Cafcass nominated for three HR categories in prestigious social care and public sector awards

Cafcass and its HR Team have been shortlisted in the Guardian Public Service and CYPNow awards for our HR and recruitment campaigns, and the Civil Service awards for our sector-leading Health and Wellbeing programme.

Cafcass multi-channel recruitment campaign

The HR and recruitment awards recognise outstanding strategies aimed at ensuring that long-time and newer members of staff across all levels of service feel motivated, recognised and supported in their work across the organisation. The shortlisting reflects our innovative recruitment campaign to increase our social work practitioner workforce to meet high case demand.

Speaking about the nominations, Cafcass Head of HR James Hyde said: “To be shortlisted for these awards, and to receive such recognition for the hard work of so many colleagues in developing and successfully implementing a range of innovations in recruitment over the last 12-months is fantastic.

“To know that this work has helped secure the unprecedented levels of new staff and increased capacity that were vital to meet the growing demand for Cafcass’ services, and thus support frontline service delivery to some of the country’s most vulnerable children and young people, makes this achievement all the more remarkable and fulfilling.”

Improving staff health and wellbeing

We also received a nomination for the Civil Service Awards in the Health and Wellbeing category for our commitment to improving the wellbeing of all staff through organisation-wide initiatives.

In our 2018 Ofsted inspection our work in this area was recognised as contributing to our overall ‘Outstanding’ rating. It reported that the programme ‘has created a positive organisational culture of physical and emotional wellbeing, ensuring employees feel valued and supported in and outside of work, despite the high-pressured environment. This positively influences rates of attendance, productivity and performance.’

Our Health and Wellbeing Team said, “We are delighted to be in the final three for the Health and Wellbeing (H&W) award having been lined up against a record number of submissions from across the Civil Service.

“It is testament to the commitment and hard work of Cafcass, our H&W champions and particularly our in-house team of H&W officers who developed outstanding strategies to promote an organisational culture of physical and emotional health and wellbeing.

“We support our staff to build resilience and excel at work, and in turn help them to make lasting and positive differences to the children and families they work with. Their work is rewarding but also emotionally challenging, so it is crucial that Cafcass has a strong wellbeing culture to help staff achieve a work-life balance and develop resilience; especially with new case demand for our services increasing by around a quarter over the last five years, including a third more care applications.”

Winners will be announced in the ceremonies scheduled later this year.