How easy is it to sponsor
care workers from overseas?

28 September 2023

Employers in the adult social care sector are becoming increasingly reliant on international recruitment to source the qualified care workers they need to effectively run their business.

Due to the UK’s ageing population, demand for health and care services is on the rise and care providers are struggling to fill the soaring number of job vacancies with workers from the domestic labour market. Long-standing labour shortages in the sector have been exacerbated by recent global events including the pandemic and a mass exodus of European workers post-Brexit.

To help ease staffing pressures in the sector, the government has introduced key changes to the Immigration Rules to enable more international care workers to qualify for visa sponsorship under the Health and Care Worker route.

With it now being easier than ever for health professionals to live and work in the UK, is it time your business made use of this visa route to provide a much-needed staffing boost?

How many care workers come to the UK from overseas?

Most employers looking to recruit healthcare professionals from overseas will apply to sponsor the workers under the Health and Care Worker visa route. This visa category has been designed to offer a fast tracked, reduced fee route to the UK for eligible healthcare professionals.

The number of migrant workers coming to the UK under this route has increased significantly over the past year. According to the latest Home Office statistics, there were 121,290 Health and Care Worker visas granted to main applicants during the year ending June 2023. That represents an increase of 157% compared to the previous year.

During this period, ‘Care Workers and Home Carers’ comprised around 50% of visas granted under the ‘Health and Care’ visa category. These figures show there is a clear demand for overseas recruitment in the adult social care sector, and becoming a licensed sponsor is an achievable goal for many care providers.

Learn more about sponsoring international care workers

If you’d like to learn more about what it takes to become a licensed sponsor and maximise your business’s recruitment potential, Smith Stone Walters can help.

We are pleased to be exhibiting at the Care Show Birmingham 2023, taking place at the NEC on 11 – 12 October. Care Show Birmingham is the UK’s leading multi-award-winning social care event of the year, and is free to attend for healthcare, allied healthcare, NHS, social care or public sector workers. To register your place, please visit www.careshow.co.uk.

Our team of immigration experts would be delighted to meet you on stand L22 for an informal chat and to answer your questions on international recruitment, sponsorship, compliance and anything else you want to know about UK immigration.

SSW Senior Associate Alastair Mason will also be presenting a talk in the Care Managers Theatre on 11 October at 1:25pm. Alastair’s session will explore the key steps required for businesses sponsoring care workers from overseas under the UK’s Health and Care Worker route.

We will explain the Home Office sponsorship process from an employer’s perspective and outline both the costs and administrative impact on a UK business in becoming a licensed sponsor and bringing workers to the UK.

We look forward to meeting you there!

Share story