The UK Government ended overseas recruitment for care workers and senior care worker roles in March 2025. For the first time in a decade, UK care providers can no longer rely on international hiring to fill vacancies. This is a seismic shift. For years, domiciliary care and supported living services filled the majority of new roles with workers from the Philippines, Eastern Europe, and other countries, often because recruiting from the UK wasn’t bringing in enough candidates.
Now, you have no choice but to build a domestic workforce. This isn’t a temporary adjustment; it’s a structural change that will define how care providers recruit and retain staff for the next five years. Effective care worker recruitment UK demands a fundamentally different approach. Skills for Care data shows the care sector had approximately 152,000 vacancies in 2023/24, with turnover running at 28 to 35 percent annually depending on setting. A significant portion of those vacancies were filled by overseas workers. Now, the labour pool from which you can hire is fixed.
Why the Overseas Recruitment Ban Creates a Care Worker Shortage
Before understanding solutions, understand the problem. Skills for Care data shows the care sector had approximately 152,000 vacancies in 2023/24, with turnover running at 28 to 35 percent annually depending on setting. A significant portion of those vacancies were filled by overseas workers. Now, the labour pool from which you can hire is fixed. You can’t expand your way out of the problem by recruiting internationally. You have to get better at recruiting and keeping UK-based carers.
The ban has a delayed impact. Workers who arrived on care visas before the ban can remain and can even switch to other care employers until 2028 (with some conditions). This gives the sector a brief window to build new recruitment and retention systems before those workers’ permits expire and the actual labour shortage hits harder.
The pressure is real but so is the opportunity. If you build recruitment and retention practices that work now, you’ll outcompete providers who wait for the crisis to deepen. You’ll also build a more stable workforce; research shows that UK-based care workers, on average, stay longer in role than migrant workers, particularly in domiciliary care where visa sponsorship was creating hidden instability. Investing in care worker recruitment UK now means building a team that actually stays.
What UK Care Workers Want: Pay, Conditions, and Purpose
Recruitment starts with understanding why UK jobseekers don’t apply for care roles and what would make them consider it.
The perception of care work is the first barrier. Many people see it as low-status, low-pay, and physically demanding without offering a career. Domiciliary care especially gets less social recognition than nursing or allied health professions. You’re not going to change the image of care work overnight, but you can change how you present your specific role and company culture.
Candidates want three things: a livable wage, realistic working conditions, and a sense of purpose. A livable wage doesn’t mean £50,000 a year; it means enough to cover rent, food, and transport without relying on universal credit or second jobs. For domiciliary care, that typically means at least the living wage plus mileage reimbursement if workers are driving between clients. It also means pay progression: someone who stays with you for two years should earn noticeably more than someone in their first month.
Realistic working conditions means reliable scheduling and reasonable travel times between visits. If your rota system books visits with only 15 minutes between them and five miles apart, you’re setting care workers up to either be late or break speed limits. Your recruitment will suffer because no one will want the job, and your quality will suffer because care workers will be stressed and rushing.
A sense of purpose is the x-factor that makes care work worth the difficulty. Care workers often say that supporting someone to stay in their home, knowing their history, and being trusted with their wellbeing gives them genuine satisfaction. But that only works if your systems actually allow time for relationship-building and if you celebrate that work internally.
How to Recruit UK Care Workers Locally
Effective care worker recruitment UK starts with being specific. Map exactly what you’re recruiting for. Not “care worker,” but “care worker supporting older people with complex needs in Zone 3” or “domiciliary carer covering rural East Sussex.” Be specific about geography, client group, shift patterns, and hourly rate. Vague job posts get ignored.
Advertise in places UK jobseekers actually look. That might be Facebook groups for your area, local community notice boards, job centres, or Indeed; it’s often not the big national recruitment sites. Use word-of-mouth aggressively: if you have good staff, they know people who would make good carers. Offer them a referral bonus if they bring someone who stays six months.
