Running a Campaign to Recruit Short Break Carers for Children and Young People with Autism and Challenging Behaviour or Complex Needs

Transcription

1 Running a Campaign to Recruit Short Break Carers for Children and Young People with Autism and Challenging Behaviour or Complex Needs

2 To plan a communications strategy you need to consider the following; Objectives what you want to achieve Audiences who you need to target Messages - for each audience Tools and activities - appropriate to reaching those audiences Resources and Timescales Evaluation and Amendment Running a campaign to recruit short break carers for your service to meet the needs of children with autism (and behaviour that challenges) and children with complex needs need to follow the general principles of running campaigns.see also on our website; o Planning a Campaign o What Works in Advertising and Publicity o Targeting Short Break Carers from Different Backgrounds o Resources below and at Audiences Over 70% of the carers surveyed by Short Breaks Network already had a connection to disability before applying. Parents of adults with autism, people working with children with autism may be interested in becoming short break carers or may help you promote the need amongst this community (see Using Your networks). Often short break carers supporting these groups of children are paid workers/ carers but not always. Swindon have run a two year awareness campaign for their Shared Care service which offers allowances and reimbursement only and have been very successful and some services like PACT in York have had great success in recruiting volunteers to support teenagers with autism and Norfolk s Autism Specific services recruit both those with experience and people with skills and attributes to support children with autism to whom they offer bespoke training. Many services have found that for paid jobs advertising in the classified section of the paper, advertising in social care and specialist publications and websites (pay slips, intranet etc) and promoting word of mouth works best to reach people with experience. Advertising on volunteering websites such as Do-it.org.uk and Gumtree seems to work to recruit young volunteers, befrienders and sessional workers. Whoever your audience is the I Could Do That campaign materials on our website aim to help you get people with experience of autism and complex needs as well as carers from a range of backgrounds to think about providing short breaks.the films can be viewed at Messages You will need to think about tailoring your messages for each audience. For example if you are doing a campaign to recruit contract carers and family link carers for children with autism you may want to get across that working with children with autism is rewarding and that you will provide you with the skills

3 and training people need to do this (see Northamptonshire s Autism specific service case study online). When targeting those with experience you may want to focus your messages on the advantages of this type of work- the fact you can work from home, pay and conditions etc. Tools and Activities Adverts and indeed most recruitment materials and publicity need to follow the principles of AIDA (attention, interest, desire, action). For more information see What Works in Advertising and Publicity. Things that have worked for services to recruit short break carers and workers for children with autism might include; o general awareness raising designed to have an impact and involve repetition of key messages to increase people s understanding of the needs of children with autism and to challenge preconceptions. o recruitment around those who have the skills to support children with autism but not the experience again stressing need and challenging preconceptions o targeting those who have an interest in or are already work children with autism. o targeting people who already know the child o growing them from existing carers by offering additional training and support o ads in the job section of the paper o high quality bespoke training for people working with and providing short breaks to children with autism o press campaigns including using local press and council magazines o radio advertising o tailoring services to children s individual needs including recruiting bridging workers and inclusion workers to put in place o local authority websites, job pages, wages slips and intranet Things that have worked for services to recruit short break carers and workers for children with complex needs include; o targeting those who have an interest in or are already working with children with children with complex needs. o targeting people who already know the child o targeting people with disability experience e.g. lunchtime assistants and transport escorts o adverts in special schools o targeting organisations working with children with complex healthcare needs o tailoring services to children s individual needs and putting in place additional resources, training and staff to ensure the can enjoy activities o investing in existing carers with skills or experience to provide them with money for adaptations, equipment and resources to look after this group of children o targeting those with adapted/ suitable properties o high quality training and support for short break carers and workers o posters in GP surgeries, hospitals and special schools

4 o health newsletters/stalls in hospital foyers o grow them from existing carers by offering additional training and support and opportunity to focus on this group of children o students on social care and health courses o adverts in the job section of the paper o radio advertising o advertising and articles local authority and Health websites, job pages, wages slips and intranet o press campaigns in local press and council magazines o recruiting bridging workers and inclusion workers and OT or nursing support to put in place adaptations, equipment, training and workers to meet the needs of these children in specialist and universal settings. Attention: All advertising needs to get people s attention. Pictures and headlines are often used to communicate that you are asking people to support disabled children but this it quite difficult to portray children with autism visually. Short Breaks Network s picture library does have a number of appropriate images you can use (e.g. photos and illustrations of men and teenagers). In advertising to catch people s attention who have an interest in autism you may need to use the word autism prominently in adverts and publicity. Some services have recruited contact carers via job ads pages mentioning autism in the title. In a very busy job adverts page for example a snappy title like 'Could You Be the BIG Difference?' would be less likely to catch the eye of someone interested in autism than one which simply mentions Children with Autism in the title. Children with complex needs can be easier to portray visually in posters and literature and Short Breaks Network has a range of images of children with complex needs enjoying short breaks. Interest: Successful adverts and posters often mention an interest you already have and appeal to your curiosity and advertising and publicising opportunities and promoting word of mouth amongst social care networks is one of the key ways of recruiting for this group of children. Intranet, specialist publications and ensuring a high visibility in all organisations for children with autism and complex needs, promoting word of mouth and placing articles and ads in health publications, websites, GP surgeries all work well too. Some services have recruited around the interest of the young person themselves recruiting those with similar interests. Time2Share Befriending Service for example have been successful in using the free online advertising service Gumtree to recruit befrienders one success was recruiting a befriender for a boy with autism who liked fishing which they did by posting an advert under the fishing section. A Derbyshire service recruited a specialist support worker to support a teenage with autism because of their shared passion for motorcars. Much of his short break time is spent in scrap yards and under vehicles engaged in an activity that he clearly loves! The boy is more confident and calmer and he and his outreach worker are building a car together and his family are delighted with the outcomes (source

