Last year, the government announced a new initiative to help organisations recruit support workers from outside of the UK. Autism Together was one of the first employers to back the scheme and sign up for a licence to help us recruit new support staff members this way.
Our organisation can now provide work visas to successful applicants through the scheme, and have welcomed over 30 such support workers, in recent months.
Following a short survey sent to our visa scheme staff, CEO Richard Whitby; HR Director Jim Strain; and HR Manager Ceri Peacock, met with a representative group of staff recruited via the scheme, in order to discuss issues raised by the survey and find out how we can better support these staff members.
In the main, the group were very positive about their experience so far at Autism Together and the welcome they received. The group discussed a number of ways in which the experience and support could be improved for them, and for others joining via the scheme in future. It was also decided that this group should continue to meet with and feedback to the Leadership Team on a regular basis.