HR Support for Healthcare & Care Homes
From CQC compliance and safeguarding obligations to managing shift patterns and retaining skilled care staff, we provide specialist HR support built for the healthcare and social care sector.
Book a Free ConsultationWhy Healthcare Providers Need Specialist HR
Healthcare and social care is one of the most heavily regulated employment sectors in the UK, and for good reason. Your staff are responsible for the safety and wellbeing of vulnerable people, and the Care Quality Commission expects you to demonstrate that your workforce is properly recruited, trained, supervised, and supported. Getting HR wrong in this sector does not just create legal risk for your business. It can put patients and residents at risk, trigger regulatory enforcement action, and damage the reputation you have built with families, commissioners, and local authorities.
The workforce challenges in healthcare are well documented. Staff shortages across nursing, care, and allied health professions mean you are constantly competing for qualified people. Turnover rates in adult social care regularly exceed 30%, and the cost of replacing a single care worker, once you factor in recruitment, induction, training, and the impact on team stability, runs into thousands of pounds. Many care providers rely on a mix of permanent staff, bank workers, and agency staff to fill rotas, each with different contractual obligations. Shift patterns that cover 24/7 care must comply with the Working Time Regulations while still ensuring safe staffing ratios, and managing absence in a sector where one missing staff member can leave a unit or ward below safe levels requires robust processes and confident managers.
At Rebox HR, we work with care homes, domiciliary care providers, dental practices, GP surgeries, and other healthcare organisations across the Midlands and beyond. We understand that your HR needs are shaped by CQC requirements, safeguarding duties, professional registration bodies, and the reality of delivering care around the clock. We help you build employment contracts and policies that meet regulatory standards, manage disciplinary and grievance processes for care staff (including where safeguarding concerns are involved), handle restructuring when funding changes, and put retention strategies in place that reduce your dependence on expensive agency cover.
HR Challenges in Healthcare & Care Homes
Every sector has its unique HR pressures. Here are the challenges we help healthcare & care homes businesses overcome.
Staff Shortages and Retention
Healthcare faces a chronic recruitment crisis. Skills for Care data consistently shows vacancy rates above 9% in adult social care, and many providers struggle to attract and keep registered nurses, senior carers, and support workers. High turnover drives up agency costs, disrupts continuity of care, and puts pressure on remaining staff. We help you build employment packages, career pathways, and workplace cultures that improve retention and reduce your reliance on agency staffing.
Shift Patterns and Working Time
Delivering 24/7 care means complex rotas covering days, nights, weekends, and bank holidays. The Working Time Regulations 1998 set limits on weekly hours, require minimum rest breaks, and impose additional protections for night workers. In healthcare, where fatigue directly affects patient safety, getting shift planning wrong has consequences beyond legal compliance. We help you design rota systems that meet legal requirements, maintain safe staffing levels, and give your staff a reasonable work-life balance.
CQC and Regulatory Compliance
The Care Quality Commission inspects against five key questions, and several of them have direct HR implications. 'Are services safe?' looks at staffing levels, recruitment checks, and how you handle concerns. 'Are services well-led?' examines your governance, training, and staff support. A poor CQC rating can restrict admissions, trigger commissioner action, and damage your reputation with families. We ensure your HR policies, recruitment processes, and people management practices support a positive regulatory outcome.
Safeguarding and DBS Obligations
Employers in healthcare have a legal duty to carry out enhanced DBS checks for staff in regulated activity with vulnerable adults or children. The Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 and the DBS referral duty mean you must also refer individuals to the DBS when you dismiss or remove them from regulated activity because of safeguarding concerns. Failing to make a referral when required is a criminal offence. We guide you through the DBS process, help you manage disclosures appropriately, and ensure your safeguarding policies meet both legal and CQC requirements.
Agency Worker Management
Most care providers use agency staff to cover gaps in their rotas, particularly for nursing shifts and short-notice absences. Under the Agency Workers Regulations 2010, agency workers gain equal treatment rights after 12 weeks in the same role. Managing a mixed workforce of permanent, bank, and agency staff creates complexity around pay, working conditions, supervision, and training. We help you put frameworks in place that keep agency usage compliant, cost-effective, and properly integrated with your permanent team.
Staff Wellbeing and Burnout
Healthcare workers face some of the highest rates of work-related stress, emotional exhaustion, and burnout of any sector. The combination of staffing pressures, emotionally demanding work, exposure to distressing situations, and long or unpredictable shifts takes a significant toll. High burnout leads directly to increased absence, higher turnover, and poorer care outcomes. Employers have a duty of care to support staff wellbeing, and CQC inspectors look at how providers support their workforce. We help you put wellbeing strategies, supervision frameworks, and manager training in place that protect your people and your service quality.
How We Help Healthcare & Care Homes Businesses
We work with care homes, domiciliary care agencies, dental practices, GP surgeries, and other healthcare providers to build HR frameworks that meet CQC standards, protect your patients and residents, and help you recruit and keep the staff your service depends on. We understand the pressures of delivering care around the clock and we flex our support to fit your operations.
- Draft compliant employment contracts for care staff, nurses, and support workers
- Build absence management policies with triggers suited to care settings
- Manage disciplinary and grievance processes, including safeguarding-related cases
- Create policies and procedures that meet CQC and commissioner requirements
- Conduct an HR health check to identify compliance gaps before inspection
- Support with dismissals where safeguarding concerns or capability issues arise
- Handle appeals processes fairly and in line with Acas guidance
- Deliver practical HR training for care managers and team leaders
Key Regulations We Help You Navigate
Staying compliant in the healthcare & care homes sector means understanding industry-specific legislation. We keep you up to date and protected.