Recruit from underutilised talent pools. People changing careers from retail, hospitality, or admin might be attracted to care work if you offer training, flexibility, and a clear path to a qualification. Second income earners looking for part-time or flexible work — often parents or carers themselves — make excellent care workers; they understand time pressure and managing multiple responsibilities.
Set your interview process up to assess character and commitment, not just experience. A care worker doesn’t need five years of prior care experience if they have integrity, cultural awareness, and the ability to take initiative. Ask about moments when they’ve had to support someone in crisis, how they handled conflict, what they do when systems fail. You’re assessing judgment and resilience, not a tick-list of qualifications.
How Training and Qualifications Improve Retention
Care worker recruitment UK is only half the picture. If you can’t keep care workers once you’ve hired them, you’re running on a treadmill.
The biggest driver of care worker retention is feeling supported and valued. This starts with induction. A robust induction programme where new starters spend time with experienced carers, get thorough training on your systems, and meet their line manager in person signals that you invest in people. Care workers who have good inductions are less likely to leave in the first six months, which is when most turnover happens.
Supervision matters. Regular, one-to-one supervision where a manager checks in about how the role is going, whether there are challenges, and what support is needed keeps people engaged. This doesn’t have to be formal; a 20-minute fortnightly check-in is enough if it’s consistent and the manager is actually listening.
Scheduling predictability also drives retention. If you can commit to giving people their rota two weeks in advance and you stick to it, people can plan their lives. They can book childcare, pick up second jobs, or study. If your rota changes weekly and staff never know whether they’ll get 20 or 35 hours, they’ll leave for a job that offers stability. ShiftCare’s rota management software helps you build schedules that balance client needs with worker predictability.
Investing in Training and Qualifications
The UK care sector has a defined qualification pathway. Most care workers start without formal qualifications and can progress to Level 2 or 3 Diploma in Health and Social Care. Investing in paying for these qualifications — or the time to study — signals that you see care workers as professionals, not just task-doers.
Newer care workers especially value employers who fund or support their training. If you offer to cover the cost of a Level 2 Diploma and give them study time, you’re investing in retention and setting yourself apart from competitors who don’t. You’ll also build your own internal talent: the person who does their Level 2 with you and stays might become a senior carer or supervisor later.
Additionally, consider investing in specialist training aligned with your client group. If you support older people with dementia, run dementia care training twice a year. If you work with people with learning disabilities, include positive behaviour support training. This keeps knowledge current and shows staff that you’re serious about quality.
Managing the Transition Period
You’re not going to rebuild your entire workforce overnight. The transition from international recruitment to domestic recruitment will take 18 to 36 months, depending on your current workforce composition and local labour market.
In the immediate term, you may need to use recruitment agencies for some roles, which is more expensive but provides flexibility while you build your own pipeline. You can also increase hours for existing staff who want them, which improves retention and reduces the number of new hires you need.
Set realistic hiring targets. If you’ve been growing at 20 percent annually by hiring internationally, plan for 5 to 10 percent domestic growth until your recruitment systems mature. Overcommitting to growth you can’t staff reliably will damage your CQC rating and your reputation with commissioners.
Build a Culture That Keeps People
Ultimately, the care workers who stay are the ones who feel their work matters. They see the impact on the people they support, feel part of a team, know their manager cares whether they’re okay, and see a future in the role. If you build that culture now, while you still have some stability from workers on existing visas, you’ll be in a much stronger position when the labour market tightens further. You’ll also attract better staff, deliver better care, and build a reputation as an employer that people want to work for.
Set realistic hiring targets. If you’ve been growing at 20 percent annually by hiring internationally, plan for 5 to 10 percent domestic growth until your recruitment systems mature. Not sure where to start? ShiftCare’s rota management software helps you build schedules that balance client needs with worker predictability.
Start your free trial today. See how ShiftCare helps you build a stable, domestic workforce.
