We are delighted to announce that the South West London Recruitment Hub has made it through as a finalist in the HSJ awards! The hub has been nominated for the People & Organisational Development Initiative of the Year Award. This is a fantastic achievement, and it is great to see staff are getting recognition for this fantastic collaborative initiative.
Kelvin Cheatle, Director of Workforce at Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which manages the service said: “The hub was established last year to manage staff recruitment for the four acute trusts in SW London, which are Croydon, Epsom and Helier, Kingston and St George’s.
“In addition to recruiting to the four Trusts, the hub has successfully staffed 9 vaccination sites across SW London, hiring 700 bank staff across various disciplines to support in delivering the COVID-19 vaccine programme. Thanks to the great work of the hub, the vaccination programme in South West London has been incredibly successful, helping to keep those in the area who are most at risk, safe from COVID-19.”
Sue Winter, Director of Workforce for SWL Acute Provider Collaborative said: “When preparing for the national COVID-19 vaccination programme, South West London was in a strong position, as the recruitment hub was already in place. We had a central structure and were able to move quickly to recruit the staff we needed for the programme. We were also able to support the hospital hubs in South West London from a single central department to vaccinate healthcare staff.
“Having a dedicated website http://www.nhscareerssouthwestlondon.nhs.uk/covid-19-vacancies has also been critical for the success of hub. It has given a single point of contact and source of information for staff who want to support the programme and for applicants to apply for the variety of roles we had available.
“Having a central team and a single website has been critical to managing the high volume of applicants we have received. The facilities for virtual interviews and the ability to quickly deploy staff has meant that our time to hire for this project from interview to offer has been just 3 weeks.”
The hub is currently running a programme to help drive up recruitment of newly qualified nurses, which has already received over 100 applications, even in these early stages.
To be nominated for this award means that the hub has had an impact not only in South West London, but also across the UK, as other NHS organisations across the country look to the hub as an example of how to carry out their own collaborative initiatives. Congratulations to the team!
