Banbury Heights Nursing Home has been recruiting overseas nurses since 2003. We spoke to Charles Taylor from Banbury Heights about his experience of overseas recruitment. In 2021 recruitment expanded to include senior carers and since then Banbury Heights have sponsored 18 senior carers over three sites. With 150 employees this represents 12 per cent of the workforce.
The challenge
This has removed the dependency on agency workers and has been to the benefit of the patients as well as the business. ‘There is a net benefit for all, there aren’t enough people working in the system and we need a variety of sources’.
It can be a frustrating process which can feel slow and hard to predict timescales. Although this has got better with the prioritised health and social care visa process.
Getting the administration right is very important. The business risks of not doing so are very high, as the Home Office has the power to stop sponsorship immediately. ‘This scenario would present a major level of damage which is a worry’ .
The solution
Banbury Heights are fortunate to have a Nurse Manager who is an active member of the local Indian community. These connections have really helped with new people integrating into the local area. There is also now a core of existing staff who buddy up with new starters and support them to settle in.
The impact
As such Banbury Heights ensure that admin staff are trained and understand the process, there are also systems in place for checking that the right information is being gathered.
Lessons learned
Banbury Heights have had five or six inspections over 20 years and some of the requirements of the management of admin files have changed during this time, so keeping up to speed with the system is a continuous process.