Care providers in south-east England are gaining assistance in reducing bureaucracy and costs involved in overseas hiring through an Oxfordshire developed international recruitment system.
The platform is the result of a £2.54 million investment by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) into Oxfordshire County Council’s award-winning innovation service.
The initiative includes a portal to simplify areas like immigration and compliance for care providers.
The service worked with care providers to understand the hurdles linked to recruiting foreign staff.
The county council has subsequently announced a partnership with Borderless, a technology firm started in 2022, to build and expand the migration platform.
Tim Bearder, Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet member for adult social care, said: "Oxfordshire County Council’s innovation service has a proven track record of delivering innovative solutions for the local care sector, working with providers to understand the real challenges they face.
"Our residents who they serve, the providers they work for and the adult social care departments that often fund their work have immense respect and gratitude for the incredible work they do.
"The amount of red tape involved in overseas recruitment is challenging.
"By offering greater support to help providers understand complex immigration rules, this new platform aims to make everything fast, low risk and low cost, enabling businesses to take back control and focus time on their core activities."
Funding of £15m, of which £2.54m was for the south-east, was made available by the DHSC to support international recruitment within the adult social care sector in England, given the complexity in this area.
The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services in the south-east region partnered with the council’s innovation service to build a portal addressing barriers including Home Office compliance, and high upfront costs to recruitment timelines.
Matthew Bond, CEO and co-founder at Borderless, said: "We believe in a world where borders are no longer barriers.
"Hiring migrant workers doesn’t have to involve expensive intermediaries. It doesn’t have to mean bewildering Home Office bureaucracy. And it doesn’t have to take months on end."
The platform, already supported by leading care organisations, is compliant with regulatory bodies.
Borderless is now working with more than 130 UK care providers, offering support with sponsor license applications and providing advice on immigration and compliance processes.
By ensuring workers are only employed by genuine businesses, they are provided with safe and ethical pathways to the UK’s care industry, significantly reducing the risk of exploitative labour practices.
Oxfordshire County Council and Borderless are set to host a series of free webinars for providers in the region interested in the platform, scheduled on March 27, April 23 and May 7.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel