Government announces changes to restrictions on recruiting nurses from overseas

The Government has revealed temporary changes to restrictions on recruiting overseas nurses to ensure care homes and NHS care provisions have adequate staffing levels.

Nurses will be added to the Government’s shortage occupation list on a temporary basis, meaning that nurses from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) that apply to work in the UK will have their applications for nursing posts prioritised.

The changes have been made to ease pressure on the NHS at a time when the Government is introducing new controls to cut agency spending, in the hope that the changes will help the NHS to improve continuity of care for patients as they invest in frontline staffing levels.

Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt said: “Safe staffing across all our hospitals and care homes is a crucial priority. The temporary changes will ensure the NHS has the nurses it needs to deliver the highest standards of care without having to rely on rip-off staffing agencies that cost the taxpayer billions of pounds a year.

“We are also recruiting more home-grown nurses than ever to deliver a truly seven day NHS. There are already more than 8,000 additional nurses on our wards since 2010 and we are investing in our future workforce with a record 50,000 nurses currently in training.”

The Government is recruiting more home-grown nurses by improving training places, improving retention rates of existing staff and encouraging return to practice programmes.

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) will review the changes and present further evidence to the Government by February 2016.

Health Education England has increased the number of nurse training places by 14 per cent in the past two years and has anticipated 23,000 more nurses to be in place by 2019. While a campaign to find experienced nurses has been launched to encourage those who left the profession to get back into work and help to improve the retention of nurses.

Recruitment and retention of a good nurses is essential for providers to deliver high quality care

Welcoming the announcement, Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, said: "We hope that the Migration Advisory Committee will put this provision in place until the shortage in nurses has been addressed.

“The independent sector faces a severe shortage of nurses and this announcement is an extremely positive one. Care England has been active in setting out the case for adding nurses to the Shortage Occupation List for care home nurses in particular and we are cautiously optimistic that the care sector is finally on the political map.

“The recruitment and retention of a good nursing workforce is essential for providers to deliver the high quality care that is needed and expected."

Care England is pursuing a hybrid role of nurse sitting, somewhere between a care assistant and a nurse to support staff shortages.

Janet Davies, chief executive and general secretary of the Royal College of Nurses (RCN) said: “This reversal is a real victory for nurses, the health service and most of all patients.

“Since the RCN first raised this issue and lobbied for a change to the immigration rules, a consensus has formed across the health service that cutting the supply of overseas nurses risked patient care.

“The Government must now extend this common sense approach to the issue of training and retaining more nurses in the long-term and significantly increasing student nurse training places so that patients in the UK are no longer at the mercy of global workforce trends.”

Reliance on overseas health workers

Specialist property adviser Christie + Co welcomed the news following an intervention by Home Secretary, Theresa May.

Earlier this year, Christie + Co released a report focusing on the staffing crisis in British care homes and hospitals. The report titled: ‘The UK Nursing Workforce: Crisis or Opportunity’ acknowledged the UK’s reliance on overseas health workers and appealed for immigration to be encouraged to help with staff shortages.

Director of Healthcare Consultancy at Christie + Co, Michael Hodges, commented: “This intervention by the Home Secretary is absolutely necessary in ensuring hospital and care homes across the UK deliver safe services this winter.”

Mr Hodges commented: “We hope that the Government maintains its commitment to this issue by retaining nurses on the Shortage Occupation List. Given how severe the shortage is, every measure needs to be taken to retain nurses and entice people to enter the health care industry.”

As a result of the changes, nurses from non EU countries earning less than £35,000 a year who have lived in the UK for six years will no longer have to leave the country from April 2016.

Mr Hodges added: “Operators will be relieved to hear that the staff they have trained up over the past few years will not be forced to leave the country - an essential progress in policy.”