Values-based Retention Toolkit - What works in valuing and keeping social care practitioners

Background and Credits

The toolkit was developed by the Northern Ireland Social Care Council in partnership with Julie Hill, Cedar Training and Consultancy who was commissioned to write the content in collaboration with a content reference group which included representatives from social care employers – MindWise, Southern Health and Social Care Trust and Domestic Care NI; the Centre for Independent Living, Gerard McWilliams, Service User and Dr. Shirley Boyle, Academic.

Four employer films were produced for the toolkit by Slackpress Productions Ltd in partnership with MindWise, Harmony Community Care Services, Southern Health and Social Care Trust and the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust.

The content for the toolkit is based on an evidence review of recruitment and retention. The Social Care Council commissioned  Dr. Shirley Boyle (Academic) to complete the evidence review 2022 and she produced the report in May 2023.

The Values-based Retention toolkit is linked to the Values-based Recruitment toolkit developed by the Social Care Council in 2019 to introduce values-based recruitment to social care employers in Northern Ireland and support them to embed values into their recruitment and selection processes, induction and continuous professional development.

Images used within the Values-based Retention toolkit have been sourced from Canva stock images and from a photography project undertaken by the Social Care Council in partnership with the four health and social care trusts in Northern Ireland.

The toolkit was funded by the Department for Health in Northern Ireland.