A workshop led by ACH for Bristol North Somerset South Gloucestershire health and care system (under the auspices of the Integrated Care Board) to discuss Equality Diversity and Inclusion workforce issues, through the lens of recruiting and retaining refugees and migrants.
ACH’s #rethinkingrefugee campaign is an exemplar of the type of work that can be done together, to identify practical solutions to improving the recruitment of refugee communities which leads to improved sense of belonging of recently recruited refugee staff and resulting in improved retention at this time of acute staffing shortages within the health and care sector.
The workshop will challenge the narrative that refugees are ‘charity cases’ to the fact that refugees have skills and qualities that are of benefit to organisations. Often employer engagement with the refugee communities around recruitment can seem tokenistic and surface level, as the holistic needs of individual refugees (I.e. psychological, pastoral and socio-economic) aren’t satisfactory considered . This half day workshop is an opportunity to explore recruitment and retention challenges in the NHS, health, and care sectors as they impact on refugees, hear from ACH of the barriers refugees face in terms of employment and retention and then to work together to come up with solutions.
This workshop is an opportunity to do some ‘blue sky’ strategic thinking of what a perfect solution would be and come up with practical operational steps that can be taken at both system and individual employer levels. It’s hoped by the end of the workshop, we will have created a proposal that not only supports refugees into the health and care workplace, which in turn supports wider recruitment gaps, but also support the progression and retention of these newly recruited individuals under our workforce race equality standard.
The proposed workshop objectives are:
Build awareness of the various refugee and migrant communities across the BNSSG area, their demographics and needs within the employment and workforce arena
Outline current employment training and development opportunities and good practice, particularly for healthcare care support workers(HCSW), nursing and allied health professionals (AHP) career pathways, that may exist across the integrated care system sector and/or available from the refugee support sector specifically in relationship to recruitment and retention of refugee communities
Demonstrate ACH’s (and partners’) approach to effective refugee engagement including building awareness and interest up to pre-employment application, application support and the role post-recruitment coaching and mentoring (utilising live examples and case studies) plays in retention and career progression for refugee communities
Work with ACH and partners do develop joint approach to successful refugee recruitment including employee development and retention
The Workshop will include information stands from a range of local refugee support organisation, an opportunity to network and meet refugee community members and finish with lunch provided by a local refugee business.
For more information and to register visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/improving-the-recruitment-pathways-retention-of-refugees-tickets-553301980117
Please also take the time to fill in this short 5-minute survey to help us understand your requirements and challenges when recruiting https://forms.office.com/e/2GbJsG8UVN