Recruitment is like a box of chocolates

Jacqui Darlington and Isaac Samuels, both individual employers, talk to us in this jointly produced article about their experience recruiting personal assistants.

“They say life is like a box of chocolates—you never know what you’re gonna get”. We think recruitment in social care is exactly the same.

Sometimes you find someone who’s the perfect fit, full of heart, flexible, values-driven and it’s like biting into your favourite soft caramel. Other times, you get a chilli truffle when you were expecting hazelnut. Surprise! But when it works, when you meet someone who really gets what care is about. It changes everything, not just for the person receiving support, but for the whole team, the family, and the wider community.

Let’s be real: recruiting in social care has never been simple. The numbers are improving, vacancies are down, and more people are recognising care as a valuable career, but challenges remain. Pay still lags behind other sectors, immigration changes make international recruitment harder, and there are still far too many people who don’t realise how meaningful and skilled this work truly is.

So, we started thinking differently. And from that thinking, new ideas have grown, ideas rooted in real lives, not just job specs. Here are a few.

Sharing support, sharing solutions – Jacqui's story

I share a PA with another disabled adult. We don’t live together, we’re in completely different parts of the country, but we both have full, busy, independent lives. We didn’t need constant support, but we did need reliable, values-driven help to live on our own terms.

Instead of each trying to hire separately, we teamed up. We found a brilliant PA who now supports both of us flexibly. It gives us consistency, allows for a real relationship to build, and makes much better use of funding. More importantly, it works because it’s about people, not just filling hours on a rota.

This wasn’t a solution that came from a handbook. It came from listening to each other and thinking creatively.

Village Facebook, real-life recruitment – also Jacqui’s idea!

Job boards weren’t working for our small, rural area. So I tried something else. I posted a video in a local Facebook group showing our out of hours club—adults with additional needs, having a laugh, going bowling, ordering pizzas, and just being out in the world.

The caption? “Fancy getting paid to help people have nights out like this? Message me.”

Within a week, I had several great applicants, including a teaching assistant and a mum returning to work. That post reached people who hadn’t even considered working in care but had the perfect values for it. Now they’re part of our team.

Sometimes the best recruitment strategy is simply showing what the job actually looks like -real joy, real connection, real lives.

From scrolling to supporting – Isaac's TikTok twist

I (Isaac) took to TikTok to show what a day in the life of a supported person looks like. Not staged or polished, just honest snapshots of me doing what I do: managing health stuff, going to co-production meetings, wheelchair rugby, and living life on my terms with a bit of help along the way.

One comment stuck with me: “Didn’t know care could look like this, how do I get into it?” That person followed the link we’d added to a local values-based quiz, and they weren’t the only one. Five new recruits came directly from that TikTok. No filters, no fancy ads, just truth.

It showed us that sometimes people just need to see what care really is. And when they do, it speaks for itself.

Why we always come back to values

All these ideas have one thing in common, they’re not just about plugging gaps. They’re about finding the right people with the right values.

We love Skills for Care’s approach to values-based recruitment. It’s not about asking “How long have you worked in care?”, it’s about asking “Can you tell me about a time you showed kindness, or really listened to someone?” You can teach paperwork. You can’t teach compassion.

And when you hire someone based on their values, what you get is someone who wants to be there. Someone who understands that care isn’t just a job - it’s a relationship, a commitment, and sometimes, a lot of fun.

Don’t forget the fun!

Care isn’t all care plans and medication. It’s karaoke nights, last-minute beach trips, laughing over chips, cheering someone on as they try something new. It’s about living! And it’s our job to find people who bring joy, humour, and creativity into their work.

That’s why we say we’re helping people live a gloriously ordinary life. You know the one—going out for coffee, seeing a show, having a job, making your own choices. Doing the everyday things that can feel like mountains when you face extra barriers, but which become possible with the right support.

So what have all these ideas led to?

• We’ve reached people in our communities who’d never thought about working in care.
• We’ve built flexible, creative solutions that actually work for disabled people and carers.
• We’ve shown that recruitment isn’t about ticking boxes, it’s about opening hearts.

And more than anything, we’ve proven that when we stop doing things the same old way and start thinking like real people, we find real people, the ones who make the biggest difference.

So next time you're staring at a long list of vacancies or wondering where all the good people have gone, remember: sometimes you just need to look in a different box. The caramel’s in there, you just have to unwrap it.

Make sure to visit our 'Recruiting the right people' campaign landing page or our support for individual employers and PAs for more information.

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