Care and housing employers together for refugees
Since the start of the Ukraine crisis, the National Care Forum (NCF) has been working in association with the Care Provider Alliance, and a wide range of partners and expertise from across national and local government, housing colleagues, recruitment specialists, legal and immigration experts and regulators, to understand how to provide a meaningful employment opportunity for those displaced from Ukraine and other parts of the world and finding a home within the UK.
Considerable progress has been made to clarify regulatory requirements and right to work entitlement. This Care and Housing Employers Together for Refugees resource hub consists of a wide range of useful information and links relating to safe and fair recruitment includes helpful information on pastoral support for refugees.
In addition, a Care and Support Jobs Board has been built in partnership with Cohesion, recruitment experts in the sector, which is free of charge for any care provider or housing employer to advertise their vacancies for Ukrainian refugees and other displaced people. The Jobs Board links to an interactive map that signposts people to local support including diaspora support groups and organisations working with UK refugees.
We hope you find the guidance and resources helpful so that, as ethical employers, you can follow best practice in recruitment of refugees in social care.
We are aware that there are other core areas where providers want to offer support, including those wanting to offer help to Ukrainians and displaced people from other parts of the world needing care and support, those who can assist with vetting and matching, and those who have a housing solution. We are working with other partners, to understand how most effectively the sector can be engaged in these areas too.
If you are interested in finding out more about this project, or have expertise or perspectives to share, then please do contact Rachel Walker
Helpful links and resources
Do you know the signs of modern slavery, or what to do if you are worried about someone?
CQC Latest Guidance (issued 23/05/22)
CQC would like to remind providers of their guidance, good practice and resources relevant for recruiting staff. Registered providers are expected to apply the same processes for staff recruited from abroad (including refugees) as they would for staff recruited in England.
Regulation 19 – Fit and proper persons employed
To meet Regulation 19, providers must operate robust recruitment procedures, including undertaking any relevant checks.
CQC recruitment checks - Frequently Asked Questions
Our FAQs help providers understand what is required to meet Regulation 19.
Guidance on Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks – Section 23
Presentation from Home Office Webinar: Refugee Guidance for Social Care Employers
NEW Jobs Board
Please advertise your jobs for Ukrainians, and other displaced people, resettling in the UK.
This is free of charge for any employer to advertise their vacancies and setting up a profile is a simple process. This Jobs Board links to an interactive map that will signpost people to local support. Traffic is going to the site already and we plan to share this with networks where displaced people will be looking for jobs. A big thank you to Cohesion Recruitment for all their work in making this happen.
As of August 2022, there have been 115k Ukrainians arriving of which 70% are adult women. Nearly half can read or speak English. More details here and ONS information here Welsh government job board- How to work in social care and child care www.WeCare.WalesNEW Pastoral Care Guide
Useful resources that will help social care employers to explore resettlement support and pastoral care for overseas recruits, including refugees and/or displaced people who are settled in the UK with the right to work. This guide features resources about the following stages in the journey of recruiting overseas workers:
- Preparations prior to Employment
- Induction
- Settling in
- 6 months and beyond
Safe and Fair Recruitment:
Guide to safe staffing
Skills for Care’s Guide to safe staffing uses an analysis of CQC inspection reports to help you understand what ‘good’ looks like so you can learn from best practice.
NEW Skills for Care's Safer Recruitment - Gathering and assessing criminal record information for UK and non-UK nationals, including displaced people offers practical help with 5 key recommendations relating to undertaking criminal record checks for refugees.
- Ask all applicants to complete a criminal record self-declaration form
- Carry out a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) criminal record check at the correct level for the job role
- Where possible, carry out overseas criminal records checks
- Carry out all other pre-employment checks and complete a fair pre-employment risk assessment as appropriate
- Make a final decision based on all information gathered within the recruitment process
Skills for Care’s wider guidance and templates are available in their Safe and fair recruitment guide , with has more information and templates to support safe recruitment, including checklists covering the whole recruitment process, data protection and record-keeping. The last page of this guide includes 4 appendices that can be downloaded as word docs:
- Appendix 1: Safer recruitment checklist
- Appendix 2: Criminal record self-declaration form for jobs covered by the ROA
- Appendix 3: Criminal record self-declaration form for jobs exempt from the ROA
- Appendix 4: Pre-employment checks and criminal record risk assessment
Stronger Together
Stronger Together and its partners have created an informative guide for UK businesses to help in ensuring that workers affected by the conflict in Ukraine are protected from harm, and have a positive recruitment and employment experience. Included in this guide:
- Up to date information on right to work, visa routes and offering work and accommodation.
- Practical steps to ensure responsible recruitment and employment.
- Guidance on supporting Ukrainians already in the UK, those looking to enter and people from other affected groups.
Key resources which may be shared and which apply to all sectors include:
- Tackling Modern Slavery in UK Businesses Toolkit
- Recruitment agency/labour provider due diligence – step by step guidance
- Fair procurement of agency labour toolkit
- Responsible Recruitment Toolkit
NCF International recruitment contains information about the background to the points-based immigration system and useful resources about the changes to international recruitment of care workers in the UK. Skills for Care guidance from the Home Office and DHSC to support providers across adult social care to recruit from overseas ethically.
UNHCR UK’s guide – Tapping Potential: Guidelines to Help British Businesses Employ Refugees has a helpful information on the benefits of employing refugees and practical ways to inspire, hire and help refugees thrive in the workplace.
Government Information:
DBS – latest update from the Home Office (issued 10/05/22): Ukrainian citizens can apply via the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, section electronic administrative services, for extract of information “Information record on criminal prosecution and criminal record in Ukraine”. The requested information will be emailed to them. To apply for such service the Ukrainian citizen will need an electronic signature. After receiving an extract in Ukrainian language they will need to apply for a letter from the Embassy of Ukraine, which will confirm the information in the extract in English language and could be used in the UK. The embassy has confirmed that this is still operational.
Guidance for businesses offering work to people coming from Ukraine (issued 06/05/22) provides guidance for businesses considering making offers of employment to people coming to the UK from Ukraine.
Government Guidance on how to carry out right to work checks, why you need to do them, and which documents you can use has been updated to reflect the change in legislation which came into force on 6 April 2022. Within the guidance there has been an updated Annex F added on Ukraine (page 64-67 of the Guide), to support employers seeking guidance on what documentation Ukrainian nationals will need to prove their right to work.
Guidance for Councils detailing safeguarding and accommodation checks.
Welcome Guide for Ukrainians arriving in the UK
The DWP and the Refugee Employment Network have a form for employers to complete of jobs available to offer to people arriving from Afghanistan or Ukraine.
Pastoral Care:
Opora are a charity that offer direct assistance to Ukrainians who successfully receive visas, from funded travel, supplies on arrival and tailored employment opportunities for long-term sustainable support.
British-Ukrainianaid offer assistance to vulnerable individuals who have been physically, mentally or socially disadvantaged, including the injured and wounded, orphaned children, the elderly, internally displaced persons and refugees . Since the full-scale invasion in February 2022 our main focus has been providing essential medical aid to Ukraine.
Trauma Treatment International’s expert team of clinical psychologists has put together some top tips to take a trauma-informed approach to guests which might be helpful for employers.
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