Written by Robbie Cowbury, Policy & Programme Manager, Multiple Disadvantage (June 2024)

Workforce Shortages

It’s not news to Good Employment Charter Members that we have a workforce crisis. No one reading this will be surprised that this is particularly acute in public services. The figures speak for themselves: there were 275,000 vacancies in 2023 across health and social care nationally (source). In Greater Manchester, the cost of hiring agency staff to cover Social Care gaps was £123m between 2020 and 2023 (Source).

Harnessing Lived Experience

One potential solution is a pool of ‘untapped workforce’ with lived experiences of hardship and an understanding of what people accessing public services might be going through. Not everyone who has experienced multiple disadvantages (things like homelessness, addictions, poor mental health or a history of offending) wants this kind of work, but many do. And, as we’ve seen through some of our work in Greater Manchester such as Changing Futures or Shelter’s GROW Campus, many can offer something other employees often can’t. Employing people with lived experience has a positive impact on their own journey, it has a positive impact on diversity of teams and so the culture within an organisation, and a positive impact on closing workforce gaps.

Overcoming challenges and barriers

So why doesn’t it happen more? One reason which was captured through a Changing Futures ‘storytelling’ project was how employers tend to approach DBS checks, and not give people a fair say putting into context any historical offences on their record. Campaigns such as ‘Ban the Box’ championed by the Good Employment Charter are making a big difference at removing a clear and unnecessary barrier, but these experiences show there is more that good employers can do when employing people who have criminal records.

To find out what those are and encourage more employers to take up good practices, myself and colleagues from across Greater Manchester used an opportunity provided by the Good Lives GM ‘innovation hub’. Over a few months earlier this year, what we uncovered was a heartening amount of good practice in Greater Manchester.

Even more than that, everyone we spoke to knew there were still improvements they could make and were eager to make them. Things like publishing the DBS policy online for instance, so that people aren’t left wondering whether they’re past will prevent them from taking a job. Or using the DBS process to identify support people might need to flourish in their roles, as a case study we captured from Oldham did. Or having the discussion with someone about the relevance of their criminal record face to face, so they can put it into context and get across the person they are now. This didn’t happen initially with Adam, one of the stories shared in the Storytelling video, preventing him from having a fair say. It has happened since, and Adam is now thriving in a public service role helping others.

Implications and steps forward

We’ve now brought together some of this feedback and some of those good practice examples. They cover three parts of the DBS ‘process’:

• What employers could do better during the application process
• What employers could do differently when something is flagged on a DBS check
• How employers can approach follow up once a decision has been made on whether to continue with a job offer after a DBS check returns historical offences

The resources that are now on the under ‘Make Your Recruitment Fairer’ on the GM Workforce Hub set out some of the things Good Employment Charter Members are doing, and what you could do differently. It’s now over to you: what inspiration can you take from these examples to give people a fair say in your DBS process, reach more of the untapped workforce, and increase equality and diversity in your workforce?