Recent polling from the Prince’s Trust suggests one in five young people in the UK would like to have a job in health and social care but are held back by a lack of mental health support and confidence.

The health and social care lead for the charity in Scotland has been speaking to healthandcare.scot about how the Prince’s Trust supports young people to acquire the skills, confidence and experience they need to take their first step into a career in health and social care.

Katie Stewart explains many young people don’t consider jobs in the sector, either because of a lack of understanding of the different roles available or feeling like they don’t have the right qualifications.

The Prince’s Trust ‘Get Started’ programme works to engage these young people furthest from the labour market, inspiring them to explore career possibilities in health and care often for the very first time.

Katie says:

“If people never considered it as a career goal, then they’ll never apply for that work. The programme is a way to inspire young people to consider it in the future”.

For those ready for employment, the more vocational ‘Get Into the NHS’ and ‘Get Into Social Care’ programmes give young people a chance to gain the hands-on experience and skills they need to secure a job in the sector.

Katie explains that these programmes are carefully designed to fit the needs of both the young people and the organisation involved in training them.

NHS boards and social care providers identify the opportunities available in their organisation, then ‘build back’ to create a bespoke six-to-eight-week training programme – whether it’s in clinical or caregiving roles, or in administration, facilities or domestic services.

This ensures young people understand the demands of the job and gives them the biggest possible chance of being offered a role afterwards.

Last year, of the 44 young people who were supported through the ‘Get Into the NHS’ programme, 13 secured a job with the organisation after. A further 16 moved onto ‘other positive destinations’, including further study.

Alongside helping to tackle the recruitment challenges facing the NHS, the programme also has a transformational impact on the lives of the young people who secure employment.

Even if they don’t immediately enter a job within the sector, Katie says the charity continues to support participants to develop the skills and confidence they need to succeed, not just in the labour market but in life:

“The majority of people who complete our programmes leave with confidence, communication skills. That’s the heart of it. That’s the magic we can bring.

“We can think about each individual who wants to work in the sector and get them closer to their goals.

“It’s not as straightforward as someone who wants to work in the sector can go get a job. We really add a lot of value with that personal and pastoral support.

“Being able to take part in the programme has really made that difference and we hear that back directly from young people.”

 

A focus on those who need support the most

Many of those the charity supports have faced significant adversity and barriers in their lives.

According to the charity, almost half (44%) of participants in Scotland  live in the most deprived areas of the country. Meanwhile, 9% of the young people they support are refugees or asylum seekers, 7% are care experienced and 28% report living with a disability.

Katie says the charity’s work will increasingly focus on the central belt, strengthening its relationships with NHS Tayside, Glasgow and Lothian, as well as local third sector care providers, to support young people in areas of high deprivation.

 

The next generation of Scotland’s’ health and care workforce

Only one in four people who work for the NHS in Scotland are aged under 35 and a quarter are due to retire in the next decade.

The Prince’s Trust recognises that a culture shift is needed to encourage more young people into these key roles, and that this must start as early as possible.

Katie says the charity is working with schools to introduce the possibilities of a career in health and care in a way that is interesting and accessible to people as young as 11 years’ old:

“Over the last five years, we have been thinking about what our health and social care offer in Scotland actually is to all the young people we support.

“We have been working with the Scottish government, specifically NHS Scotland and the Adult Social Care Directorate, to better interlink these different priorities.

“We have worked really closely with NHS Education for Scotland, which has supported us to create resources for our school-aged young people, and we have worked with the Scottish Social Services Council to support them on work around employability skills, especially for people who are looking at early-stage career information and schools’ career information events.”

Through the contribution of its dozens of partners across Scotland, the work of the Prince’s Trust can continue, she adds – noting that new partners are always welcome:

“The support offered by our partners to our young people is really over and above. It feels like, from the beginning, they’re welcomed into the organisation. It feels like a really positive environment to work.

“I think the young people we support really value the opportunity to have a job in health and social care.”

Learn more about the work of the Prince's Trust in Scotland here: https://www.princes-trust.org.uk/about-us/where-we-work/scotland

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