Care group touts benefits of hiring overseas workers

ACI Care, a group of care homes which specialise in residential, respite and dementia care, has been offering Certificates of Sponsorship to overseas workers to help combat the staffing crisis currently faced by the social care sector in the UK.

Recruiting from overseas gives ACI access to a wider pool of potential staff and talent, and allows the care group to decrease its dependency on temporary agency staff.

Carterwood recently reported that the cost of agency staff increased by 228% from January 2021 to September 2022, placing further strain on a sector heavily impacted by the cost-of-living crisis.

Following the recruitment of sponsored staff, ACI aims to decrease its use of agency staff by 70% across the whole group – ensuring the care group’s long-term sustainability in offering care to people in Sussex, Kent and Northamptonshire.

Many care home providers are facing difficulties in recruiting and retaining enough staff with the appropriate skills to meet the growing demands of residents.

Despite their efforts, providers are often unable to compete with other industries that offer higher pay and less demanding work environments, leading to a shortage of staff in the field.

According to the Care Quality Commission (CQC), in its annual assessment of health and social care in England, 36% of care home providers said that workforce challenges have had a negative impact on the service they deliver. For those facing difficulty, 87% said they were experiencing challenges related to recruitment and 48% said they were experiencing challenges related to retention.

To help tackle this ongoing issue, ACI has currently sponsored 20 staff members across its four homes.

The Certificate of Sponsorship is open to both overseas workers and those within the UK who require a visa, including those coming to the end of their studies on a student visa and those who have already been sponsored by another employer in the UK but are seeking a new role.

To facilitate the sponsorship programme, a new Health and Social Care Visa was launched in 2022, which allows eligible health and social care professionals from outside the European Union to reside and work in the UK. This new visa streamlines the recruitment process by making it easier to sponsor staff from other countries, while also providing an exemption from the healthcare surcharge.

Ravi Sodha, director of ACI Care, said: “While we prioritise hiring staff local to our care homes to help benefit the local community, the current staffing shortage means we also have to look to overseas sponsorship. This process allows for new experiences, approaches and cultures, to ensure consistent and high-quality care for our residents across all homes.

“Unlike some sponsorship programmes, we don’t require our sponsored workers to sign contracts stating a minimum term to work with us. We believe that by creating the best working environment possible, the staff we sponsor will want to stay with ACI long-term without the need for contractual obligations.”

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