The adult social care sector was under immense pressure, with over 100,000 vacancies in England’s workforce. Our campaign aimed to support existing recruitment efforts undertaken by home care providers in Lincolnshire by raising the profile of the sector as a rewarding place to work.

2 campaign branded posters featuring imagery of Lincolnshire based carers.

The mission.

Attracting carers to the homecare sector in Lincolnshire. 

Lincolnshire County Council, in partnership with Lincolnshire Care Association, commissioned Social Change to create and deliver a compelling campaign to raise the profile of carers and highlighting the benefits of working in the home care sector, to increase the number of enquiries and job applications for a network of nine home care providers in the county.  

A collection of campaign branded social media post images.

The research.

Understanding barriers and identifying motivational factors. 

We undertook scoping work to understand the barriers to recruitment for the sector, pinpoint the geographic areas of greatest need, and build audience profiles. 

The insights informed the four key target audiences. We drilled down on key motivations for working in the sector and current barriers to application, which informed the concept development. 

We coordinated and delivered a stakeholder workshop where participants were invited to address the challenges facing staff recruitment and retention in the sector and seek out interventions to mitigate the issues.  

A campaign branded roller banner showing a carer doing the school run.

The campaign.

The story-led campaign messaging shone a light on real carers from across the county and anchored the campaign in a sense of place. 

We created a brand and campaign that positions the care sector as a profession and carers as professionals. We worked with Lincolnshire County Council to streamline their application process to remove barriers for people wanting to enter the sector, making it easy and attractive. We added an additional landing page to the website with an enquiry contact form containing simple questions for people to express their interest and be matched with a provider who would contact them about potential roles. During the process we connected with the national Made with Care campaign but added an additional layer by promoting the value and exchange for the carer. 

We produced a portfolio of digital and in-print marketing assets including original photography depicting a diverse range of carers from across the county. Messaging was supported by a series of case studies both from carers and service users and a short emotive video using real life carers in settings across Lincolnshire, to give it that localised feel. 

The impact.

The campaign has made a significant impression across Lincolnshire, demonstrating the value of joining the care sector. It has been successful in generating interest and applications to join care providers in the county.  

In addition to the legacy benefits to the client and stakeholders of providing a suite of assets for continued use, we delivered a 12-month plan recommending further interventions to improve retention, increase recruitment and support grant applications. 

A campaign branded mobile ad displayed on a persons phone.
Front and back sides of a campaign branded flyer with a carer surrounded by illustrations.
155 forms submissions
1,091,216 social media impressions
5,385 social media link clicks
954,804 press and PR reach