King's College London

On Tuesday, 18 November 2025 Ian Kessler presented the findings from a recent Unit report to an inquiry exploring the benefits and costs of international recruitment in healthcare. The report, published in 2024, with colleagues Kritika Samsi and Jo Moriarty, sets out the results from an evaluation of pilot Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) on the recruitment of nurses from Kenya and Nepal. A type of bilateral agreement, MOUs have increasingly been used by the British government to secure co-operation and pursue reciprocal goals in the context of overseas nurse recruitment. The study is one of the few which has researched the administration of such MOUs and, in particular, focuses on the experiences of participant NHS trusts and overseas nurses.

Being conducted by the Global Health Partnership and the Centre for Global Development, both NGOs, and supported by All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Global Health & Security, the inquiry centres on the financial benefits the UK has derived over decades of recruiting international health professionals and considers the implications of this recruitment for Low and Middle Income Countries.

The Unit presentation was made to the inquiry’s second hearing session, run by MP Beccy Cooper, Chair of the APPG, and to an international audience comprising over fifty politicians, senior policy makers and practitioners. Alongside the Unit presentation, there were speakers from the USA, Ireland Germany, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, the Philippines, and Zimbabwe, presenting their models and experiences of bilateral agreements on the recruitment of healthcare professionals.

The inquiry has issued a call for evidence (closes 15 January 2026) and the final inquiry report is due in March 2026.

This publication

Kessler, I., Samsi, K., & Moriarty, J. (2024) International Nurse Recruitment and the Use of Memoranda of Understanding: The Kenya and Nepal Pilots. London: NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce, The Policy Institute, King's College London. https://doi.org/10.18742/pub01-175

Other international work at the Unit

• International educational partnerships to develop the healthcare workforce

• Ethical international recruitment of healthcare workers – an evidence review

• Evaluation of the International Recruitment Fund for adult social care 2024-25

• Evaluation of the International Recruitment Fund for adult social care 2023-24

• The Visa Study

Acknowledgements and Disclaimer

This research is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)
Policy Research Programme, through the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce, PR-PRU-1217-21002. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. We are most grateful to all those who contributed and participated in the study.