to create engaging learning programmes to support their ambitious recruitment plans, retain new and existing talent and address delays in training new starters. The Learning and Development team designed and delivered role-specific induction pathways for the first six months for all new starters in the organisation, directing new employees to tools and mandatory training required to build skills and knowledge.

“To be shortlisted for six awards already acknowledges the outstanding personalised support provided by our front line colleagues across AFG, but we are thrilled to be able to take home an award further shining a spotlight on the fantastic work and dedication of our people. Our focus this year on attracting the right people, and retaining those individuals has meant we’ve been able to re-invest into our workforce through pay and recognition schemes that we know make our people feel like valued members of Alternative Futures Group. This transformation has been a whole organisation response and this award recognizes the efforts of everyone at AFG” – Kirsty Murphy, Chief People Officer, Alternative Futures Group