Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has won a Beacon award
for a project that has helped the unemployed find training and work with the
health service.
More than 140 people recruited through the Welfare to Work
New Deal Scheme have been given work experience at the trust and 90 per cent of
these have found permanent work within the organisation or externally.
The trust has worked in partnership with Leeds City Council,
the Employment Service, particularly the new deal lone parent unit and Mencap
to highlight job opportunities in the NHS.
Jim McCaffery, director of personnel and development at the
trust, told Personnel Today the initiative had helped the trust recruit much
needed staff and helped promote it within the local community.
He said, “The scheme has been a very good vehicle in two
ways. Firstly recruiting people into the health service and making people more
aware of the health service and its services.
“We operate in quite a tight labour market, there are not a
lot of vacancies. This (scheme) has helped us to bring people into the
workforce, particularly into the hard to fill positions.
Shani Choudhari, project co-ordinator, said that the trust
had recruited single mothers through the scheme who were studying for degrees
in nursing after starting as health care assistants.
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