Guidance

International recruitment toolkit for adult social care providers: a guide to good practice

Updated 19 November 2024

The international recruitment toolkit has been developed to help adult social care providers decide whether to recruit care workers and senior care workers from overseas, with guidance on how to do so in an ethical and responsible manner.

This quick start guide provides a summary of key considerations and is intended to serve as an entry point to the guidance. It is not a substitute for it.

The full toolkit has been developed by Skills for Care.

Planning for international recruitment

International recruitment requires extensive planning and a long-term commitment to provide resources, ongoing training and pastoral support to recruits. Throughout the recruitment process, you must familiarise yourself with and ensure you adhere to the Code of Practice for International Recruitment and the requirements of the Health and Care Worker visa.

In the planning stage it is important to consider the human resource you’ll need to co-ordinate activity from within your organisation. This may include recruitment and administration, HR professional support, educational and pastoral support, and contract management.

Consideration should be given to the longer-term resources needed to provide professional and pastoral support to make sure your overseas recruits are supported to settle in and develop within your organisation. Failure to do so will impact on your ability to retain your international staff.

Sponsorship licences and costs

Sponsorship of workers through the Health and Care Worker visa route can only be undertaken by a business that is genuine and legally operating in the UK. Full eligibility requirements can be found in Home Office guidance.

Before you can recruit from overseas you (the business) must apply for a sponsorship licence with UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI). You should expect to be contacted by UKVI within 8 weeks.

To be eligible to be a sponsor you cannot have unspent criminal convictions for immigration offences or certain other crimes or had a sponsorship licence revoked in the last 12 months. Skills for Care’s step-by-step guide on applying to be a sponsor provides more information.

You can sponsor a worker if the job they’re going to do pays at least the required minimum salary (see Home Office guidance for the most up-to-date minimum salary requirements). The minimum salary is based on a 37.5-hour week but will need to be higher if the individual is contracted to work more hours.

Once you have been granted your sponsorship licence, you will need to assign a certificate of sponsorship to each worker you are recruiting. You will also need to pay an immigration skills charge. The UK visa sponsorship for employers page gives a full breakdown of costs.

UKVI will monitor your sponsorship licence and use of certificate of sponsorship for the duration of the licence period, and they reserve the right to inspect businesses to ensure compliance with your duties as a sponsor.

Your organisation is required to fulfil certain duties to retain your licence. Read the full guidance on sponsor duties from UKVI for further details. The guidance outlines all the responsibilities for businesses employing overseas workers.

There are different roles identified by UKVI which need to be managed as part of the sponsorship process, but they can all be fulfilled by the same person. You will need to appoint someone within the organisation to manage the sponsorship process via the Sponsor Management System (SMS) and act as a single point of contact with UKVI. The SMS is UKVI’s primary method of communication with sponsors.

These roles are:

• authorising officer - the most senior person in your organisation responsible for the recruitment of all migrant workers and actions of staff and representatives who use the SMS, and ensuring that you meet all of your sponsorship duties
• key contact - your main point of contact with UKVI
• level 1 user - responsible for all day-to-day management of your licence using the SMS

Recruitment: agencies, job adverts, employment checks and English language proficiency

Once you have obtained your sponsorship licence you will be added to the register of licence sponsors; this may mean job seekers contact you directly.

You may choose to use a recruitment agency to help you recruit and select candidates. If you choose to do this, you should work with one on an approved framework which will assure you their recruitment processes adhere to legal requirements. You should also check they are on the Ethical Recruiters List which lists recruiters who have declared they comply with the International Recruitment Code of Practice, ensuring their processes are ethical.

Job adverts can be uploaded to the Made with Care job board. It is essential that advertisements clearly state that international candidates are welcome to apply and sponsorship is available. More information and support around values-based recruitment can be found on the Skills for Care website.

Regulation 19 of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) standards states employment checks are required for employees. Candidates will need to complete background checks as part of their visa application. They must submit a criminal record certificate from any country that they have resided in for 12 months or more in the last 10 years. A DBS check will also need to be undertaken before they can start work.

You are responsible for ensuring candidates have the required level of English language competence to enable them to communicate effectively to at least level B1 on The CEFR Levels - Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Candidates will need to show they have passed an approved English test within the last 2 years as part of their visa application. Candidates from countries where English is a spoken language, or those with a degree-level qualification taught in English are exempt from taking a test.

During the period between offer of employment and relocation to the UK it is important you maintain regular contact with your new recruits, give updates, send tips and advice and invite questions. You should make sure candidates understand their responsibilities and are aware of key elements of their contract, including notice periods and remittance clauses.

