Recruiting Foreign Healthcare Professionals
Sponsor healthcare professionals with expert guidance from Nation.better
At Nation.better, our end-to-end sponsorship services simplify the process for you and your teams.
Over the last few years, the UK healthcare sector has grappled with significant challenges in the recruitment of healthcare professionals.
This is despite a renewed effort from the government to encourage homegrown talent to join the ranks of UK healthcare businesses.
In a critical industry like healthcare, any shortage of workers can seriously hamper an organisation’s ability to serve their patients with the high-quality service they deserve.
This is why healthcare institutions are now turning towards the international labour market to address core skill shortages in the UK healthcare industry.
With an abundance of qualified and experienced professionals, specialising in a wide range of healthcare disciplines, the international labour market holds immense potential for UK healthcare businesses looking to overcome the shortage of local healthcare professionals.
If you’re interested in exploring this avenue of recruitment and bolstering your healthcare business with the skills and expertise of the best professionals from around the world, you must first become familiar with the process of employee sponsorship.
The benefits of sponsoring healthcare workers in the UK
- Improve service delivery across your organisation
- Meet the shortage of healthcare workers in the UK
- Access a diverse range of skills without the need for lengthy training
- Recruit professionals with international experience and qualifications
- Boost your ability to support a larger number of patients and special needs individuals
What’s the process of sponsoring healthcare workers in the UK?
The first step of the process is to become a licensed sponsor, which you can do by obtaining a sponsor licence from UKVI. This can be done by submitting an online application, the necessary supporting documents, and paying the licence fee.
You can start advertising for vacancies and begin the interview process once you obtain your sponsor licence. Before you hire a professional, you must ensure that they have the right to work in the country by conducting a right to work check.
Once you’ve conducted the right to work check and selected the most suitable candidate for your organisation, you must ensure that you’re meeting minimum salary requirements and assign a Certificate of Sponsorship to your chosen candidate.
After your chosen employee arrives in the UK, you must ensure that you remain compliant by performing your sponsor responsibilities—these include reporting, record keeping, and complying with immigration laws—throughout the employment contract.
What do you need to know about sponsoring healthcare professionals?
As part of the Government’s efforts to solve workforce challenges in the healthcare industry, a number of roles have been added to the UK Shortage Occupation List (SOL) from 16 February 2022—this is in addition to the roles mentioned in the ONS occupation coding tool.
These new roles are eligible for sponsorship for the next 12 months under the Health and Care visa scheme. This also means that the minimum salary requirement you need to meet as a sponsor is £20,480 per annum.
To be an eligible sponsor, you must be an organisation providing medical services to the NHS or must provide adult social care. You may also sponsor healthcare workers if you’re a sole trader and are employing a healthcare worker for your business.
When you’re sponsoring skilled workers, the sponsor licence fee you need to pay will depend on the size and nature of your organisation. Currently, you have to pay £536 if you’re a small or charitable sponsor or £1,476 if you’re a large sponsor.
How can Nation.better support you?
As professionals helping businesses across industries, we understand that without the right support, the process of sponsoring healthcare workers can be challenging.
That’s why our team of immigration professionals and legal experts work with employers across industries to streamline the sponsorship process with our expert-led consultancy support, industry partnerships, and end-to-end compliance platform.
Here's what our partners have to say
Find the right candidates through our recruitment partners
Here at Nation.better, we’ve partnered with some of the leading recruitment agencies in the UK to help employers find the right professionals for their business.By working with us, you can access the entire database of our recruitment partners and look for suitable candidates for the key roles you want to fill.
Streamline the sponsor licence application process with our support
Obtaining your sponsor licence is easily the most critical step in this journey. Each year, thousands of businesses fail to cross this hurdle given the various requirements that need to be met.
At Nation.better, we provide you with thousands of pounds worth of support for just £800+VAT to simplify this process through the guidance of our expert legal and immigration advisers.
We provide you with:
- A cost forecast
- A step-by-step guide
- An eligibility assessment
- A list of all supporting documents
- A cover letter to support your application
- A case review by a qualified immigration adviser
- The creation of an online Home Office application
- Representation and communication with the Home Office
Support your employees with Skilled Worker visa support from experts
Due to the complexities in securing a work visa to enter the UK, the arrival of your sponsored employees can get postponed, delayed, or even rejected.
That’s why we offer Skilled Worker visa support for you to apply for and extend your employees’ Skilled Worker visas effortlessly.
For just £650+VAT, our team of experts can help you and your employees through the visa application process and ensure that your employees’ journey to the UK is as seamless as possible.
Our support covers:
- A timeline for onboarding and welcoming your candidate to the UK
- Professional support for the Skilled Worker visa application process
- Immigration eligibility assessment for all your prospective candidates
- A report on all the Home Office fees you need to pay for the sponsorship
Stay on top of Home Office rules with our compliance platform
The sponsoring process doesn’t end when your employees arrive in the UK—it continues as long as they remain under your employment, which means you need to ensure you’re meeting Home Office requirements on a long-term basis.
With our compliance platform, we give you all the tools and support you need to stay on top of your obligations.
With the Nation.better platform, you access:
- Centralised compliance documentation and monitoring
- Streamlined reporting through powerful SMS integration
- Automated compliance workflows and SMS notifications
- A self-management system for your international employees
- Workflows and alert systems to automate basic administrative tasks
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