Not at full capacity for a very long time. We changed that.

Four placements over 29 active weeks, through two case managers and several restarts. Case Manager, CCMS.

What was the situation?

In Durham, a client’s care package had been running under capacity for a very long time. Shifts went to agencies. Workers came and went. The team was never quite complete, and for a long time the people who loved him most had been filling the gaps themselves.

When the Case Manager at CCMS took over, he inherited a package that needed rebuilding. Not one role and not a quick fix, but a full team, placed carefully around a client whose family had high standards and a long memory for what had not worked before.

Why was this a hard brief?

• A package that had run under capacity for a very long time, with agency covering eight shifts a month when we came in.
• A female-only requirement and a need for drivers, both of which narrowed the pool from the outset.
• Multiple positions to fill at once, with a family closely involved in every candidate decision.
• Staff attrition mid-process: one worker resigned during recruitment, another went on long-term sickness, so the ground kept shifting.
• A mid-case handover between case management companies, with pauses while the new team got up to speed, the rota settled, and a pay uplift was approved.
• Careful, staged integration, introducing new team members a few at a time rather than all at once, to avoid overwhelming the client and let the family build confidence in each placement.

What did we do?

We treated this case the way it deserved. Every week, without exception, the Case Manager got a full recruitment update, so nothing fell into silence. Every candidate was managed with care, kept engaged through a process with a lot of moving parts, and never left wondering where they stood.

The package kept shifting around us, with a resignation and a long-term sickness along the way. We did not use that as a reason to slow down, and we worked to keep good candidates from being lost to delays that were no one’s fault.

“I feel I should be sending you gifts given how amazing you both have been with the recruitment for my Durham client.”

Case Manager, CCMS

What was the outcome?

Four candidates were placed across the life of the case: two full-time Support Workers, one part-time, and one bank worker for ad hoc cover. Each was its own search, its own brief, its own process, worked through properly.

“After speaking with the family, it has been a very long time since the package was at capacity. Your help and support has been invaluable throughout this process.”

Case Manager, CCMS

The families who carry the most do so quietly. They do not always say how exhausted they are, or how many times they have been let down. They just keep going, because there is no other option.

We stayed in this case from the first placement to the last. Through two Case Managers. Through resignations and long-term sickness. Through the moments that nearly went wrong. When the final meet and greets went well and the instruction to pause came through, it was not the end of a recruitment campaign. It was the end of a very long wait for a family who deserved a full team around someone they love.

“I have sang your praises to all of my colleagues and hope they get the chance to work with you in the future.”

Case Manager, CCMS

Why does fit come first?

That is how the screening is meant to work, before anyone reaches the client rather than after. Across our placements, around 80% of the people we take to a meet-and-greet are offered the role.

Having new people come into someone’s home is a big deal, more so for a family who had been let down before. Whether each person fits is the foundation everything else is built on, which is why we introduced the team in stages and let the family build confidence in one placement before the next.

It matters because these are the people who spend more hours with the client than almost anyone outside the family. Get the team right and it gives a family their lives back. Get it wrong and the package breaks again, and their trust with it. That is the part we take on, so the case manager does not have to.

What did it cost?

Here is how our fee compares with a standard percentage-based permanent placement fee. This was a four-person team build, not a single hire.

The perm agency figure assumes a 15% placement fee on a full-time support worker salary (£16 an hour, about £31,200 a year), which is about £4,680 per hire and around £18,720 across the four placements. Our one-off fee covers the whole campaign: four placements over 29 active weeks, two case-manager handovers, and several restarts. We bill for the hours the work actually takes, so the fee stays proportionate.

If you have a complex case and want to talk through direct recruitment, email info@williamson-care.co.uk or call 020 3576 0216.

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