Ethical practices: red list countries and modern slavery

It is important to ensure that your recruitment practices are ethical to protect the rights of your workers, build trust between your organisation and potential recruits, and attract the best candidates who will want to work with ethical organisations.

The code of practice has a red list of countries from which proactive targeted international recruitment is banned. These are developing countries identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as having the most pressing health and social care workforce issues. Active recruitment is defined as targeting individuals - either physically or virtually - to UK employment opportunities, with the intention of recruiting to a role in the UK health or social care sector.

It is essential all providers demonstrate good ethical practices and that best-practice benchmarks are adhered to. This includes, but is not limited to:

• no active international recruitment from countries on the red list
• demonstrating a sound ethical approach by being compliant with the code of practice
• not charging candidates any recruitment fees in relation to gaining employment in the UK
• making all appropriate information about the role available at the start of the recruitment process so candidates can make informed decisions
• observing fair and just contractual practices
• repayment clauses must abide by the principles of transparency, proportionate costs, timing and flexibility

Modern slavery is defined by Anti-Slavery International as ‘when an individual is exploited by others, for personal or commercial gain. Whether tricked, coerced or forced, they lose their freedom’. International recruits may unknowingly be subject to modern slavery as they may not be fully aware of their rights in the workplace. It is your responsibility to ensure you are following best ethical practices to avoid any mistreatment of your overseas recruits.

Things to be aware of:

• debt bondage - there is a danger recruits who want to terminate their employment may be unable to do so until they have paid off their debts to the employer
• remuneration risks - this can include withholding wages, excessive deductions, being paid below national living or minimum wage, or not receiving a wage at all
• recruitment and selection risks - care home managers who use recruitment agencies could be left open to the possibility of omissions in recruitment checks that fall short of regulation guidelines
• occupational risks - care workers could be particularly vulnerable to excessive overtime as they have reduced opportunity to spend time with friends and family

DHSC has developed candidate guidance on applying for health and social care jobs in the UK from abroad for international candidates, which aims to help them make informed decisions about taking a health or care role in the UK.

The guidance informs recruits of pitfalls to avoid, advises on their rights and expected workplace standards and signposts to further support. Provision of this information to candidates is a condition of adhering to the code of practice and we encourage you to share this with your international candidate at the start of the recruitment process.

Induction and support for staff from overseas

To be successful at attracting and retaining staff from overseas you will need to form a comprehensive plan for induction, pastoral and professional support.

For example, your overseas staff will need:

• bank accounts
• a National Insurance number
• an NHS number
• somewhere to live
• to register with a GP and dentist
• access to shopping, public transport and other amenities

Your staff will also need to access their eVisa through their UKVI account. This will enable them to view and share the details of their immigration permissions and any conditions (find out more about eVisas). Helping them with these arrangements will make a big difference to how well they ease into life in the UK.

It is good practice to provide your new recruits with a welcome pack. You could include information about the local area, nearby facilities and emergency contacts. Depending on the season and the weather you may also want to check that they have the right clothes, like coats. Make sure you also provide a uniform if this is offered by your organisation. New recruits will want to contact family and friends in their home country to let them know they have arrived safely, so consider providing access to wifi and/or mobile data on arrival.

To ensure overseas recruits can integrate quickly, you will also need to ensure existing staff are engaged and supportive of the process. It is important that you help existing staff to understand the need for international recruitment and support them through the changes that might be needed to their working environment and ways of working, particularly if your organisation is recruiting from overseas for the first time.

Evaluating the success of the recruitment process

You should consider how you are going to evaluate the success of the recruitment process, any collaborations with partners and the impact of the overseas recruitment. From the beginning, you should be clear about what you want to achieve and regularly make time to review your processes to assess how successful they are, and if any changes should be made.

Your evaluation plan should be created at the outset of the international recruitment activity, setting out clear recruitment objectives and targets and considering all the evaluation methods available to you. Evaluating your international recruitment activity will help you to identify and replicate good practice, celebrate and share successes and prove the value of international recruitment.

Further help

UK Visas and Immigration sponsorship, employer, and education helpline

Contact this helpline for any difficulties with applying for a sponsorship licence.

Phone 0300 123 4699 or email businesshelpdesk@homeoffice.gov.uk.

UK Visas and Immigration, immigration enforcement hotline

Contact the Home Office if you have concerns about the conduct of any employer holding a sponsorship licence. You will not have to give your name or address, and any information you provide will be treated as confidential.

Department for Business and Trade (DBT), Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate (EAS)

Contact EAS for any concerns about the conduct of a recruitment agency, organisation or collaboration based in the UK.

Care Quality Commission

Contact the Care Quality Commission helpline if you have any concerns about the quality of care.

Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA)

You can report to the GLAA in confidence about an employer who may be exploiting the welfare and rights of their staff.