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The UK has long experienced a shortage of social workers and has recruited internationally to meet demand. There have been few specific data quantifying the scale of social work mobility to the UK through which such experiences can be set in context. The analysis reported in this article uses data from October 2008, relating to registered social workers working in England. As part of a wider study of migrant social care workers in England, the article reports analysis of data records of over 7,000 non-UK social workers registered to work in England and compares their characteristics to UK-qualified social workers. These analyses are supplemented by analysis of more recent application and registration data from the General Social Care Council pertaining to social workers qualified within and outside the European Union during 2008 and 2009. The findings highlight several important observations in terms of non-UK-qualified social workers' profile as well as some possible trends in migration and variations in rates of qualification verification. Over half of all international social workers in England were trained in four countries: Australia, South Africa, India and the USA. Findings are contextualised with qualitative data obtained from the wider study and policy debates. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background The UK is embarking on a national cardiovascular risk assessment programme called NHS Health Checks; in order to be effective, high and equitable uptake is paramount. Methods A cross-sectional study, using data extracted from electronic medical records of persons aged 35–74 years estimated to be at a high risk of developing cardiovascular disease, to examine the uptake of the Health Checks using logistic regression and statin prescribing. Results A total of 44.8% of high risk patients invited for a Health Check attended. Uptake was lower among younger men but higher among patients from south Asian (AOR = 1.71 [1.29–2.27] compared with white) or mixed ethnic backgrounds (AOR = 2.42 [1.50–3.89]), and patients registered with smaller practices (AOR = 2.53 [1.09–5.84] <3000 patients compared with 3000–5999). The percentage of patients confirmed to be at high risk of CVD prescribed a statin increased from 24.7 to 44.8%. Conclusions Uptake of cardiovascular risk assessment and prescribing of statins in high risk patients was considerably lower than projected in the first year of NHS Health Checks programme. Targeting efforts to increase uptake and adherence to interventions in high risk populations and reinvesting resources into population wide strategies to reduce obesity, smoking and salt intake may prove more cost-effective in reducing the burden of cardiovascular disease in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]