Exploring the lived experiences of international care workers in UK care homes

 

Funding

NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire ICB Research Capability Funding­­.

What is the problem?

UK care homes face a staffing crisis, with 87% of providers experiencing recruitment challenges (CQC, 2023). Ongoing effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, alongside post-Brexit employment changes, are accelerating this. Care homes are persistently understaffed and forced to rely on temporary/agency staff. Consequently, there are difficulties implementing training, resulting in poorer care quality and increased hospital admissions. This both puts strain on acute services and reduces staff and care home residents’ wellbeing.

International recruitment is increasing. In 2022/23, approximately 70,000 international staff began care roles in the UK adult social care sector, compared with 20,000 in 2021/22 (CQC, 2023). Whilst in 2023/24, this figure soared to a record of 105,000 internationally recruited workers entering the UK adult social care sector (Skills for Care, 2024). However, international care workers face a myriad of challenges: stringent visa restrictions; language/communication difficulties; culture shock; and discrimination. Many international care staff, when met by this hostile UK environment, are increasingly turning to countries, like Australia, with better pay and conditions.

With the number of people living in UK care homes increasing due to an ageing population, it is vital that we establish supportive working environments now. Through investigating international care home workers’ experiences, we can support this workforce, to ensure high-quality, long-term care provision.

What is the aim of the research?

This proposed research project aims:

  • to investigate the lived experiences of international care home workers employed in UK care homes within Bristol, North Somerset, and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG).
  • to understand about the challenges and enablers to job satisfaction, wellbeing, and retention for these international care home workers.

to explore how organisational, social, and policy factors shape the experiences of these international care home workers, to seek out ways to promote their engagement in meaningful and satisfying work.

How will this be achieved?

To allow the development of a robust NIHR bid, the following preliminary work is proposed for this BNSSG ICB RCF:

  1. Project team development– existing collaborator relationships will be further developed to ensure the research is aligned with practice-needs to maximise impact. Additional collaborators will be identified to gather relevant expertise for a NIHR RPSC grant application.
  2. PPI and stakeholder work– preliminary PPI work will be undertaken with international care home workers, wider care home staff, care home residents and their family-members, international recruitment agency workers, as well as emergency services staff. This will focus on equality, diversity and inclusion through seeking input from under-served populations (international care workers and care home residents). Such PPI and stakeholder engagement will lead to co-production of the research question, objectives, and methodology for the NIHR RPSC grant application. All collaborators will be encouraged to join the NIHR advisory group.
  3. Preliminary interviews– up to 20 semi-structured interviews will be conducted with international care workers, working in care homes in the BNSSG region to understand about their lived experiences, job satisfaction and wellbeing both in and outside of work. This data will be analysed and used to help inform the NIHR RPSC grant application.
  4. Bid development– a NIHR RPSC application will be developed in close consultation with PPI and stakeholder collaborators. The bid will focus on developing an induction and integration toolkit to support international staff in UK care homes. Further work to evaluate the intervention will be planned.

Who is leading the research?

Dr Chloë Place , Senior Occupational Therapy Lecturer at the School of Health and Social Wellbeing, University of the West of England (UWE Bristol).

Further information

For more information or to get involved with this project, please email bnssg.research@nhs.net