Recommendation 16

HM Government Acknowledged

3.22 We hugely value the contribution of international staff from across the world who provide excellent care. International recruitment has long been part of the NHS workforce strategy. The NHS People Plan recognizes that international staff are critical to a sustainable workforce in the short to medium term whilst domestic supply is increased. The International Recruitment strand of the 50k nurse programme is proving successful both at delivering significant numbers of new nurses to the NHS, but also to set high standards of pastoral care and support to both new and established overseas nurses. We recognize the comments from some witnesses around the lack of parity between nurses and other professional groups and are working to address this at a national and local level. We will consider the value of the recommended framework as part of the next stage of the People Plan to ensure the best practice that has been developed for certain staff groups is implemented more consistently, and recognise the need to understand the balance between international and domestic supply of staff. 3.23 We are taking action to support adult social care providers to recruit domestically. At the start of November 2021 we launched our National Recruitment Campaign which will run until March 2022 across radio, video on demand and digital channels, with high profile TV bursts in November and January. Our commitment of £500 million for the sector across three years will also include funding for recruitment, and further detail is provided in the White Paper. 3.24 On 10 December 2021 we announced £300 million to support local authorities and care providers recruit and retain care staff through the winter. This funding is in addition to the existing £162.5 million Workforce Recruitment and Retention Fund (WRRF) which was announced on 21 October 2021. 3.25 We also expect local authorities to take an active role in supporting recruitment and retention in their local area, utilising their oversight of local systems, the labour market, future demand for care services, and trends and patterns in adult social care workforce. We are aware of some great local initiatives already in place, which we are promoting through the Skills for Care website. 3.26 The UK Government has also increased the range of roles that can be recruited to from overseas as part of the Health and Care Visa, through the expansion of the skill level in January 2021. However, we also recognise that under the new points-based immigration system, the majority of roles in adult social care are not eligible for a Health and Care Visa. The Home Office has commissioned the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to deliver an independent review of the effect of EU Exit on the adult social care workforce, and we will be feeding into the scope of this review as appropriate. We look forward to reviewing the MAC’s findings once published.