Recruitment costs can spiral quickly.

Job boards. Agencies. Advertising. Admin time.

But here’s the truth: You don’t need a big budget to hire great people.

If you’re in the care sector, you already have what matters most, a clear mission and a need for committed staff.

Here’s how to spend less and still hire well.

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1. Stop using recruitment agencies

Agencies are expensive.

Many charge 10%–20% of the new hire’s salary.

That’s thousands per hire.

Try this instead:

Build your own candidate database
Use past applicants and re-engage them
Set up alerts on CV databases (like Indeed, CV-Library or Totaljobs)

💬 One client of mine saved over £12,000 per year by switching from agency to direct recruitment.

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2. Cut job board spend

You don’t need to pay for every advert!

Instead:

Post on free or low-cost sites like Indeed (with unpaid listings), Care & Support Jobs, or DWP Find a Job
Reuse adverts — don’t write a new one every time
Only advertise when needed (not “just in case”)

Track which job boards give results. Stop paying for the ones that don’t.

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3. Improve your job adverts

You could be losing good candidates at the first click.

If your advert is generic, unclear, or too long, they’ll scroll past.

Tips:

Use a clear job title (e.g., “Care Assistant – Nights – Trafford”)
Paint a picture of what it's like to work for you
Find the candidate 'pain' point - and use your advert to help fix their issues "Flexible hours for people with busy lives"
State the pay, shifts, and location up front
Focus on what makes your care home a good place to work

🧠 Ask yourself: Would you apply for your own advert?

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4. Use your website as a recruitment tool

If your website has no careers page, you’re missing free applications.

Add:

A simple “Work with Us” page
Key job roles listed clearly
An easy enquiry form or contact number

Let candidates come to you!

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5. Build a talent pool

Don’t start from scratch each time.

Instead:

Keep a spreadsheet or even better, an ATS (applicant tracker system) of past applicants
Check who was “almost hired” before
Send a quick message: “Are you still looking for care work?”

It’s free. And faster than advertising.

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6. Make hiring faster

Long processes cost more.

People drop out. Shifts go unfilled. Agencies get called in.

Fix this:

Set interview dates in advance
Do short, same-day interviews
Offer the job quickly

Every extra day is a risk.

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7. Train managers in smart hiring

Hiring isn’t just HR’s job.

Your front-line managers need to know:

How to screen quickly
How to sell the role during interviews
How to spot good carers (not just CVs)

Training your team once can save you thousands over the year.

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Final thought

You don’t need to lower standards to save money.

You just need a better process.

Want help reviewing your recruitment costs or building an in-house strategy?

Book a free 20-minute call and I’ll show you where you can save.

Book a Call

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The care sector in the UK is in crisis. Every day, carers and managers fight a losing battle against funding cuts, staff shortages, and a system that feels like it’s designed to fail. But is it really failing? Or is it working exactly as intended?

For years, the government has promised reform, yet nothing ever changes. Billions of pounds have been pledged, reviews have been conducted, and white papers written, but carers are still underpaid, services overstretched, and vulnerable people left without the support they need. We have to ask: Is this incompetence, or is it deliberate?

Underfunding or a hidden agenda?

What if the chronic underfunding of the care sector isn’t just an oversight? What if it’s part of a bigger plan to push privatisation? Private equity firms are quietly buying up care homes, turning essential services into profit-making machines. When care becomes a business, people suffer.

Take the carers themselves. They’re paid some of the lowest wages in the country, often just above minimum wage, for work that requires skill, patience, and compassion. Why hasn’t this changed? Is it because carers’ work is undervalued, or because keeping wages low benefits the corporations profiting from their labour?

And what about prevention? Services like falls prevention programmes or early intervention for children save money in the long run, yet they’re always the first to be cut. Why? Is it because crisis care (ambulances, hospital admissions, and emergency placements) is more profitable?

These questions aren’t easy to answer, but we should be asking them.

Carers and managers: Heroes in the chaos

In this mess, it’s the carers and managers who are holding everything together. Care managers juggle impossible budgets, navigate endless bureaucracy, and somehow keep their teams going. Carers go above and beyond every day, sacrificing their own well-being to ensure others are cared for.

They do this not for recognition or rewards, but because they care. They care about the elderly man who wants to stay in his own home. They care about the child in crisis who just needs someone to believe in them.

These people are the backbone of our society, and yet they’re treated as disposable. No wonder they’d prefer to work at Aldi.

Is there a better way?

It doesn’t have to be like this. We could pay carers what they deserve. We could invest in prevention rather than waiting for crises to happen. We could stop treating care as a business and start treating it as a vital public service.

But do we have the political will? Or is the care sector destined to remain in chaos because it suits someone’s agenda? If we open our eyes properly, we can see the patterns, the red flags, the warning signs. Analyse that, against historical facts with government behaviour, with smoke & mirrors – or empty promises to keep the status quo; and delay rebellion.

What will it take to change?

If we want real change, we need to start asking the hard questions. Where is the money going? Who is profiting from the current system? Why aren’t carers being paid a fair wage?

We need to demand better from our leaders. Care managers and carers can’t keep shouldering the burden alone. If we don’t act now, the system will collapse, and it’s the most vulnerable, our children, our elderly, our disabled; who will pay the price.

So, what do you think? Is the care sector broken, or is it working exactly as intended? And more importantly, what are we going to do about it?

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Being a Registered Manager isn’t just a role, it’s about wearing every hat in the care sector and somehow keeping everything running.

Here’s just a glimpse of what you juggle daily (not that you need a reminder!):

The Recruiter – Always hiring, always covering shifts, always battling the staffing crisis.

The Trainer – Making sure staff are skilled, compliant, and ready to deliver top-quality care.

The HR Expert – Managing sickness, disciplinaries, team morale, and those never-ending staff issues.

The Accountant – Stretching budgets, controlling costs, and trying to make the numbers work in an underfunded sector.

The Legal Expert – Keeping up with policies, regulations, and that ever-growing list of CQC requirements.

The Family Liaison – Supporting relatives, handling concerns, and sometimes just being a listening ear.

The Fixer – IT issues, broken equipment, last-minute rota changes—you name it, you fix it.

And somehow, amidst all of this, you’re also making sure service users get the best care possible.

It’s exhausting. It’s relentless. And honestly, it’s underappreciated. But Registered Managers are the backbone of the care sector. Without you, everything falls apart.

If you’re struggling with recruitment, retention, or just need support in making things more manageable, let’s talk. You don’t have to do it all alone.

Talk to me at hello@fittonmillett.com

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Is your team happy?

A happy and relaxed team will deliver results, time and time again…

Invest in streamlining your recruitment and retention processes, to give you the time to focus on getting the job done!

People before profits!Then your people will deliver the profits…

Stop being too slow in your recruitment processes!

The care sector is stretched enough…make a decision, hire the right person on the spot and get them started with you ASAP!

Having simple and scalable systems you can rely on, make the whole thing a lot easier and less time consuming.

Having a Growth Mindset surely has to be No.1 on every companies culture list….

Disagree?

What is your No.1 priority when setting your culture & ethos?

Everyone harps on about a Growth Mindset and what it does for you personally, as well as your business…but who actually walks their talk and adopts it to the fullest?

Building a team in the care sector doesn’t have to be hard….You just need the right systems in place and to treat your candidates with the respect they deserve.

Create an environment you would want to work in if you were a candidate!

How well do you get to know your team, and find out what motivates them?