Seven principles, written down so you can hold us to them.
Values pages are usually decoration. These are specific enough to fail at, which is the only kind worth publishing.
- 01
Say what is true, including when it is unhelpful
An honest no is worth more than an optimistic maybe. If we cannot cover a shift, cannot fill a post, or cannot help with something you have asked about, you will hear it early enough to do something about it.
In practice
- Availability answered in the first conversation, not on the morning of the shift
- Candidate reservations shared alongside recommendations
- No published figures we cannot evidence — no fill rates, client counts or success rates
- 02
Explain the system rather than the service
Most people who contact us are not confused about us; they are confused about Direct Payments, employment duties, or how a rota is supposed to hold together. Explaining that properly is useful whether or not you become a client.
In practice
- Guides written in plain English, not marketing copy
- The words people actually encounter, defined where they appear
- We will tell you when the answer is "ask your council" — and what to ask
- 03
Be precise about who decides what
In personalised care, the most damaging thing a support organisation can do is blur the line between helping you manage a process and controlling its outcome. Eligibility, assessed needs and funding are decided by your local authority or the relevant NHS body. Never by us.
In practice
- No suggestion that we can obtain funding or influence a decision
- No estimates of what you might be awarded
- Clear separation between what we administer and what you, as employer, remain responsible for
- 04
Ask for the minimum information, and protect it
A first conversation does not require a diagnosis, a care plan or a medical history. We ask for what is genuinely needed for the task in front of us, at the point it is needed, and not before.
In practice
- Enquiry forms that do not request medical records or diagnoses
- Marketing consent kept separate from your enquiry, and never pre-selected
- Documents requested securely at the right stage rather than through a web form
- 05
Treat continuity as a quality measure
The strongest signal in this sector is not how fast someone was placed. It is whether they were still there a year later. Familiarity matters clinically and personally — particularly for people who find change difficult.
In practice
- The same workers back into the same services wherever availability allows
- Recruitment briefs built around retention, not just a start date
- Follow-up after a placement starts, because the placement was never the point
- 06
Keep the boring things impeccable
Payroll run correctly. Checks recorded with dates and reference numbers. Training expiries tracked before they lapse. None of this is interesting until it is wrong, at which point it is the only thing that matters.
In practice
- Records maintained so a council review or an inspection is uneventful
- Compliance documentation available to organisations on request
- Renewal dates tracked by us rather than discovered by you
- 07
Escalate rather than smooth over
If something raises a safeguarding concern, it goes where it needs to go. We would rather lose a client relationship than sit on a concern about someone’s safety.
In practice
- Concerns supported into the proper channels, not managed quietly
- Cooperation with a provider’s or authority’s safeguarding process as a given
- Workers told explicitly that raising something is expected of them
If we get this wrong, tell us.
A published principle is only useful if someone can point at it. If your experience of Oakline does not match what is on this page, we want to hear about it — not as a complaint to be processed, but because it is the only way we will know.
Whichever part of Oakline you need.
Individuals and families, organisations needing staff, or professionals looking for work — start with a conversation.