We’re asking for support from the community to help us to maintain staffing levels at Park House residential home. We're currently in the position of being unable to recruit to jobs within the service due to a combination of:
- potential candidates from the mainland being unwilling to take roles without a secure offer of long-term housing
- a lack of on-island residents applying for roles.
In order to make the roles more attractive over the past few years, the Council has used market forces supplements to increase the pay offer in this service, introduced apprenticeships and improved access to training, including offering the opportunity to achieve NVQ qualifications and care certificates. Working for Park House provides you with year-round employment, a competitive salary, access to a pension and the employment protections of local government.
More importantly, this is a role with significant emotional reward. Current staff describe their working life as: “working with a great team," "in a place full of love,” “it’s wonderful to work somewhere that is at the heart of the community and valued by so many” and “a fab caring place.”
Our recruitment drives have generated interest in the roles during this time, however being unable to offer suitable housing has meant that we have not been able to formally appoint the vast majority of successful applicants.
The Council regularly discusses this issue with housing providers on the islands, but in the last 18 months we have been unable to access any long-term housing for our current or future staff.
Councillor Joel Williams, Lead Member for Adults and Public Health, said: “We know how much our community values Park House and the Council is proud to be able to offer on-island care services to our residents. We hope that everyone will take this request for help seriously, as we can’t solve the current recruitment issues alone and must be able to continue our work sustainably.”
Are you already living on Scilly and interested in working in care services?
If you already live on the islands and have previously worked, or thought about working, in a care role, please consider applying for our vacant positions. You can find all of our vacancies on the Council jobs webpage.
We would also be grateful if you could signpost anyone who lives on the islands, and is looking for work, to our job adverts webpage, or encourage them to contact Scott Fuller, Head of Adult Social Care or Claudia Schwarz, Care Home and Community Care Manager at the following details, for further information:
Email: scott.fuller@scilly.gov.uk / claudia.schwarz@scilly.gov.uk
Phone: (01720) 422699 or (01720) 423643
Can you offer on-island accommodation for our workers?
Are you able to offer a property for a Park House staff tenant? If so, please get in touch with Scott Fuller or Claudia Schwarz at the details above for an initial chat.
If you are able to offer long-term accommodation for use by Park House staff, the Council will take responsibility for ensuring the tenancy is only allocated to staff providing adult care services and can provide a guarantee that rent will be paid on time.
Thank you to everyone who continues to support our services and especially our current carers.
