Case Study: Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust - International Nursing Recruitment
By Gemma Raw
As our international recruitment team helps 40 nurses make their journey to the UK to start work at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, we find out what’s making the recruitment programme such as big success. We catch up with Diane Woodward, Oxford Health’s Nursing Workforce Transformation Manager, and Sanctuary’s Director of Permanent & International Recruitment, Luke Aldred, to find out more.
How did Sanctuary start working with Oxford Health?
Luke:
“Sanctuary has been supporting Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust in other areas of recruitment for many years. But our focus on finding and placing permanent international nurses began in December 2020.”
Diane:
“We chose to work with Sanctuary as they have an excellent reputation for providing a steady supply of adult and mental health nurses to other NHS Trusts. Plus, their service included pastoral support for the nurses once they had relocated to the UK. This, to us, was very important.”
How did Sanctuary support Oxford Health from the start?
Luke:
“Before we even started to identify suitable overseas candidates, it was essential that we understood everything about Oxford Health. We needed to understand their service, culture, workforce development plans and, most importantly, who they were seeking to recruit.”
Diane:
“We had the implementation meeting in December to discuss our needs for adult and mental health nurses to join our inpatient teams based in Oxfordshire. During this meeting, the team asked insightful questions about our inpatient services and shared their own experiences and knowledge of recruiting nurses for other Trusts.
“At the end of the meeting, we felt reassured that not only would the team being able to identify suitable candidates for the Trust but that they were invested in finding the right nurses for our wards and committed to working with us to make the programme a success.”
Diane, how did you find Sanctuary’s approach to international recruitment?
Diane:
“During the last 15 months, we have found the team to be extremely supportive. They are always available for us to talk through any challenges that we may be experiencing. Crucially, they have helped us to grow our knowledge and understanding of recruiting internationally.
“The knowledge they have about international recruitment and the processes that the nurses must go through are second-to-none.
“When we have contacted the team about a nurse who may be struggling with the relocation process and adjusting to life in the UK, they are always happy to contact the nurse to discuss the situation and offer advice and guidance."
Could you tell us about the results of the international recruitment programme?
Luke:
“To date, we have recruited 40 nurses on behalf of Oxford Health (18 in adult nursing and 22 in mental health). We’re delighted to say that we’ve already helped 19 nurses make the journey to the UK and settle into their new life here. Jyoti who journeyed from India to join City Community Hospital as a nurse, has already been promoted to Clinical Development Nurse after less than 9 months in post.”
Diane:
“The programme has been a great success. We are also piloting an English education programme where Sanctuary identifies suitable mental health nurses who are unable to fund their own education. The Trust provides financial support for these nurses to undertake a 6-week education programme and the associated language test. We currently have 8 mental health nurses going through this education programme with a further 12 to interview shortly. If this pilot proves successful, it will provide the Trust with a steady pipeline of mental health nurses to fill vacancies within our inpatient and community teams.
“It has been an absolute pleasure working with the team over the last 15 months, and we look forward to this partnership continuing.”