Working Time Regulations 1998
Limits average weekly working time to 48 hours (with opt-out), requires minimum daily and weekly rest periods, mandates 20-minute breaks after 6 hours of work, and imposes additional health assessment requirements for night workers. Particularly relevant in healthcare where long shifts, sleep-in duties, and on-call arrangements need careful management to comply.
Health and Social Care Act 2008 (CQC Registration)
Establishes the Care Quality Commission as the regulator for health and social care services in England. Registered providers must meet fundamental standards covering safety, staffing, governance, and recruitment. CQC can take enforcement action including warning notices, conditions on registration, and in serious cases, cancellation of registration. HR practices directly affect inspection outcomes.
Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006
Creates the legal framework for barring individuals from working with vulnerable adults and children. Employers in regulated activity must carry out enhanced DBS checks and have a legal duty to refer individuals to the DBS when they are dismissed or removed from regulated activity due to safeguarding concerns. Failure to refer when required is a criminal offence.
Equality Act 2010
Prohibits discrimination on the basis of protected characteristics including age, disability, race, religion, sex, and sexual orientation. In healthcare, this applies to recruitment, shift allocation, promotion, training access, and handling reasonable adjustments for staff with disabilities or health conditions. Care providers must also consider the Public Sector Equality Duty where applicable.
How It Works
Assess
We start with a thorough review of your current HR setup: contracts, policies, recruitment processes, and CQC readiness. We identify gaps, risks, and areas where your people management could better support your care delivery and regulatory obligations.
Support
We put the right foundations in place: compliant contracts, robust policies, clear disciplinary and grievance processes, and practical training for your managers. If you have urgent issues like a safeguarding case or a restructure, we handle those alongside the longer-term work.
Sustain
Your dedicated HR consultant becomes a trusted part of your leadership team, available for day-to-day queries, formal processes, and strategic workforce planning. We help you build a stable, well-managed team that delivers better care and performs well at inspection.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you work with small care homes or only large providers?
We work with healthcare providers of all sizes. Some of our clients are single-home operators with 20 to 30 beds, others run multiple services across different locations. The HR challenges in healthcare are often similar regardless of size: you need compliant contracts, robust policies, effective absence management, and confident managers. Smaller providers often face these challenges without any in-house HR support, which is exactly where we add the most value.
Can you help us prepare for a CQC inspection?
Yes. Several of the CQC's key lines of enquiry have direct HR implications, particularly around staffing, recruitment, training, and governance. We can carry out an HR health check focused on CQC readiness, review your recruitment and DBS processes, ensure your policies are up to date and reflect current legislation, and help your managers understand what inspectors look for when they speak to staff. We cannot guarantee a rating, but we can make sure your HR practices support a positive outcome.
What should we do if we need to dismiss a carer for safeguarding reasons?
Dismissals involving safeguarding concerns require particular care. You need to follow a fair process (investigation, hearing, right of appeal) while also considering your DBS referral duty. Under the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006, you must refer an individual to the DBS if you dismiss them or remove them from regulated activity because they have harmed or posed a risk of harm to a vulnerable person. Failure to refer when required is a criminal offence. We guide you through the full process: suspension, investigation, disciplinary hearing, dismissal if appropriate, and the DBS referral.
How do you help with care staff retention?
Retention starts with understanding why people leave. Common reasons in care include low pay relative to workload, poor shift patterns, lack of progression, inadequate supervision, and feeling undervalued. We help you address these through practical measures: reviewing your pay and benefits against local benchmarks, designing shift patterns that give staff more predictability, creating career pathways from care assistant to senior carer and beyond, improving supervision and appraisal processes, and building a workplace culture that recognises and supports your team.
Do the Working Time Regulations apply to sleep-in shifts?
Yes, but the treatment of sleep-in shifts has been the subject of significant legal debate. Following the Supreme Court decision in Royal Mencap Society v Tomlinson-Blake (2021), sleep-in workers are not generally entitled to the National Minimum Wage for the entire sleep-in period, only for time when they are awake and working. However, the Working Time Regulations still apply in terms of maximum weekly hours and rest periods. Sleep-in shifts count as working time for the purpose of the 48-hour weekly limit and rest break calculations. We help you structure sleep-in arrangements that comply with both sets of rules.
Can you handle HR for domiciliary care providers as well as care homes?
Yes. We support domiciliary care providers, live-in care agencies, supported living services, and home care businesses alongside residential care homes. Domiciliary care has some specific HR challenges around travel time, lone working, mobile worker contracts, and the practical difficulties of supervising staff who work in clients' homes rather than a central location. We tailor our contracts, policies, and manager training to reflect the way your service actually operates.
“I cannot emphasise enough how fortunate I feel to have such an incredible HR team supporting us every step of the way. Knowing they are just on the end of the phone has given us complete peace of mind.”
Relevant Services for Healthcare & Care Homes
Retained HR Support
Ongoing expert HR support with a fixed monthly fee. Your dedicated consultant learns your care service, staffing model, and regulatory obligations so they can provide advice that fits from day one.
Learn more →HR Health Check
A thorough review of your HR policies, contracts, and recruitment processes against CQC requirements and current employment law. We identify gaps and give you a clear action plan.
Learn more →HR Training
Practical training for care managers, team leaders, and supervisors on handling disciplinaries, managing absence, conducting appraisals, and meeting their day-to-day people management responsibilities.
Learn more →Ready to Strengthen Your Healthcare HR?
Whether you need CQC-ready policies, support with a safeguarding case, or a full HR overhaul for your care service, we are here to help. Book a free consultation and let us show you how we work.
Book Your Free ConsultationOr call: 01327 640070