Supporting information from employers (SIFE)

Everyone who applies to our register must show they have the necessary knowledge of English to practise safely and effectively in the UK. 

Supporting information from employers (SIFE) is a form of employer reference, which can be used to support internationally educated professionals in providing evidence of their English language skills, for the purposes of registration. 

SIFE is additional evidence that we only accept alongside other forms of English language evidence.  

Who can use SIFE? 

Only applicants who meet specific requirements are eligible to use SIFE. You may be eligible to use SIFE if you have worked in a UK health or care setting for at least 12 months, and have: 

• Trained in English in a country where English is not the majority spoken language 

or  

• Exhausted the options for combining English language tests and narrowly missed achieving the required score in one domain only 

Employers should only provide a SIFE reference if they have seen clear evidence of the applicant’s English language skills in practice, over at least 12 months. The decision to provide SIFE is at the employer’s discretion and they have no obligation to provide SIFE, even if the employee meets the requirements for this evidence type. 

If you are interested in using SIFE to support your application, we recommend that you speak to your employer and check our requirements carefully before providing this evidence type. 

Read the stories of professionals who used SIFE to join the register