The Curious about Care study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Promoting Values-Based Recruitment in community dementia support through Situational Judgement Tests (the Curious about Care study)
IRAS ID
324700
Contact name
Mark Wilberforce
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of York
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 6 months, 31 days
Research summary
Background:
Growing numbers of people living with dementia (PLWD) also have social care needs. Many live at home, supported to live independently by care workers. There are not enough care workers to meet current needs. When attracting new people to work in care, PLWD expect employers to assess whether candidates have the requisite values and attitudes. Situational judgement tests (SJTs) can be used to evaluate these traitsSJTs present candidates with a written or animated scenario in which values are being challenged or stretched. They rate how good (or bad) different actions would be in response. Our pilot found they were successful and acceptable.
Aims:
This study examines whether, and how, SJTs can promote values-based recruitment in community social care for PLWD.
What we will do:
(1) We wil design new SJTs to test value-based recruitment in dementia homecare. Interviews with care workers and PLWD will identify real-life examples where these values have been stretched. These examples will be abtracted into SJTs scenarios and response options, with the scoring system decided by our advising Expert-by-Experience panel.
(2) Homecare organisations will then be invited to use the SJTs in employing care workers. We will evaluate how SJTs were implemented in practice? What did they find useful? How was information used to choose candidates? What were the factors that facilitated / hindered SJTs effective use? Were the SJTs valid and reliable? and Do good workers tend to do well on the SJTs?
The final SJTs will be hosted (free of charge) on a website together with guidance on their use. We will work with a body called 'Skills for Care' to promote their use with homecare organisations.
REC name
Social Care REC
REC reference
23/IEC08/0014
Date of REC Opinion
31 May 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion