Guidance

International recruitment regional fund for the adult social care sector 2026 to 2027: guidance for regional partnerships

Published 14 April 2026

Introduction

We are making up to £7.5 million available in the 2026 to 2027 financial year to continue to fund 15 regional partnerships to support international care workers impacted by sponsor licence revocations into new ethical employment as quickly as possible.

We have seen large-scale non-compliance with the immigration rules in the adult social care sector, including exploitation, leading to adult social care providers losing their licence to sponsor international workers and leaving thousands of ‘displaced’ international care workers without employment.

That is why we are continuing to fund the 15 regional and sub-regional partnerships across England which, over the 2024 to 2025 and 2025 to 2026 financial years, have established the infrastructure and processes to support displaced workers into new sponsored employment.

Regional fund objectives 2026 to 2027

The main objectives of the fund in 2026 to 2027 are for regional partnerships to:

• support international care workers impacted by sponsor licence revocations (displaced workers) into new ethical employment as quickly as possible
• proactively engage with adult social care providers to encourage recruitment of displaced workers and promote ethical recruitment practices

We expect the investment will provide:

• single point of contact mailboxes for displaced workers seeking new employment and social care providers interested in employing them
• a person-centred employment support service, including facilitating job introductions with prospective employers and providing support with CV writing and interview skills
• directing displaced workers as appropriate to relevant services such as immigration advice, housing or health and well-being support
• proactive engagement with providers to raise awareness of displaced workers available to support the workforce
• sharing of best practice between regional partnerships

In terms of prioritisation, regional partnerships should:

• continue to focus on supporting workers whose employer has had their sponsor licence revoked
• prioritise employment support for eligible individuals who have been assessed as having the necessary skills and values to work in adult social care, and who with support from regional partnerships are likely to be employment ready
• prioritise provider engagement to encourage employers to employ displaced international care workers

Implementation

Regional partnerships must meet certain requirements to access the grant funding. Regional partnerships should:

• consist of local councils and care alliances or other groups of local providers
• identify a lead local council to receive the grant on behalf of the partnership, as we are using a section 31 mechanism under the Local Government Act 2003 to pay the grant
• identify a senior responsible officer (SRO) to oversee implementation and governance of the fund
• ensure that any recruitment activity supported by the partnership adheres to the international recruitment code of practice
• comply with the Modern Slavery Act 2015 - under section 52 of the act, local councils have a statutory duty to notify the Home Office when they come across potential victims of modern slavery
• comply with the Employment Agencies Act 1973 and the associated Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003. An exemption applies for local councils under section 13(7) of the Employment Agencies Act 1973
• comply with the Subsidy Control Act 2022
• have clear data collection and monitoring processes in place to report expenditure and progress against the objectives of the fund to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)

Funding process

DHSC intends to distribute the grant through a lead local council within each regional partnership. There will be no competition between partnerships for funds. The regional partnership will work collaboratively to develop a delivery plan which sets out how the fund objectives will be delivered.

Funding will be paid in 2 instalments, in April 2026 and October 2026. The second instalment will be subject to demonstrating expenditure of the first tranche of funding and service delivery to meet the grant objectives. Resources can be pooled between regional partnerships where appropriate. This could include, for example, commissioning a service across regions or sub-regions to make efficiency savings.

We expect that 2026 to 2027 will be the final year of funding for the international recruitment regional fund. The 2026 to 2027 funding must be spent in full and service delivery completed by 31 March 2027.

For the 2026 to 2027 financial year, we have updated the formula used to calculate funding allocations. The proposed funding allocations for 2026 to 2027 are based on the number of filled adult social care posts held by non-EU nationals across regions, as set out in Skills for Care’s 2025 state of care report and accompanying appendix. The number of non-EU filled posts is a strong proxy for the potential impact of workers becoming displaced as workers arriving in the UK on a health and care visa are more likely to have been employed in regions with existing populations of workers from outside the UK. Recent changes in the number of non-EU filled posts are also likely to have been driven, to a substantial extent, by the number of workers granted health and care worker visas.

Annual indicative funding allocations have been calculated based on the share of national non-EU care worker filled posts within each region, multiplied by the total funding for 2026 to 2027. For example, a 10% share of non-EU national care worker filled posts results in £750,000 of the £7.5 million funding.

Table 1 below sets out indicative funding allocations for the regional partnerships in 2026 to 2027. Funding allocations may be adjusted to account for underspend. As these figures are rounded to the nearest pound, the total figures might not exactly add up.

Table 1: indicative funding allocations per regional partnership 2026 to 2027

Region	Filled posts, non-EU care worker	Total funding 2026 to 2027	Quarter 1	Quarter 3
North East	2.7%	£204,746	£102,373	£102,373
Yorkshire and the Humber	6.6%	£495,409	£247,704	£247,704
East Midlands	9.8%	£735,455	£367,728	£367,728
West Midlands	11.2%	£838,759	£419,379	£419,379
East of England	12.6%	£943,166	£471,583	£471,583
South East	18%	£1,349,560	£674,780	£674,780
South West	8.6%	£641,910	£320,955	£320,955
Cheshire and Merseyside	3.2%	£243,197	£121,598	£121,598
Greater Manchester	3.6%	£271,656	£135,828	£135,828
Lancashire, Westmorland and Furness	1.9%	£144,513	£72,256	£72,256
London, North East	5.4%	£402,569	£201,284	£201,284
London, North Central	3.8%	£284,459	£142,229	£142,229
London, South East	4.1%	£304,380	£152,190	£152,190
London, North West	4.8%	£357,109	£178,554	£178,554
London, South West	3.8%	£283,114	£141,557	£141,557