1. Purpose
This policy sets out how MUKTalent Healthcare recruits international health and social care personnel in line with the Code of Practice for the International Recruitment of Health and Social Care Personnel in England, UK employment agency law and the WHO Global Code of Practice principles on which it is based.
2. Principles
- Fair and transparent recruitment, with accurate information about roles, pay and conditions.
- Equal treatment and non-discrimination.
- No coercion, exploitation or misleading promises.
- Candidates are not charged recruitment or work-finding fees by MUKTalent Healthcare.
- Appropriate verification of qualifications, registration and references.
- Transparent relationships with employers, and no display of partnerships that have not been formally agreed.
- An accessible complaints procedure.
3. Country restrictions
Before any international recruitment activity, we check the current red and amber country list published by NHS Employers. We do not undertake active recruitment from red-list countries. Recruitment from amber-list countries follows only the applicable government-to-government agreement and its conditions, and must be approved by the Ethical Recruitment and Compliance Lead. Our recruitment system records each candidate’s country status and prevents matching where recruitment is not permitted. Candidates resident in red-list countries who contact us are told honestly that we cannot recruit them and are signposted to direct application routes.
4. Employers
We carry out due diligence on employers before recruiting for them, including CQC registration and sponsor licence status where relevant, and we require written agreement to the principles in this policy.
5. Responsibilities
The Ethical Recruitment and Compliance Lead owns this policy, monitors compliance, maintains evidence of implementation and reports to the directors. All staff receive training on this policy at induction and annually.
6. Breaches
Suspected breaches can be reported to us, to the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate or to NHS Employers at internationalrecruitment@nhsconfed.org.