Y/Our Future is a new recruitment campaign launched today that unites five major health and social care employers – University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust, LOROS Hospice, Rutland County Council and Leicester City Council – in a bid to recruit doctors, nurses and health and social care workers to work in hospitals, hospices and in communities across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. Together, the partners have a 38,000-strong workforce.
Y/Our Future aims to promote Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland as a leading career destination for health and social care professionals, with great career and lifestyle opportunities.
While each of the partners has individual recruitment needs, by joining forces their vision is for recruitment to be more effective and affordable. The initiative also creates an attractive opportunity for recruits to build their careers across the partner organisations and for the partners to deliver more joined-up services to local people.
A multi-media campaign will support the launch, together with a dedicated website (www.your-future.co.uk), which will be a central hub for signposting job advertisements from the partner organisations. Job seekers visiting the site can view the complete range of health and social care opportunities across the entire region. News and Y/Our Future case studies will also be featured on the website, highlighting successful healthcare professionals living and working in the region.
The campaign aims to help address the UK-wide skills crisis in healthcare. Figures published by NHS Improvement[i] this year highlighted that one in 11 jobs across NHS hospitals, ambulance and mental health trusts are vacant and the nursing shortage is at a record high. Social care providers across the UK are struggling to recruit and retain qualified staff. The 2018 Skills for Care report estimates that 8.0% of roles in adult social care are vacant, an average of approximately 110,000 vacancies at any one time. The vacancy rate also rose by 2.5 percentage points between 2012/13 and 2017/18. The rate of staff turnover of directly employed staff 
working in the adult social care sector was 30.7%, which equates to approximately 390,000 people leaving jobs over the year.
Dr Peter Miller, Chief Executive, Leicestershire Partnership Trust says, “Y/Our Future is a strategic and collaborative campaign to attract health and social care workers to Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. Located in the heart of England, the region offers a fantastic place for them to enjoy fulfilling careers, an excellent standard of living, with affordable housing, central transport links and great schools. We have a wide range of benefits and working options, strong relationships with our local universities, and an extensive learning and development offer.”
So what career opportunities are on offer?
Leicestershire Partnership Trust (LPT) provides a range of health and wellbeing services. It serves one million people and employs almost 5,500 staff, providing services in adult mental health and adult learning disability services; families and young people and children’s services and community health services. Its goal is to recruit qualified nurses, some speciality doctors, good quality apprentices and people who want flexible bank contracts.
The University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust is one of the largest, acute teaching hospitals in England, with a 15,000 strong workforce. It offers an extensive range of education, learning and practice development opportunities. Currently, there are vacancies for Consultant Radiographers, junior grade doctors in Maxillofacial, doctors specialising in Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT), Nurses, Theatre staff (ODP and TSA) Radiographers and Physiotherapists.
Hazel Wyton, Director of People and Organisational Development at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust says, “We hope that by working together Y/Our Future will allow us to promote the benefits and job opportunities in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. We offer great career paths, education and development opportunities, whilst helping our staff to strike the right balance between their work and personal life through a range of working options – from part time to term time contracts and job shares. With hospitals up and down the country competing for a finite number of staff, it is important for us to really sell the benefits of living and working in the heart of the country.”
LOROS Hospice is a local charity that cares for 2,500 people across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. It provides free, high-quality, compassionate care and support to terminally ill adult patients, their families and carers. The Hospice is looking for clinical nurses, AHP as well as administrative staff and a wide range of volunteers.
Ruth Auton, Director of Education & Workforce at LOROS says, “We are an adult hospice providing in-patient, day therapy and community care. As a charity we offer a breadth of careers unique to healthcare providers, ranging from nursing associates to nurse specialists; porters to physiotherapists; housekeepers to healthcare assistants; social workers to shop managers; fundraising to finance roles; complementary therapists to chefs, chaplains to councillors.”
Leicester City Council is one of Leicester’s largest employers with more than 12,000 staff, responsible for delivering all local government services to people living in Leicester. They are looking to recruit health and social care professionals committed to safeguarding children, young people and vulnerable adults and are particularly interested in recruiting social workers.
Steven Forbes, Strategic Director Social Care & Education at Leicester City Council, says, “We are incredibly excited to be part of the collaborative Y/Our Future recruitment campaign, as Leicester is a great place to kick start or progress your career. We welcome new recruits into a supportive team environment where they can receive good quality training with opportunities for both personal and professional development.”
Rutland County Council serves a population of roughly 38,000 people, a large proportion of whom have increasingly complex health and social care needs. The local authority is regularly listed among the country’s top performers for health and social care – success that has been driven by innovation, a clear focus on providing personalised care and empowering its staff.
