Co-Produced Interview Panels

As part of the Adults’ Health and Care redesigned recruitment process, co-producing interviews was highlighted and agreed as a priority area and some funding set aside to support this work.

While interviews have been co-produced on occasion across the Directorate, there was a need for a robust process, guidance and expectations for those new to having service users and/or residents on the interview panel.

The Care Quality and Governance Assurance function formally piloted co-produced interview panels with help from Personalisation Expert Panel members to develop the process start to finish. The approach was for the Expert by Experience panel member to:

• Join the panel as an equal partner
• Review the role advert and specifications
• Sign the confidentiality agreement
• Pre-meet with panel members to review and agree interview questions
• Receive and review shortlisted applications (with personal information e.g. contact details redacted)
• Accept the interview calendar invites
• Join the panel for scheduled interviews and score candidates against criteria
• Meet post-interview to review scoring and agree the successful candidate

Experts by Experience involved in the interview process receive remuneration as set out in the Directorate’s Expenses and Allowances Policy.

Following our experience and learning, we are working on data protection and interview training that would set clear expectations for external panel members. Similarly, those candidates who are happy to be included in the co-produced recruitment process will receive a brief privacy notice outlining how some of their information is shared with, used and then following interviews, deleted by external panel members.

We found the co-produced process positive and collaborative, strengthened by the inclusion of new and diverse views.

The benefits of involving service users in recruitment are twofold - at an individual level service users can apply their knowledge about the recruitment process in furthering their own career and develop their confidence and self-esteem through taking a meaningful role in the process. For us, we stand a better chance of conducting a successful recruitment process which identifies the best candidate for the role with an increased chance of retaining them in post. It demonstrates that we value our service users, their lived experience and other skills/knowledge that they have to offer.

For us, our service users and applicants were also able to experience values-based recruitment first-hand, reflecting our commitment to our values and how it drives our ways of working and service delivery.

We intend to set out this process and the documentation and training recommended for colleagues across the directorate to consider co-produced interview panels for their own recruitment and share their own learning and positive outcomes.