5 Other services have found paying additional hours of existing staff to put on after school activities has enabled children with autism to do extra things with a degree of continuity and enabled gradual introduction to trying new things. Desire: This is the hearts and minds bit of recruitment. One service had success with their ad on the local authority intranet asking Can you could help Ade make sense of his world? Hertfordshire asked Could you help Hannah Flourish? (See Adverts that Work). People are often interested in autism but many hold many preconceptions about the condition or think children with autism are particularly challenging to support or have unrealistic notions of unlocking children with autism. Some services have run campaigns to challenge perceptions focusing on real families and carers to encourage people to come forward to work support children with autism and their families. Feature articles have a human interest value which can be backed up by real facts about the condition and evidence of need and the rewards of the role. Action! Often people need to see something a number of times before they take action so it is worth repeating things and doing lots of things at once to ensure people are reminded and get the opportunity to contact you. Press and Radio Campaigns There is advice on using Short Breaks Network s DVDs and online films to encourage short break carers and workers to tell a friend about short breaks and to run media campaigns to recruit those with and without experience. (See Running a Recruitment Campaign guide). There is also a variety of material on the DVDs to help recruit, prepare and train people considering supporting these groups of children. Cambridgeshire Family Link Service ran a campaign with interviews and articles on press and radio which resulted in 8 enquiries 6 of whom were still in the running at the time of reporting. Bristol s Short Breaks team ran a very successful radio recruitment campaign for buddies and family link carers. They ran two different adverts - one on a radio station with a strong young male listenership. It featured a male voice saying My friends do not know this but I am a real softy he goes on to talk about the rewards of being a befriender to a boy with autism. This got a very good response. (See case study under Running Campaigns) The importance of using word of mouth and your social care networks Lots of services recruit carers from these groups of children via word of mouth and via social care networks so it is important is to keep a high profile so people know carers are needed and to give a consistently high quality of service to existing carers and involve them in telling others (see What Works in Adverting and Publicity and our Tell a Friend pages on the website). Many services grow their own carers providing them with support and training and recruit contract carers for example from within their carer-base.

6 Some services aim to recruit people with the right attributes and focus on training them as well as looking for those who have experience. Many carers are recruited through the child s own networks (teaching assistants etc.) There is no doubt that the increase in contract carers has increased the number of children with autism and complex needs getting short breaks. Manchester Short Breaks service has recruited contract carers and are working in partnership with adult services to successfully meeting the needs of teenagers. Leicestershire Short Breaks Service who have recruited contract carers for children with complex needs by promoting word of mouth and targeting those already working with disabled children. Using the usual methods for job advertising seem to work, together with promoting opportunities in specialist publications and organisations meeting the needs of these children, together with recruiting existing carers and presenting the opportunity of contract caring to those working with these groups of children. (See case study on our website) Some services have found they need a contract carer in a particular area and have targeted awareness raising geographically to achieve this. ( A Job Worth Doing by Short Breaks Network is a guide to setting up a contract carers service.) The importance of recruiting male carers Teenaged boys with autism are one of the groups who often wait longest for services. To recruit male short break carers it is important to pictures of men in adverts and all recruitment materials, involve male short break carers where possible in the recruitment and training process. It is particular important that your first response is encouraging and that men feel their call is welcome, expected and that their help is needed when they first apply as they may have overcome other barriers to get to this stage and need not to be put off at the first hurdle. The importance of recruiting young people Teenagers Time2Share in Bristol have used online community notice boards to recruit befrienders e.g. Gumtree (a network of online classified and community networks). They are currently using google ads to direct people to their website and Guardian free volunteering ads. Cool2care recruit and train personal assistants/befrienders to support young people which families then go on to pay under direct payments. The majority of PA's are young people. They have had success with recruiting and placing young people with children with autism PACT in York have made links with university students to increase age appropriate opportunities for children with autism and complex needs (see case study on our website) Tailoring Services to Individual Needs

