Organising care

How does GoodOaks choose its staff?

Founded by carers, we fundamentally understand the importance of that person walking through your front door. Here’s how we select our care professionals.

How do we choose our staff

The Mum Test

Perhaps most crucially, when we are screening and interviewing candidates, we ask ourselves the question: Would we be happy for this person to look after my mum?

If the answer isn’t an emphatic yes, the candidate won’t be successful in their application.

Their values

We believe that someone’s values are at least as important as their previous experience. Skills and knowledge can be taught, but a genuine caring and empathetic nature is inherent. 

Our colleagues and clients have told us what values and behaviours are important to them, and we have distilled them into our PRIDE Values of:

  • Professionalism
  • Respect
  • Integrity
  • Dedication
  • Empathy

Our PRIDE Values are ‘baked in’ to everything we do at GoodOaks. We use ‘Values Based Interviewing; asking for specific examples of times that they have displayed these values in their behaviours. For example, we might ask a candidate to describe a time that they supported someone who was upset or distressed, or what they did to help. Discussing that example with them, and understanding their motivations and understanding of the scenario helps us to understand whether that person shares our value of Empathy.

Choosing our care staff

Rigorous vetting

As a CQC regulated provider, we take our vetting and selection responsibilities very seriously. Once they have passed the Mum Test and our Values Based Interview, we check that they are suitable to work in the care sector. This includes:

  • Literacy and Numeracy Checks – we assess a candidate’s written communication skills; both reading and writing, as well as their numeracy skills
  • Enhanced DBS (Disclosure and Baring Service) Police Checks – these not only request an individual’s criminal record, but also any other notes or reasons why they might be barred from working with vulnerable adults
  • Work references from their most recent employers – to check the quality of their work and find out more about the support they might need in their new role, we request at least two written references from their previous employers
  • Right to Work in the UK – We check ID documents and proof of address, to ensure they are who they say they are, and that they are legally allowed to work in the UK.

GoodOaks training

No matter their previous experience and background, every member of the GoodOaks team goes through our thorough, practical induction process. This training covers all the standards in the national Care Certificate framework, as well as topics unique to GoodOaks and the standards we expect. 

We use this process to further assess our candidates, and if candidates don’t meet our quality standards, we are not able to progress them to the next stage of their induction.