The UK government has announced new rules for care providers recruiting international care workers, which will take effect from 9 April 2025.
Under the revised sponsorship requirements, care providers in England must first try to recruit an international worker who is already in the UK and in need of sponsorship before hiring from overseas.
Plan for Change
The care sector has seen a rapid increase in international recruitment in recent years. While international workers play a vital role in supporting adult social care, the government has also observed rising exploitation by some employers. In response, the Home Office has revoked more than 470 sponsor licences since July 2022, affecting over 39,000 care workers.
Many of these workers lost their jobs through no fault of their own and are now looking for new employment with a new sponsor.
The new requirement is therefore designed to give these displaced care workers priority, before employers turn to recruitment from overseas. It forms part of the government’s wider Plan for Change, which aims to prioritise care workers already in the UK for job vacancies and protect international care workers from unethical employment practices and exploitation.
Hiring displaced care workers
The new sponsorship rules will have a direct impact on how care providers recruit international workers. From 9 April 2025, any care provider applying to sponsor an international worker must first demonstrate that they have attempted to recruit a displaced care worker already in England.
Employers will need to follow Home Office guidance to show they have taken reasonable steps to find a UK-based candidate before issuing a Certificate of Sponsorship to a new overseas recruit. This will involve using the government’s regional support networks to access skilled care workers already in the UK. UKVI has provided a list of regional contacts across England to help match care providers with available workers:
Employers looking to recruit displaced workers should contact their regional lead for guidance. Employers are also encouraged to use the government’s best practice toolkit, developed with Skills for Care, to ensure ethical recruitment and compliance with the Code of Practice for international recruitment.
Expedited visa processing will be available for displaced care workers.
Next steps
The government is expected to provide further details of this change in the upcoming Immigration White Paper, which it says will also outline long-term strategies for reducing reliance on international recruitment and strengthening the domestic social care workforce.
Care providers who prepare early will be in the best position to continue recruiting skilled international workers while complying with the new rules. With the 9 April deadline fast approaching, employers should familiarise themselves with the new requirements, update their recruitment processes and contact the relevant regional leads for support when hiring foreign national care workers.
To discuss the new requirement and what it means for your organisation, speak to our advisers.
Author
Founder and Managing Director Anne Morris is a fully qualified solicitor and trusted adviser to large corporates through to SMEs, providing strategic immigration and global mobility advice to support employers with UK operations to meet their workforce needs through corporate immigration.
She is a recognised by Legal 500 and Chambers as a legal expert and delivers Board-level advice on business migration and compliance risk management as well as overseeing the firm’s development of new client propositions and delivery of cost and time efficient processing of applications.
Anne is an active public speaker, immigration commentator, and immigration policy contributor and regularly hosts training sessions for employers and HR professionals
