International recruitment into adult social care

In line with the WHO code of practice, any social care provider in Scotland undertaking international recruitment must adhere to the Scottish Code of Practice.

The Scottish Code of Practice has two aims:

1. To promote high standards of practice in the ethical international recruitment and employment of health and social care personnel, and ensure all international recruitment is conducted in accordance with internationally agreed principles of transparency and fairness.
2. To protect and promote the sustainability of health and care systems through international cooperation, by ensuring there are safeguards and support for countries with the most pressing health and social care workforce challenges.

The Scottish Code of Practice draws together a range of pertinent information to support providers in readying their internal environments for international recruitment and for understanding how to undertake ethical recruitment.  

This includes important definitions for understanding the key elements of international recruitment, details the scope, guiding principles and best practice benchmarks for international recruitment into health and social care in Scotland.

To find out more, including the ethical recruiters list, please following this link: Scottish Code of Practice
Or download the full document in PDF format via this link: Scottish Code of Practice (PDF version)

Understanding what will be needed before an employee joins your organisation and what expectations there will be for their induction when they do join will be important for succeeding in international recruitment.  One guide which offers helpful information is the NES, SSSC and Scottish Refugee Council joint publication ‘Pre-employment and Induction Guide for Employers of Overseas Workers, Refugees and Asylum Seekers’; the SSSC has also produced helpful resources on employing people from Ukraine.  Both offer advice on employing overseas workers, including refugees and asylum seekers  Find them below:

Back to list

Many care providers have been struggling to find new employees in the social care sector. In fact, by the end of 2022, 47% of care providers reported vacancies, which is much higher than the 11% reported in other sectors. This is largely due to difficulties in recruiting from the domestic workforce pool. As a result, some employers are turning to international recruitment to fill the gaps in their workforce and grow the overall social care sector workforce in Scotland. However, there are additional costs associated with recruiting internationally, although these can be offset by reducing the cost of employing agency staff. A helpful guide has been created to provide information on the costs of international recruitment and who is responsible for paying them.

This guide is designed to help employers decide if international recruitment is the right option for their organisation:

Return to list

When undertaking international recruitment, you may decide to go it alone using internal recruitment resources, or you may decide to use an agency to help your organisation with managing the whole of the recruitment process, or perhaps just specific elements of it.  To help you understand the pros and cons of each approach, take a look at this video https://vimeo.com/893331538

Any agency used as part of international recruitment must come from the Ethical Recruiters List | NHS Employers. This is a list of recruitment agencies that comply with the revised Code of Practice.  Always verify that the recruitment agency you are working with is on this list. To understand how you can utilise agencies within the process of international recruitment, CWSS has produced a guide to international recruitment agencies.   

Return to list

The Home Office (Future Borders Immigration System (FBIS) External Engagement) has produced an informative Q&A document concerning points-based immigration, ‘Social Care: Q&A – Points-Based Immigration System’.  The document covers most of the questions that you may have regarding points-based immigration BUT, it was released in February 2022 so there are some important changes and developments that you must be aware of when referring to it:

• The minimum salary requirement for a Health and Care Visa has now increased to £25,000 per annum.
• The minimum hourly rate for a Health and Care Visa has now increased to £12.82 per hour.
• The number of hours used to calculate the minimum salary has changed from 39 hours per week to 37.5 hours per week.
• SOC 6135 (Care Workers and Home Carers) roles were automatically included onto the latest revision of the Shortage Occupation List (SOL), so references to temporary inclusion no longer apply.
• Individuals on a Student Visa can no longer switch onto a Health and Care Visa unless they have completed their course of study.

To help you understand the UK’s points-based immigration system, becoming a sponsor and much more, CWSS have produced this guide that covers many of the key points around the process of recruiting overseas workers.

Return to list

A Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) must be assigned to every non-UK worker that an organisation employs, except those on a non-sponsored route, such as those with a Graduate Visa.  This guide provides a general overview of Certificates of Sponsorship and some tips for preparing the strongest possible application, but it should not be considered as legal advice.  For more details on any particular aspect of the CoS process, refer to the UK.GOV sites, ‘SMS Guides’, ‘UK Visa Sponsorship for Employers’ and other linked resources within the text.

Return to list

Attraction Checklist

Retention should be built into international recruitment strategies.  Organisations undertaking international recruitment need to think about what they can offer candidates in terms of career development and progression and pastoral support, as well as how they recognise and value all parts of their workforce, so that people can flourish within their organisations.  This is as important as pay, terms and conditions offered. A checklist of what this might involve can be found below:

Return to list

Key to attracting candidates is understanding what you as an organisation can offer them.  A vital element of this is understanding what your internal assets are as an organisation.  Asset mapping can be done to help you solidify your understanding of what the organisation offers.  It is usually done by organisations to understand the assets of their local community, but it can work well for organisations in developing and articulating their employee value proposition statements.

Asset mapping entails building knowledge and culture that is positive and focuses on what everyone can bring, rather than a deficit approach.   It recognises and builds on a combination of human, social and physical capital that exists within individuals, organisations, and communities, underpinned by attitudes and values related to personal and collective empowerment.

Traditionally asset mapping is used to identify and mobilise assets within individuals and communities; and is done in the context of positive change for health improvement.  Asset mapping will also be helpful for organisations actively undertaking international recruitment, because knowing what is in your local community will enable you to link your employees into local communities through their interest. 

Internal asset mapping – applying asset mapping methodologies and approaches to organisations to help identify and articulate organisational assets which can help foster cultural change and can be used in attraction strategies.

External asset mapping – mapping assets within local communities to foster positive change in health improvements.

Further information and tools to help you undertake asset mapping are below:

• Glasgow Centre for Population Health – Putting asset based approaches into practice: Identification, mobilisation and measurement of assets
• Social Care Institute for Excellence – Asset based places: A model for development
• Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland – ALISS Asset Mapping Kit  

Return to list

Social care is experiencing unique recruitment difficulties.  International recruitment is a potential pipeline to help grow the social care sector workforce in Scotland. 

If you decide to recruit internationally for social care roles, such as care workers and senior care workers, in Scotland, one of the greatest challenges that you are likely to encounter, is sourcing suitable temporary accommodation for your new recruits.  The Centre for Workforce Supply Social Care (CWSS) team considers employers providing up to 3-months accommodation for overseas workers as best practice.  This 3-month period provides employees with space to settle into their new life in Scotland, and to make their own, more permanent, arrangements.

The provision of 3-months of temporary accommodation is one of the critical factors in the quality of an internationally recruited employee’s experience, which in turn is a critical factor for longer-term retention.

There are several options available to an employer seeking to organise accommodation as part of their international recruitment strategy. CWSS have produced a guide Accomodation for overseas workers that contains many accommodation options that a care provider may wish to consider.  You can also view a video summary of the options.

Return to list