7 Many services have child focused outcomes approach to providing breaks for these groups of children with a focus on using and training (mainly) existing professionals to make it happen for the child rather than recruiting new workers. Bristol's Aiming High team have a bridging service. They recruited two workers who put together bespoke packages for children with complex healthcare needs, give grants to recruit and train staff and recruit staff to support children in settings where child wants to play (see case study online). Halton s short breaks team have provided a highly individualised service to support teenagers with autism and their families at risk of breakdown. The Somerset Supporters Club employ sessional workers who support children to access after school activities at the school where the children are familiar with the surrounding and also support them in their homes. Someone who works with them at the school accompanies them on the first few visits. These are good examples of how some children with autism require a service that is individualised and consistent in order to provide benefits to both the child and their family (see case studies on our website). Nottinghamshire and Wakefield have had success in focusing on people the children already know or by providing appropriate training and extra support to new and existing staff to help children access a wider range of services. In Staffordshire there is a successful initiative to provide free training on Autism within the community which has lead to parents being more confident about their children attending a range of services. In Herefordshire the appointment of two community nurses who provide generic and specific training has helped ensure children with complex health access universal services. Gloucestershire focused on budget holding lead professionals and bridging support to ensure children with complex health access community activities. All these and more examples can be explored on our Recruitment Practice pages on the website.

8 Useful Resources - Children with Autism and Behaviour that Challenges Children with Autism Family Stories A key success factor is to help people understand children with autism and challenge some of the stereotypes around children with autism being particularly challenging or difficult to support. One way of increasing peoples understanding is through case studies. CWDC have a range of case studies available which interview short break carers from different backgrounds (See below). Broadening their Horizons got example features Lynn (57) and Jim Sunley (60) who are contract carers to disabled children including children with autism. Contact a Family also have a lovely book Our Family our Future which has two case studies featuring children with autism meet Laurie (10) and his family (pg 6) and teenager Zak (13) and his family (pg61) The case studies are available on line and the book can be purchased from Contact a Family Short Breaks Network s Be the BIG Difference DVD and films featuring children with autism and challenging behaviour o Become an Outreach worker film children with autism gain life skills and families get support o Become a Befriender film Max befriends a teenager with Aspersers Syndrome o Family Based Short Breaks Nicola is an African Caribbean short break carer she talks about how she supports Davina and manages her challenging behaviour o A Grandparents story Short Breaks Network s I could do that! DVD and films o In your Own Home - a male white contract carers supports two brothers with autism in his own home o Meet the Children We meet children including Jonathan who has autism and Davina who sometimes presents challenging behaviour o Become a Short Break Carer in a residential centre we meet children with autism and challenging behaviour. We hear from workers how they manage challenging behaviour and sleep difficulties and how families benefit from the support. o These films are available to view (in short versions in some cases) at o Breaking Down the Barriers report (2008) has a range of findings of ways families of children with autism are supported to live more ordinary lives through short breaks. o Photo library Short Breaks Network has a range of photos which can be used at no charge in recruitment materials for services to use in

9 recruitment materials to recruit short break carers only. We have a number of line drawings of children and young people including those with autism for services to use in recruitment materials o Getting to Know Me DVD recruitment/ training DVD for those considering short breaks for children with autism o Good practice guide Thinking it Through good practice guide o A Job Worth Doing guide to setting up a contract carer service o Poster template advert to recruit carers for children with autism is available to download from our website The National Autism Society has a range of information on autism There are a number of good practice case studies on our website under Recruitment Practice, resources under Recruitment Resources and advice on running a campaign under Running Campaigns. Visit us at

10 Useful Resources Children with Complex Needs o I Could Do that Become a Short Break Carer in a Residential Centre short film and on DVD o Be the BIG Difference! Become a Short Break Carer A short film about Naomi and Debbie who are both contract carers looking after children with complex healthcare needs o I Could Do That DVD - Meet the children meet children with a range of disabilities including complex needs o ACT have a DVD featuring a family of a child with complex needs o Contact a Family s Our Family Our Future 30 families with disabled children tell their stories. There are a number of case studies featuring children with complex needs including Saskia (page 21) and Dylan page 22 and Hope page o CWDC have some lovely case studies of short break carers on their website which you can download. Some like Jacqui and Teresa who are care for children with complex healthcare needs home.pdf and student Emma who works in a residential centre for children who need medical care. le.pdf o Short Breaks Network has a range of photos and illustrations which can be used at no charge in recruitment materials for services to use in recruitment materials to recruit short break carers only. o Template poster to recruit carers for children in wheelchairs can be found on the Recruitment Resources section of our website o In Safe Keeping guides for carers by Short Breaks Network and Dignity of Risk. and All Kinds of Short Breaks are also useful publications urces o The Dignity of Risk and Short Breaks Network s In Safekeeping handbooks for carers may also be useful during the preparation and training process. o A Job Worth Doing guide by Short Breaks Network is a useful guide to setting up a contract carer service There are a number of good practice case studies on our website under Recruitment Practice and resources under Recruitment Resources at