BEST PUBLIC / THIRD SECTOR RECRUITMENT AGENCY 2019

Winner: Sanctuary Personnel

Sanctuary Personnel is the umbrella company of three specialist public sector recruitment divisions: Sanctuary Social Care, Sanctuary Health and Sanctuary Criminal Justice. There is also a managed service delivery division, Skylakes, which came about as a result of looking at delivering services in a more cost-effective way for clients.

• Innovation is at the heart of Sanctuary, and employees are encouraged to think creatively. All suggestions are reviewed, with the best ideas discussed and feedback given. New recruitment divisions and even new companies have been launched as a result, and clients also benefit from innovative new services to enable them to become more efficient and provide a better service themselves.
• An intensive ‘edge of care’ project set up by Sanctuary division Skylakes supported children of parents who themselves had been in care, to prevent the continuation of the care cycle. The children were assessed by social services to be of lower risk of being taken into care than at the start of the project, and results revealed that out of the 40 children, only one child was taken into care.
• As part of the project with an initial cohort of 40 children, the Youth engagement programme helped children get back into education if they were absconding from school, offered them mentoring support and helped older children with employability skills to prepare them after school.
• This category epitomises the value the industry adds to the public & third sector, helping companies change, improve or save lives by the appointment of people to roles that help society as a whole. The judges felt immensely proud of the work done here, with a number of specialised and urgent appointments often in a very regulated environment, truly making a sustainable difference.

Judges’ comments: “The winner had developed a proposition that clearly articulates what they stand for and what they then do. Sanctuary genuinely cares about the third sector and delivered an ambitious and innovative approach to dealing with some highly challenging and hard-to-fix situations. The Youth engagement programme really stood out in changing minds and perceptions, and made them a worthy winner.”

SHORTLIST:

• Day Webster
• Gravitas Recruitment Group
• MLC Partners
• PeopleScout
• Peridot Partners
• Social Personnel
• The Finegreen Group