Recruitment Ideas for Care Workers – How to Get it Right

It’s no secret that care services across the world are finding it difficult to attract and hire qualified care workers for their businesses. The reasons for this struggle include but are not limited to:

• Increased demand – The ageing population combined with the rising prevalence of chronic illnesses has led to an increased demand for care services, putting a lot of pressure on providers to recruit enough employees.
• Competition – Even though many care services are understaffed, there are still tens of thousands of care services across the UK, which means there is stiff competition when on the search for talented and qualified individuals.
• High turnover rates – Caregiving is often a physically and emotionally demanding position that many people struggle with and some employers aren’t very understanding or supportive. With their own budgets – particularly for local authority funded care - squeezed ever tighter it is extremely difficult for care providers to offer pay fitting to the demanding and skilled nature of the work. This leads to high turnover rates among care workers.
• Skills and training – Recruiting the right amount of care staff that have the necessary skills, useful qualifications and relevant experience and training to provide personalised, high-quality and person-centred care can be extremely challenging.

It's not uncommon for care services to get recruitment wrong, which can lead to them not being compliant or hiring the wrong people. Here are some things you should keep in mind when carrying out your recruitment process. 

Relevant References

Often, people are advised to get 2 references but this isn’t the law! The actual law is that you must seek assurance about somebody’s suitability to work with vulnerable adults or children, in terms of any previous employment in health and social care.

For example, you would speak to the most recent employer and you would seek assurance of suitability by speaking to every single employer that involved you working with vulnerable adults or children, even if it was 15 years ago. Employers might not get much back due to records being deleted over time, but an attempt must be made.

Full Employment History

Another thing that can go wrong during recruitment is not getting the full employment history of the potential recruit. Care employers must get a FULL employment history from when you entered the workplace e.g. 16 to your age now. The candidate will need to explain gaps in employment and they must be questioned sufficiently, so that the employer can see whether they have been sacked and why, if they were just on maternity leave, etc.

A lot of times, potential employees may not highlight all of their history correctly. If this isn’t thoroughly investigated by the employer, it could lead to an unsuitable person being hired. A full employment history check should be in addition to a DBS check or the relevant background check for your region.

If your candidate is brand new to a workplace due to being young, they would need to highlight any work experience and may need to provide a character reference, one from the school, etc. It’s all about assuring themselves of their suitability.

If your candidate has had many jobs but none of them has been working in health and social care, you wouldn’t need to speak to all of their previous employers because they won’t be able to provide useful information on how they have worked with vulnerable adults. In this case, you as the employer would just do what’s reasonable e.g. request 2 references.

Protecting Your Service

If something happened to a service user and the care service has a full and satisfactory employment history and reference check, then the service will be less liable for a service user who may have been mistreated. Obviously, their liability will take other things into account, such as if it has happened before and the circumstances including whether they have been observed correctly, received the right training, etc. If you can demonstrate that you have tried to verify your staff, then you are compliant in terms of your recruitment process.

On the other hand, if a thorough investigation wasn’t carried out during the interview process and a new employee with a history of mistreating individuals does it again, this will make the care service fully liable for their employee’s actions. You can find more on required information in respect of persons employed or appointed for the purposes of a regulated activity by reading up on Schedule 3. 

Having a recruitment plan in place will allow you to act strategically and ensure that you are targeting the right people while making the most out of a potentially limited resource. Making sure you take the time to support your staff and their development is crucial and should form a significant part of your recruitment planning.

Some questions you need to ask yourself include how many employees you need, the skills they should have and the best method of recruitment.

Calculating the cost of recruitment should also play a part in this planning. You need to make sure your process is cost-effective and you should find ways to identify which parts of the recruitment process are performing well. Here are 7 effective recruitment strategies for care workers that you should consider when hiring your care service:

1.      Values-Based Recruitment

Values-based recruitment is becoming a go-to phrase in social care and rightfully so. Care providers with lower employee turnover rates focus on the values candidates have, including compassion, kindness, reliability and willingness to learn, instead of just their experience in the sector, qualifications and other traditional candidate selection techniques. While these can be important, they don’t equal success.

2.      Employee Referral Programs

Encouraging your current employees to refer potential candidates can introduce you to reliable people who share the same passion for caregiving. You should offer incentives for successful referrals and rewards after their referred colleague passes their probation. This will help ensure that the right people are put forward for the position, as they need to be reliable to be rewarded.

3.      Offer Competitive Compensation

The wages, benefits and career advancement opportunities that your care service has to offer should be good enough to attract and retain talented carers. Do some market research to see what your competition offers. You should also ensure that the compensation for referrals is competitive, as it may help you attract candidates who have a good network of people that they can refer to your business.

