Kent Connect to Support
Text size:

The Hub : Recruitment and retention

  • Home
  • The Hub : Recruitment and retention

Are you thinking about a job in care?

You’d be surprised how naturally qualified you might be for a job in care – because being a great carer is all about your personal qualities, such as empathy, respect, patience and kindness.

a social care worker and gentleman speaking togetherIf this sounds like the kind of person you are, and you’d like to make a real difference to people’s lives, here are some options to get your career in social care started;

  • There is a national recruitment site which is free for you to register to become a care worker and help change lives on the Joinsocialcare website 
  • Kent Care Professionals - Register your details on this site for people looking for care work in Kent and Medway. The site is for experienced and non-care experience workers, register online on the Kent Care Professionals website
  • Apply for adult social care roles at Kent County Council (KCC). Working in the council's adult social services team, you will enjoy an attractive benefits package and training opportunities to help you achieve your potential.  KCC invests in adult social care employees to give them the right skills and experience to provide a first class service to the people of Kent. View vacancies on the council website.
  • Contact us and ask about starting a career in care and we can offer you specific advice KentRegisteredManager@kent.gov.uk

Useful information and news

Have You Thought About an Apprenticeship in Social Care?
There are a variety of apprenticeship opportunities within the care sector, including many which are not care specific such as administration, hospitality, maintenance, catering and much more.

If you want to be an apprentice, hire an apprentice or support an apprentice then check out the information below.

Resources:

A nursing associate is a new member of the nursing family who provides care for people in health and social care settings. It has been created to bridge the skills gap between care assistants and registered nurses. Once qualifed, a level 5 nursing associate will be registered on the Nursing and Midwifery Council register and can remain in the nursing associate role or continue training to become a fully qualified nurse. This role is only being used and regulated in England and the training is fully funded via the apprenticeship levy with additional HEE funding for organisations to support their TNA in the workplace.

A number of Nursing Homes in Kent have already taken up this opportunity and to date we have nearly 20 care workers currently on the nursing associate program which is delivered by Canterbury Christchurch University.

Resources:

New DHSC Recruitment Campaign has Launched

The new adult social care recruitment campaign - Make care your career - has launched to support you to recruit new and quality care staff.  

The brand-new campaign will reach millions of people across England, showcasing the amazing work that care workers do with an aim of increasing interest in care roles. 

The campaign will drive job seekers to our website – adultsocialcare.co.uk – to find out how they can begin a career in care and search for roles in their local area.

The campaign in detail 

The campaign will be live throughout February and March, and can be seen across the following channels:  

TV and online 
Our new TV advert, which you can watch here, will appear on TV, as well as catch-up and streaming services. Channels include ITV, Channel 4, Sky and Disney+. Adverts will also appear on YouTube and other websites.  

 Radio  
Listen out for Make care your career adverts running across some of the nation’s favourite radio stations, such as Kiss, Heart, Capital and Hits Radio. They’ll also appear on Spotify and other digital audio services. 

 Social media 
A range of posts will be served to users of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok. Some of these adverts and posts feature our ambassadors; six care professionals who’ve created authentic content about their real experience of working in care.  

You can repost these on your own channels.  

Recruitment sites 

We’ve partnered with some of the country’s biggest jobs boards to promote care careers to those seeking a new job in other sectors.  

Media partnerships 

We’ve partnered with Buzzfeed for the second year to showcase adult social care. They’re producing brand new videos, a quiz and advertising on their hugely popular website and social media channels.   

We’ll also have an episode dedicated to adult social care careers on the podcast Careers Happiness, which will launch in March.  

Helping with your Recruitment

You could benefit from our recruitment drive by doing a few simple things:  

Advertise a job on DWP’s ‘Find a job’ 

Any adult social care jobs posted to Find a Job will pull through onto our website, which is being highly promoted during the campaign.  

We have a comprehensive guide to upload jobs on our website

Plan your local recruitment activity using our free resources 

Use our toolkit and free, downloadable resources on our website to build on the awareness generated by the national campaign.  The campaign toolkit is your guide to using and adapting the resources available to encourage potential recruits in your local area to apply for jobs.

Share our posts on social media 

Keep a look out on Facebook and Instagram, as we’ll be posting lots of content over the next few months, which you can share and repost.

Any questions?

If you have a query about anything related to the Make care your career campaign, get in touch with our team by emailing adultsocialcarecampaign@dhsc.gov.uk and we will be happy to help. 

Last updated: 11/02/2025