Changes to international recruitment

On 12 March, the government announced changes relating to international recruitment of care workers and senior care workers New rules to prioritise recruiting care workers in England - GOV.UK. As such, from today (9 April), care providers in England who wish to recruit a new worker from overseas, or those switching from another visa route, will have to first prove that they have attempted to recruit a worker from within the UK who is already in the route and needs new sponsorship.

 

What this means in the Eastern Region is you will need to contact your local Spoke (shown below) to demonstrate you have sought to recruit a worker who;

• is in the UK,
• was last sponsored as a Care Worker or Senior Care Worker,
• needs to be sponsored because their most recent sponsor's license was revoked by UKVI or has been identified by your Spoke as needing assistance in obtaining new sponsorship.

 

This is the list of Spokes in the Eastern Region for you to contact:

If you work in Essex, Suffolk, Southend, Thurrock or Hertfordshire, your Spoke contact is: EssexSuffolkHertsIR@essex.gov.uk

Other spokes in the Eastern Region are:

• Cambridgeshire: irsupportcambs@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
• Norfolk: internationalsupport@norfolkcareassociation.org.uk
• Milton Keynes: IWSupport@worksforus.org.uk
• Central Bedfordshire, Bedford Borough or Luton: IR.DISPLACEDWORKERSUPPORT@BLCB.CO.UK
• Peterborough: IRSupport@peterborough.gov.uk

 

The Department for Health and Social Care together with UKVI ran three half hour Provider Sessions recently.  This was at short notice, so if you were not able to get to one of these, a document is currently being compiled to capture Provider's 'Frequently Asked Questions'.  As soon as this becomes available, we will notify you.