AGS Support is England’s leading Support worker agency & staffing service. Working with the likes of Greater London Authority, Look Ahead, Depaul UK, and services providers of all sizes. For those searching how to get a support worker for housing, they provide tailored staffing solutions for reliable, high-quality staff that your property needs.
Overview: The sector’s struggle to find staff
For service providers in the supported housing (SH) industry, a shortage in staff is not new news. Working with vulnerable people has always been demanding work. With minimum wage pay, it’s no surprise staff turnover is notoriously high.
More recently, however, even more people are leaving the industry. As the dust settles from the COVID pandemic and living costs soar, employees are looking for higher salaries, and frankly, easier. But: despite this staffing crisis, support workers are still fundamental for the sector to keep providing the quality care that their residents need.
To help the search on how to get a support worker for housing, we’ll take a deep dive into how our team can support you.
AGS Support: The solution from over 25 years
There’s a personal story behind the founder of AGS Support, Richard Odendall, entering this sector. For some years of his adult life, his own father was homeless. And when asked if this impacted what his company would become, he answered “yes, very likely”.
Driven to always find solutions and having run a successful security business, Richard saw a big problem in the SH industry. At that time, providers were bringing in security guards to safeguard residents who were triggered by authority—and that simply didn’t work. But neither did leaving the job to often timid, in-house support staff.
Richard’s solution? A hybrid training of support staff that allowed them to be calm but assertive. But with AGS Support, he & his team went further than just finding a training system that worked best for SH. As we unwrap how to find support workers, we’ll dig into its details.
How to get a support worker for housing (temp)
For service providers, temp support workers offer fairly flexible staffing for their properties. But even with an in-house support team, temp staff importantly fill in for sick leaves, days off, and emergencies.
For how to find a temp support worker: hiring from recruitment agencies is the standard choice. But one of AGS Support’s solutions was to take the recruitment model and evolve it to meet the demands of the sector.
Along with providing extensively & uniquely trained support staff, the team behind AGS Support fully manage everything for their clients. A senior member is always available 24/7—to advise temp support staff, help them navigate crises, and if needed, provide shift cover at short notice.
How does this help service providers? It ensures their residents will be cared for, no matter the circumstance. It means the burden of staff logistics is taken off their shoulders. With the peace of mind of reliable temp support workers, the in-house team can focus on doing the work that matters most.
How to find a support worker (perm)
Taking on permanent support workers is certainly enticing for the sector. Residents trust familiar faces and feel more at ease. Organisational values can be lived and breathed by a united in-house team. But naturally, all these benefits will take much more of an investment compared to temp staff.
Like temp support works, getting a perm support worker could involve going through a recruitment agency. However, the typical approach is to hire workers directly, without third parties, to be part of the in-house team.
But for that, too, AGS Support can be of great help. With 25+ years in recruitment, our team’s expert eye selects qualities in candidates that make them excellent support staff. And just like our temp staff—they’ll have extensive training and 24/7 backing of our senior management team.
“I have 35 years of working in the sector as a housing provider,” says Julie Adams, AGS Support’s HR & Compliance manager. “One of the biggest headaches is always providing cover…and having that headache taken away from you…as I say, I would have bitten their arm off if I had known about AGS back then.”
…….
Need temp or perm support staff to provide care to your residents?