STUDY 7 - Making it to the Registers: Documenting migrant carers’ experiences of registration and fitness to practice
- Nasreen Ali(PI),
- Britzer Paul Vincent Paul Raj(Research Fellow/PDRA),
- Rukia Saleem(RA)
Project: Research
Project status
Not started
Description
This project investigates the relationship between professional regulation and the structures of the UK's healthcare workforce. Collaborating with colleagues at Leeds University, the study will make use of desk-based and archival research, interviews, and user-engagement activities. The project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
Layman's description
The Making it to the Registers project explores the experiences of migrant and international healthcare professionals as they try to become registered to work in the UK and meet professional standards, including Fitness to Practice requirements. These processes are important for patient safety and public trust, but they can also be difficult to navigate, especially for professionals who trained or worked outside the UK.
The project looks at both past and present experiences of doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals, using interviews, archival research and engagement with stakeholders. It aims to understand the challenges migrant healthcare workers face when trying to enter and progress within the UK healthcare workforce, including issues linked to regulation, recognition of overseas experience, fairness, professional identity and belonging.
By sharing these experiences with the public, regulators, professional bodies and community partners, the project aims to raise awareness of the barriers faced by international healthcare professionals and identify ways to improve registration and Fitness to Practice processes. The findings will help support a fairer, more inclusive and sustainable healthcare workforce, while also recognising the valuable contribution migrant carers and healthcare workers make to health and social care in the UK.
The project looks at both past and present experiences of doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals, using interviews, archival research and engagement with stakeholders. It aims to understand the challenges migrant healthcare workers face when trying to enter and progress within the UK healthcare workforce, including issues linked to regulation, recognition of overseas experience, fairness, professional identity and belonging.
By sharing these experiences with the public, regulators, professional bodies and community partners, the project aims to raise awareness of the barriers faced by international healthcare professionals and identify ways to improve registration and Fitness to Practice processes. The findings will help support a fairer, more inclusive and sustainable healthcare workforce, while also recognising the valuable contribution migrant carers and healthcare workers make to health and social care in the UK.
Project Information
Project Type
ResearchProject Managed By
Project Collaborators
Status
Not startedKey Findings
The findings demonstrate that internationally trained healthcare professionals face systemically complex and inequitable access into and within the UK healthcare system. While registration is valued as a mechanism for safeguarding standards and conferring professional legitimacy, it is frequently experienced as bureaucratic, exclusionary and misaligned with workforce realities, limiting timely integration and effective utilisation of skills. Structural barriers, including restrictive immigration policies, inconsistent language requirements, and unequal workplace opportunities, contribute to deskilling, delayed progression and avoidable workforce attrition.
These challenges reflect broader institutional and policy shortcomings across regulatory, employment and immigration systems. While internationally, trained healthcare professionals continue to sustain service delivery, reliance on their resilience risks obscuring the need for reform. There is an urgent need for coordinated, system-wide action to ensure fair and transparent registration processes, equitable recognition of international experience and stronger alignment between workforce planning and regulatory practices. Without such changes, the system will continue to reproduce inequities while failing to fully realise the value of international healthcare expertise.
These challenges reflect broader institutional and policy shortcomings across regulatory, employment and immigration systems. While internationally, trained healthcare professionals continue to sustain service delivery, reliance on their resilience risks obscuring the need for reform. There is an urgent need for coordinated, system-wide action to ensure fair and transparent registration processes, equitable recognition of international experience and stronger alignment between workforce planning and regulatory practices. Without such changes, the system will continue to reproduce inequities while failing to fully realise the value of international healthcare expertise.
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities
SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions