Filling six months of unfilled night shifts at a 42-bed home
Meadowbrook had been running nights on overtime and goodwill for half a year. We built a dedicated night pool of eight regular workers and took the home off emergency cover.
0
Unfilled night shifts in the following quarter
- Service
- 42-bed residential and dementia home
- Location
- North Oxfordshire
- Engagement
- Temporary staffing, converting to permanent
- Timeframe
- Eight weeks to a stable night pool
The situation
What we walked into
Two night carers had left within a month of each other, and a third was on long-term sick. The home was covering nights with day staff on overtime, which was pushing the wage bill up and the team's tolerance down.
Two previous agencies had sent staff who needed supervising, so the senior on shift was effectively working two roles. The manager had stopped booking agency altogether and was covering nights herself twice a week.
What we did
Four decisions that made the difference
- 01
We built a night pool, not a list of names
Rather than filling shift by shift, we recruited specifically for nights: eight workers who wanted permanent night work, all within a 20-minute drive, all with prior dementia experience.
- 02
Every worker was briefed on the home, not just the shift
Before a first shift, each worker walked the home with the deputy manager, met the residents likely to be up overnight and learned the handover routine. That single hour cut first-shift friction dramatically.
- 03
We fixed the compliance position first
Four of the eight were on the DBS Update Service, so status checks took minutes. The other four went through fresh enhanced applications at our cost while working in non-regulated induction shifts.
- 04
One coordinator, one phone number
The same coordinator handled every Meadowbrook booking, so by week three she knew which workers the seniors asked for by name.
The outcome
What changed
- Nights were fully covered by week eight and stayed covered through the following quarter, including the Christmas period.
- Three of the eight workers converted to permanent contracts with the home within six months, which was always the intention.
- The manager stopped covering night shifts personally, and overtime spend on nights fell back to a normal level.
- 8
- Regular night workers in the pool
- 3
- Converted to permanent contracts
- 2 nights
- Per week returned to the manager
“The difference was that they recruited for nights specifically. Previous agencies sent whoever was free. By the third week my seniors were asking for people by name.”
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