More than 50,000 fewer care workers are expected to enter the UK workforce this year. With that in mind, care homes must turn their focus inward, towards attracting local talent at scale and speed.
Late last week (Wednesday, May 14th) the UK government confirmed a sweeping policy shift: the closure of the care worker visa route for overseas staff. For many care providers, this decision adds strain to an already stretched workforce. Overseas recruitment wasn’t the entire solution, but for some homes, it helped fill persistent local gaps, particularly in regions with limited talent pools. The door to that option has now closed.
And, while much of the early reaction has focused on immigration policy, the implications run deeper, because what care homes are facing isn’t just a staffing shortfall, but a visibility challenge.
With the competition for local talent intensifying, those homes that are more visible, more strategic, and more digitally prepared will be in the strongest position to recruit. It’s yet another wake-up call for digital marketing for residential care.
Care homes can no longer rely on international supply lines to solve staffing problems. The competition for local talent is about to intensify dramatically, and only those who are visible, strategic, and digitally prepared will stand a chance.
The Shift to Local Talent: Reach Is Now Everything
Overseas recruitment helped plug the gaps left by limited local applications, but with that option now off the table, care providers must urgently improve how they attract UK-based candidates, and that starts with presence.
We referenced in our previous post on the Digital Marketing Wake-Up Call for Care Homes that health and social care job seekers predominantly search for their roles online. They browse job boards, scroll through social media, and research employers before applying. If your care home isn’t showing up in those spaces, or if your messaging is outdated or unclear, you’re already behind.
The urgency is backed by stark figures: government data reveals that 71% of care providers are currently experiencing recruitment issues, with more than a third worried about maintaining staffing levels over the next six months (gov.uk, 2025).
In parallel, applications for health and care worker visas dropped by 81% between April 2024 and January 2025, compared to the same period the previous year (CommunityCare, May 2025).
According to StandOut CV, 79% of jobseekers in the UK use social media as part of their job search. And with platforms like Indeed shifting ever further toward a paid model, it’s not just about being on job boards, it’s about performing on them.
The Marketing Gap: What We Saw with Partou
We’ve seen this play out in real-time.
When we partnered with Partou, a well-established and global nursery care provider, their in-house recruitment team was running campaigns on Indeed. They were experienced recruiters, but not digital marketers. The results reflected that disconnect:
- High cost per application
- Limited reach
- Campaigns underperforming against competitors
Working in close collaboration with their team, we audited the account and uncovered several key areas for improvement:
- Listings that didn’t follow Indeed’s platform recommendations
- Weak keyword alignment
- Budget pacing issues that restricted presence at peak times
As Indeed SEO specialists, we worked collaboratively with them to rebuild their listings using best practice structures, improved targeting, and provided a roadmap to help their team manage and scale performance effectively. In our tests, we focused on keyword alignment, budget pacing, and listing structure based on Indeed’s evolving paid model.
The results:
- 13× more impressions per job compared to their high-volume baseline campaign
- 4× more clicks per job, even with a slightly lower click-through rate — a natural result of increased reach
- Applications per job remained steady, showing that volume alone doesn’t deliver better candidates but targeting and structure do
With a modest budget and smart optimisation, they gained competitive presence in a paid-first environment.
But This Is Not Just About Indeed
Job boards are important, but they’re only one part of a successful recruitment marketing strategy. To consistently attract talent, particularly when everyone’s targeting the same local pool, care homes must:
- Invest in employer branding: From testimonials to behind-the-scenes content, people want to see the real culture behind the job title.
- Optimise local SEO: Make sure your roles and locations rank well on Google when candidates search.
- Use paid social media to build a pipeline: Don’t just post jobs, tell stories and show why.
- Retarget with intent: If someone visited your jobs page and didn’t apply, remarketing can bring them back at the right time.
This is where care homes can win, not just by posting more, but by marketing more intelligently.
The digital space is becoming more competitive, too. In Q1 2025, the average cost-per-click for care home recruitment campaigns in the UK was £8.50, reflecting the sharp rise in paid media competition (ClickThrough Marketing, 2025).
What Care Home Leaders Need to Do With Their Digital Marketing Now
If you’re a care home manager, operations lead or marketing director, the next 30–60 days are critical. Here’s what we recommend:
- Audit your recruitment presence: Where are you visible online? How strong is your messaging?
- Fix the basics: Ensure job ads are structured, keyword-rich, and optimised for each platform.
- Reallocate budget: If you’re spending less than competitors on paid job promotion, you’ll stay hidden. Smart spending is now essential.
- Build your brand: Use content, reviews, and community presence to become the employer of choice.
The closure of the overseas care worker route is more than a policy update. It’s a reshaping of the care recruitment landscape.
As the Financial Times recently reported, care providers are warning of critical workforce shortages, and potential knock-on effects such as delayed discharges and hospital bed backlogs (Financial Times, May 2025). The stakes are high, but so are the opportunities for those who act quickly.
The winners in this next chapter will be those who understand that marketing is not a bolt-on, it’s a core part of the recruitment engine.
We’ve helped providers like Partou pivot with speed, strategy and results. If your next hire needs to come from around the corner, not across the globe, then let’s talk about what that could look like for your care home.
