“OK, thanks for coming to this special meeting,” said Sarah to the six young people who had all stayed on after the evening meal.

“How many are there then?” asked Angi.

“There are three people who we have decided to interview for the job of residential care worker, from a group of seven applications,” replied Sarah.

“What was wrong with the four we are not seeing then?” wondered Dwain.

“Well, let’s remember what were the points we were looking for in a member staff. Would you like to start us off, Abdul?”

“Why pick on me, Sarah?” asked Abdul, with false modesty.

“Because you are a know-all!” shouted Nickki and Angi together.

“Calm down now, everyone, this is important work”, Leroy reminded them.

“We want people who can get on with us, who are fair and who know what they are talking about”, ventured Dwain.

“Spot on, Dwain”, said Leroy, giving Dwain a thumbs up.

“Yer, and we don’t want people who are always off and who can’t cook”, added Gary.

“It’d be nice to have someone who’s a bit of a laugh and who’s not too strict”, suggested Jilly.

“So let’s write all this down on the flip chart”, said Sarah going over to the chart.

“You are looking for someone;

• who is comfortable in the company of young people,
• who is fair when he or she has to sort things out when there is a problem,
• who has some experience of dealing with young people,
• who has a high level of commitment and is reliable,
• who is OK at cooking when the need arises,
• who has a sense of humour, and
• who can keep order but not be too strict and bossy.

Is that all?”

“I think it would be nice to have someone who is young”, said Angi.

“Oh yer, we all know you fancy having young male staff around”, sneered Dwain.

“Shut up, you!”, snapped Angi.

“Now, come on. Angi has got a serious point about the age of staff”, interrupted Leroy.

“Well, I think older people, like Sarah, make better staff,” said Abdul.

“That’s a nice backhanded compliment”, smiled Sarah, “but what I think you are really saying is we want a good mix - younger and older staff, men and women, right?”

“Yer, right, Sarah”, said three or four young voices together.

“And no racism”, added Abdul.

“Even if anyone wanted to, Abdul, and I would be very concerned if anyone did, we have to choose on merit, not race or gender”, explained Sarah.

“So what’s the point about saying you want a good mix of staff then?” puzzled Abdul.

“Well, we could get two or three people who are all good for the job. Then we have to say, ‘OK. Which of them would best fit into our existing team?’” replied Sarah.

“So how did you get down from seven to three, Sarah?” said Dwain, coming back to a question he asked earlier.

“We chose the applicants who had some relevant experience, such as previous work in residential homes or youth work, who had a reasonable educational background, and who seemed all-round able and reliable people.”

“OK, then who are the three we are seeing?” asked a keen Abdul.

“Well, there is Malcolm, he’s 27 and has been doing youth work; there’s Rita, she’s 42 and has worked in residential care in Leeds and there’s Stella, who is 31 and has been a teacher. I’ve got something about their skills, training, experience and interests on these three pages. There is a copy for each of you”.

Next day the three candidates visited Bluebrick and were each shown around the home by a different young person. Afterwards they spent ten minutes each, talking to the group of young people and answering their questions. Vinney was on hand to help out when necessary.

Later that day Sarah and Vinney met the young people to hear their views.

“Well, I liked Malcolm - he looked fun and said he liked rap,” began Angi.

“Yer, but he weren’t that keen on us calling him Malcolm was he?” observed Abdul.

“How do you know that? Did he say so?” asked Sarah.

“No, but he just looked uncomfortable when we asked him to introduce himself. He said my name is Mr. B and looked surprised when Angi said, ‘OK, Malcolm, do you fancy rap?’”

“I didn’t like Rita. She seemed too posh for us,” said Nickki.

“Posh – what do you mean?” queried Vinney.

“Well, she was all dressed up and spoke in a la-di-da voice”.

“That’s because she was from Leeds”, suggested Gary.

Some of the group thought that idea was funny.

“No. He may have a point”, interrupted Sarah. “We think our way of speaking and doing things has to be the proper way but that is not true and other people’s ways can be just as good and sometimes even better than our ways”.

“I liked Stella,” said Jilly. “She spoke to us like we were her equals and looked you in the eye and said she didn’t know the answer when she was asked a question she couldn’t answer, not like Malcolm who waffled on”.

“OK, we have to realise that just because we like or dislike a person when we first meet them, that is not the main basis for deciding who is the best person to give the job to. So I have this chart on which we all agreed the main qualities we were looking for the other day.

“I will ask each of you in turn to give me a score out of ten for each of these points and tell us why you gave that score. In making your minds up bear in mind the sort of questions the candidates asked you when you showed them around as well as they way they answered your questions.”

“Sarah, can we have a ten minutes discussion amongst ourselves to see where we can agree on the points?” asked Jilly.

“Of course”.

Later when all the discussion was complete and the scores were all given, it became clear that most of the young people had chosen Stella.

This was the same candidate that the adult interview panel decided on the next day!