As part of our work to support UK health and care workforce planning, the HCPC has today published analysis of the retention data we hold on international route registrants for the 15 professions we regulate.
Health and care professionals who trained and qualified outside of the UK are a hugely valuable part of our workforce. As of December 2023, they make up 15% of the HCPC Register.
Recruiting and retaining international health and care professionals is therefore a critical part of the workforce planning required to deliver safe and effective health and care services.
In 2023, we published analysis on the retention rates for the professionals we regulate who trained in the UK.
We have now conducted similar analysis of the extent to which HCPC’s registrants who trained outside of the UK and joined our Register via the international registration route left the workforce within four years of joining.*
We examined how this was impacted by characteristics such as age, sex and World Bank country income group.
Key findings include:
- 34.2% (equivalent to just over 1 in 3) of all new international registrants left the HCPC Register within four years of joining.
- Retention rates varied considerably between professions.
- Retention rates varied considerably within professions, depending on the age, sex and country income group of registrants.
- Registrants from low and middle income countries (LMIC) had the highest retention rates. Registrants from high income countries (HIC) outside of Europe had the lowest retention rates. Registrants from HIC within Europe had medium to high retention rates.
- Younger registrants had lower retention rates than older registrants.
- Female registrants had lower retention rates than male registrants.
- The biggest single group of international route registrants were younger females, and almost half of the total were aged under 30. Our analysis has shown that females and younger registrants had lower retention rates.
We know that career transitions such as joining the workforce as a new registrant, working in the UK for the first time or returning after a lengthy period away from the workforce, can be challenging for individuals.
To support people during these significant moments in their careers we have published Preceptorship Principles. High quality preceptorship improves retention and helps develop and maintain confident, safe and effective practice throughout the careers.
Workforce planning is complex, and we hope this report (alongside the UK training route retention rate analysts report) provides useful information for employers, professional bodies and others responsible for workforce planning.
* The analysis looked at first registrations between 2013-2018.