4.      Showcase the Values of Your Service

Once you have carried out the research that will help your compensation stand out from your competitors, you will be able to see what makes your care service stand out from the others. To attract kind-hearted carers, you should emphasise your commitment to providing quality care to service users, and display how you create a supportive work environment and opportunities for professional growth.

5.      Provide Flexible Scheduling

Something else that can make you stand out from the rest is being open to providing flexible working hours and part-time options to your staff. While this can be difficult for some services, especially if they are understaffed, it is something that can appeal to people who put a good work-life balance first. Remember, more flexibility could attract more candidates. 

6.      Offer Taster Sessions to Candidates

The most successful hirers and retainers routinely invite candidates in for taster sessions. This is a great way to test their commitment to working in care and allows them to see if they will enjoy the job if they are hired. Taster sessions also enable care providers to assess whether the potential employee’s values and abilities work in real-world scenarios.

7.      Partner with Care Worker Recruitment Agencies

Collaborating with specialised care worker recruitment agencies can help with streamlining the hiring process while connecting you with a large number of qualified candidates. These people will be actively seeking positions in caregiving. Using a recruitment agency can also save you time when it comes to searching for candidates with the right qualifications.

The UK has previously relied on international recruitment to help address workforce shortages in social care, and many overseas workers bring valuable skills, strong values and cultural insight. However, recent immigration changes have significantly limited the ability to recruit new care workers from abroad.

Current rules on recruiting care workers from overseas

Since 22 July 2025, UK care providers can no longer sponsor new overseas applicants for care worker or senior care worker roles. These roles have been removed from the list of eligible occupations for the Health and Care Worker visa, which means new international recruitment from outside the UK is no longer permitted.

There is a transition period until July 2028. During this time, employers may still sponsor individuals who are already living in the UK on another type of visa, such as a Graduate Visa or Dependant Visa, as long as the person has already been working in a care role for at least three months.

Care roles still appear on the Immigration Salary List, but the benefits now only apply to eligible candidates already inside the UK.

Updated salary thresholds

The previous salary requirement of £20,480 no longer applies. The current minimum salary for sponsored care workers is £25,000 per year or £12.82 per hour. This applies to both new sponsorships within the UK and most visa extensions.

Benefits of recruiting internationally (for eligible candidates already in the UK)

Although recruitment from overseas is now restricted, there are still benefits to hiring international candidates who are already living in the UK. These include:

• Valuable experience and strong care values.
• Cultural knowledge and language skills that enrich care teams.
• Improved diversity and representation within your service.
• Meaningful work opportunities for individuals looking to build a life in the UK.

Challenges of overseas recruitment under the new rules

Recruiting internationally now involves additional complexity, including:

• Inability to sponsor new care workers from overseas.
• Ensuring in‑UK applicants meet updated eligibility rules.
• Higher salary thresholds increasing overall costs.
• Restrictions on dependants for sponsored care workers.
• Ongoing changes to immigration rules that may affect long‑term planning.

Providers must also ensure they recruit ethically and support international workers with onboarding, training and understanding UK regulations.

Sponsor licence requirements

To sponsor eligible in‑UK candidates, providers still need a sponsor licence. Current fees are £536 for small organisations and charities, and £1,476 for medium and large organisations. Fast‑track processing is available for an additional fee.

Candidate eligibility requirements

For candidates already inside the UK who can still be sponsored before July 2028, typical requirements include:

• Having worked in a care role for at least three months with the sponsoring employer.
• Meeting the English language requirement.
• A valid Certificate of Sponsorship.
• Minimum salary of £25,000 per year.
• Ability to support themselves financially.
• Being 18 or over with relevant care experience.

These requirements may change, so providers should always check the latest government guidance before sponsoring a worker.

When recruiting carers, you need to make sure that you adhere to ethical standards. If you decide to go through a recruitment agency, make sure that they follow ethical recruitment practices. This ensures that care workers are not exploited and are provided fair wages and safe working conditions.

Monitoring and support should also be provided. If you hire a new employee with little experience or from overseas, assigning them a buddy or mentor will help them to adjust to their new environment and offers them ongoing support in their new position.

Recruiting care workers correctly is an extremely important task that will require thoughtful planning and proper implementation of effective strategies. By addressing the challenges within care worker recruitment and considering overseas recruitment, care services can improve their chances of attracting the right candidates that possess the skills and dedication needed to succeed.

Investing in your workforce will ensure the provision of compassionate and high-quality care to those who need it most. That’s why you should consider implementing Access Health and Social Care Management Software. Our platform will help with the efficient management of staff, resources and services throughout your business. Whether you need to improve your care planning or compliance or refine your medication management and policies and procedures, our care management software provides the perfect solution for your care service.

We also offer a recruitment and screening service to help you attract and select the best candidates for your care service. This helps you to carry out fast, automated background screening and candidate compliance checks, so you can feel reassured that you are hiring the right people for your business. You can learn more about our automated screening solution for care management by booking a demo.