Overseas hiring spree planned for care homes in England amid winter fears

theguardian.com:

Foreign workers could be recruited for care homes in England amid concerns about staff shortages this winter, under government plans.

The health secretary, Steve Barclay, wants the overseas recruitment spree to include sending NHS managers to countries such as India and the Philippines to hire thousands of nurses, the Times reported.

The paper added that Barclay was also looking to make it easier for regulators to check international qualifications so that staff could begin working more quickly.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Our new international recruitment taskforce is considering innovative ways to boost staffing numbers within health and adult social care.

“As part of this, we will work with the sector and recruitment experts to examine how to recruit staff from overseas more effectively into adult social care.”

It comes just two weeks after concerns were expressed over NHS staffing in England, when an analysis of workforce figures found the health service may be becoming over-reliant on recruits from abroad.

Figures from NHS Digital showed the share of healthcare staff recruited from overseas almost doubled between 2014 and 2021, according to BBC analysis on 5 August.

Sign up to First Edition

Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you through the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning

Danny Mortimer, the chief executive of NHS Employers, at the time called for “urgent action” from the government to tackle “chronic staff shortages in the longer term”.

He said: “International recruits have always been an important component of the NHS workforce. We recognise and highly value the contribution our overseas staff make to our teams and the care we provide to our patients.

“International