How to Recruit Care Workers in the UK

Recruiting care workers in the UK is not only about filling shifts. For a CQC-registered domiciliary care agency in England it is also a regulated process. Regulation 19 requires that people employed for the purposes of a regulated activity are of good character, have the qualifications, competence, skills and experience necessary, and can provide care safely. The evidence sits in Schedule 3. CQC's guidance on Regulation 19 is what inspectors use when they sample a staff file.

Skills for Care publishes regular workforce intelligence on vacancies and retention in adult social care in England. Its recruitment and retention pages and values-based recruitment guidance are the practical counterpart to the legal duty: hire for values and behaviours, then train for the tasks, rather than hiring only for a driving licence and a free weekend.

This guide is for registered managers and owners. It is not legal advice. Use it as a set of working ideas you can put into a recruitment policy and a pipeline you can actually run.

Start with the role, not the advert

Write down what the person will do before you write the job title.

• Which people will they support, and at what times of day?
• Is the work regulated activity that needs an enhanced DBS with barred list check? Use the DBS eligibility guidance and the eligibility tool if the job description is not a textbook match.
• What training must be in place before the first solo visit, and what can follow under supervision?
• What values matter in your service: honesty about medication, calm under pressure, respect for someone's home?

A clear role description makes the rest of recruitment faster. It also makes it obvious which right to work, identity and DBS checks you are entitled to run.

Attract people who will stay

Volume of applications is not the same as quality of hire. Ideas that tend to work for home care agencies:

• Say what the work really is. Travel between calls, lone working, medication prompts, personal care, and the support available from the office. People who leave in the first month often say the job was not what the advert described.
• Lead with values. Skills for Care's values-based recruitment guidance asks you to design adverts, shortlisting and interviews around the behaviours you need, not only around hours and pay.
• Use staff referrals carefully. Current carers often know who would fit. Still run the same safer recruitment checks. A referral is not a reference.
• Keep your own careers page honest and mobile-friendly. Many applicants apply on a phone between other jobs.
• Move quickly. Good applicants are talking to more than one agency. A same-day acknowledgement and a dated next step beats a polished pack that sits for a week.

Pay and travel time matter too. Our guide on the national minimum wage and travel time covers the wage rules that sit beside recruitment, not instead of it.

Screen in stages, and keep the evidence

Safer recruitment is a sequence, not a single form. A workable order for most agencies looks like this:

1. Application with a full employment history and an explanation of gaps.
2. Identity and right to work, following the Home Office employer's guide to right to work checks and the check a job applicant's right to work pages.
3. Documents that support the application: proof of address, relevant certificates, photograph.
4. References, including previous health or social care employment where Schedule 3 expects it.
5. DBS at the correct level for the role, with a clear policy on what you do while you wait. See our DBS check for care workers guide.
6. Interview that tests values and scenario judgement, not only availability.
7. Offer and onboarding, including a health questionnaire appropriate to the role, induction, and the Care Certificate where it applies.

Our care worker recruitment checklist walks through right to work, DBS, references and the health questionnaire in more detail. Our applicant tracking guide explains why that sequence needs a pipeline, not a shared inbox.

CQC's recruitment policy and procedures supporting document expects the policy to show the stages, including identity, references and the DBS check, and how you check why previous employment ended.

Interview for the home, not the classroom

Domiciliary care happens in someone else's house. Interview questions should sound like the work:

• What would you do if a person declined personal care but needed it for skin integrity?
• How would you raise a medication discrepancy with the office?
• What does dignity look like when you are supporting someone with dementia who is distressed?
• How do you manage a late previous call without leaving the next person waiting without notice?

Score answers against the values you published. Keep the notes. If you later dismiss someone in probation, those notes are part of showing you took reasonable care at appointment.

Onboard so the first week is not a cliff edge

Recruitment does not end at the offer letter. New carers need:

• A named buddy or supervisor for the first shifts.
• Access to the care plans and risk assessments they will follow, before the first solo visit.
• Mandatory training timed to the work they will do, as covered in our mandatory training guide.
• A clear way to ask for help when they are out on the patch.

Supervision after appointment matters as much as the interview before it. See supervision and appraisal for care workers.

How HomecareOS helps

HomecareOS is built for this sequence, not for a pile of PDFs in email.

The agency invites an applicant by email. SMS invites are not built. The applicant completes an online /apply portal with their application, documents, right to work, two references, DBS details and a health questionnaire. The agency tracks them through seven stages: application, documents, references, DBS, interview, offer and onboarding. On hire, the applicant is converted into a carer record that is ready to be added to the rota. They are not added to the rota automatically.

Agencies that sign up now get the recruitment portal £49 a month plus VAT. See the recruitment portal offer, the recruitment feature page, or book a 15-minute demo. You can also call Phil on 01905 674704.

Sources

• Regulation 19: Fit and proper persons employed and Schedule 3, Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.
• CQC guidance on Regulation 19.
• CQC recruitment policy and procedures supporting document.
• Check a job applicant's right to work and the employer's guide to right to work checks, GOV.UK / Home Office.
• DBS eligibility guidance and Find out which DBS check to apply for.
• Skills for Care: recruitment and retention and values-based recruitment.
• HomecareOS recruitment and the recruitment portal landing page, for what the product does today.