Recruitment of Post-holders

Many concerns were highlighted by interviewees with the current HR processes around candidate selection. One of these was that the CARC post had been advertised in the wrong place which had made progress slow:

“I don’t know if the advertisements went out in the right place and they seem to take a long time…I don’t think it’s progressing as quickly as people would like." (Management Group)

It was found that there was a limited pool of suitably qualified NMAHPs in NHS Lothian to recruit from, particularly at post-doctoral level; those that were eligible did not always want to apply:

"But I think the challenge when you say about selection has been that the pool from which to select is quite small and the reason for that is (a) people with the postdoc already having a PhD and (b) having the clinical background. So that I think is right in terms of selection."

(Management Group)

"I thought there might have been more applicants than there actually were. I mean I can’t remember how many we did actually see but. I can’t, I seem to remember that we weren’t totally overwhelmed with applications” (Steering Group)

“There was also some nuances of, the people who did have PhDs for example were all in senior positions and did not necessarily want to drop to part-time and did not necessarily want to receive less salary." (Steering Group)

“Because as you probably know that there have been issues for identifying suitable individuals to undertake these roles. And although on paper there are a number of people there, but the practicalities make it almost impossible to recruit.” (Management Group)

Recruitment to the CARC scheme was restricted to those currently employed within NHS Lothian, which in some cases was seen as a drawback due to the limited pool of suitably qualified NMAHPs:

"We’ve sought to make a little bit of an amendment as well in order to be able to recruit. This is one of the disadvantages of the scheme in a way is that people have to be already employed within NHS Lothian” (Steering Group)

“the employment restrictions have meant it’s been difficult to attract any new staff who might be suitably qualified." (Management Group)

“I would have it wider and I would have at least a couple of individuals identified, so at least I know there is a pool there, and that would have informal discussions with these individuals, so I know that they’re interested.” (Management Group)

One interviewee was concerned that post-holders could apply from any clinical area, rather than from necessarily in the same area as the research:

"But from my point of view, it now goes out to recruitment within NHS Lothian and actually the person taking up the role, either the studentship or the postdoc fellowship, could come essentially from anywhere in NHS Lothian." (Steering Group)

Extending the scheme to employ those from academic background could also be considered:

“We’ve got people from clinical practice coming into universities, but what about the other way around, where’s that traffic? Is that appropriate, should that be part of the scheme? We both felt very strongly that it certainly should be and that there should be some movement the other way." (Demonstration Site)

Furthermore, interviewees indicated that the structure used for selecting participants needed to be refined:

"So it’s just that if we’re going to continue it, we have to really bed down how we’re going to work and the structure that will be put in place, particularly about identifying applicants."

(Steering Group)

“the selection process has been extremely longwinded and traumatic at times, because the structure was inadequate from the start." (Steering Group)

The need for a more consistent, rigorous process of assessment for candidates was noted:

“should have been a more challenging set of tasks for selection. And we’re relooking at that now… So for instance we’re looking at each of the people doing some specific writing related

to critical appraisal and synthesis of some papers and so on, which didn’t happen previously, and I think in retrospect that was a mistake." (Management Group)

"I think one of the things that we’ve decided is that we need to assess more robustly which candidate we select." (Demonstration Site)

The majority of interviewees explained that negotiating the NHS HR systems to get posts advertised had been a lengthy and complex process, taking up a lot more time than had been anticipated:

"I kind of assumed I think wrongly that our HR systems, that I would just say the CARC word and they would say oh yes we know all about that and this is what you have to do ... that stage was just torturous and of course you know it wasn’t what I had signed up for at all in terms of what I was anticipating I was having to do … definitely felt like it took more of my time at that stage than I had anticipated.." (Demonstration Site)