Code of practice for the international recruitment of health and social care personnel
Sets out the principles and best practice benchmarks health and social care employers and recruitment agencies must follow to ensure effective, ethical international recruitment.
- From:
- Department of Health and Social Care
- Published
- 25 February 2021
- Last updated
-
227SeptemberMarch20242025 — See all updates
Documents
Details
The code of practice promotes high standards of ethical practice in the international recruitment and employment of health and social care personnel. It also sets out the UK’s approach to supporting health and social care systems and workforce, alongside safeguards onto prevent active recruitment from countries withfacing the most pressingcritical universalshortages healthin coveragehealthcare relatedprofessionals healthneeded andto socialachieve careuniversal workforcehealth needs.coverage.
While the code of practice is UK policy, specific codes exist for Northern Ireland and Scotland to reflect the different organisational structures. Wales follows England’s code. It is aimed at all health or social care organisations or recruitment agencies undertaking international recruitment.
It is based on the principles set out in the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel. It refers to the WHO Health Workforce Support and Safeguards List as the red list of countries that must not be actively targeted by health or social care recruiters unless there is a government-to-government agreement in place to allow managed recruitment on the terms of the agreement.
See also the collection page on government-to-government agreements on health and social care workforce recruitment for details of agreements between the UK and partner countries. The collection page will be updated regularly as new government-to-government agreements are signed. It is recommended that employers, contracting bodies and recruitment agencies regularly check the collection page for updates.
Details
The code of practice promotes high standards of ethical practice in the international recruitment and employment of health and social care personnel. It also sets out the UK’s approach to supporting health and social care systems and workforce, alongside safeguards onto prevent active recruitment from countries withfacing the most pressingcritical universalshortages healthin coveragehealthcare relatedprofessionals healthneeded andto socialachieve careuniversal workforcehealth needs.coverage.
While the code of practice is UK policy, specific codes exist for Northern Ireland and Scotland to reflect the different organisational structures. Wales follows England’s code. It is aimed at all health or social care organisations or recruitment agencies undertaking international recruitment.
It is based on the principles set out in the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel. It refers to the WHO Health Workforce Support and Safeguards List as the red list of countries that must not be actively targeted by health or social care recruiters unless there is a government-to-government agreement in place to allow managed recruitment on the terms of the agreement.
See also the collection page on government-to-government agreements on health and social care workforce recruitment for details of agreements between the UK and partner countries. The collection page will be updated regularly as new government-to-government agreements are signed. It is recommended that employers, contracting bodies and recruitment agencies regularly check the collection page for updates.