Recommendation 17

The Long Term Plan signalled the need for a “step change in the recruitment of international nurses”. In 2019, there were 51,000 overseas nurses working in the NHS (17% of the nursing workforce), with overseas nurses already making up between 20% to 25% of new joiners since 2012.42 HEE confirmed that its global learners programme that supports trusts to bring overseas nurses to work in England had missed previous recruitment targets; over the two years 2018 and 2019, it attracted around 1,600 nurses compared with a target of 2,500.43 NHSE&I told us that COVID-19 and the resulting travel restrictions had delayed international recruitment. It said that providers report that there are over 6,000 overseas nurses in the pipeline who are willing to work in England and it anticipated that overseas recruitment will “open-up very rapidly”.44 However, it recognised that expanding the domestic supply of nurses is a more sustainable route to securing the nursing workforce. In response to our questions about the ethical implications of recruiting from overseas, NHSE&I told us that it follows the World Health Organisation’s code of practice which includes a list of 43 counties that it does not recruit from. It considered that its “earn, learn and return” programme offers an opportunity for overseas nurses to develop skills which can be taken back to the countries that nurses are recruited from.45