Damira Dental Group: ‘One of the scariest things that has happened in my career’

Anushika Brogan was in Marbella when the call came through: Home Office officials had arrived at Damira Dental Group’s office.

By the end of the visit, the group’s human resources director had been interviewed for four hours, the business had been asked detailed questions about how it operated, and around 130 sponsored workers were facing uncertainty over their future in the UK.

Shortly afterwards, Damira Dental Group’s sponsor licence was suspended.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Dentistry, Brogan, head of Damira Dental Group, said the experience exposed how quickly sponsor licence compliance could become a serious risk for dental employers.

She recalled: ‘They pulled her in and did a four-hour interview with her because she was the authorising officer for the business on our sponsorship licence, and it was like a police interrogation.

‘They were asking her loads of questions about our whole business, how it runs, everything that happens, and then they said thank you very much, packed their bags up and walked away.’

Brogan said the group had 130 sponsored workers at the time, many of whom had been recruited from overseas as part of a long-term workforce plan.

‘We brought them over from abroad, and they set up their lives here, thinking that we’d put them on this pathway. Come as a dental nurse, and then you can train as a dentist. We’ll support you while you’re training, and then eventually you’ll become our dentist.

‘We were building a workforce, and they were all hanging in the balance, and we had no clue what was going on.’

Brogan’s comments come as new Home Office data shows dental nurse visa grants fell by 95% after skilled worker visa changes.

‘It’s just like CQC’

Under Home Office rules, employers usually need a sponsor licence to employ someone from outside the UK.

Licensed sponsors must have systems in place to monitor workers’ immigration status, keep copies of relevant documents, track and record attendance, maintain up-to-date contact details and report certain issues to UK Visas and Immigration.

The Home Office says a sponsor licence can be downgraded, suspended or revoked if an employer fails to meet its duties.

Dentistry HR has produced sponsor licence guidance for dental practices recruiting overseas workers, covering right to work checks, record keeping, reporting duties and ongoing reviews.

If a licence is suspended, the employer cannot assign new certificates of sponsorship while the suspension is in place. Existing sponsored workers with valid permission are not affected by suspension unless or until the licence is revoked, according to GOV.UK guidance.

Brogan said Damira Dental Group had to produce around 1,000 documents within seven days to respond to the suspension.

‘It was like doing a legal case really, getting evidence from finance, pulling rotas from operations and then pulling it all together.

‘Luckily we managed to do it and we showed that we had everything in place that they needed.’

Ensuring sponsor license compliance

However, she warned that other businesses had seen sponsor licences revoked because they had not understood the level of compliance expected by the Home Office.

‘Part of the reason they are revoking licences is because people are not following their guidance. It’s really important to know what the things are that you need to be doing if you’re sponsoring people.’

Brogan said reportable changes could include sickness absence, changes to working hours or changes to a sponsored worker’s location.

She said sponsor licence compliance should be treated in the same way as Care Quality Commission (CQC) compliance: not as a one-off task, but as a continuous management responsibility.

‘It’s serious. The fines are huge if you get it wrong,’ she said.

‘It’s more about making sure that you have processes in place to keep an eye on your compliance. It’s just like CQC. We always keep an eye on compliance all the time. It’s an ongoing thing.

‘Same with sponsor licences. You have to keep the compliance ongoing, so make sure that things are up to date and you have right to work up to date. Make sure all the documents are up to date. Make sure you’ve got a spreadsheet of everybody.’

‘We went into it blind’

Her advice to dental practices considering overseas recruitment was to seek immigration advice before problems arose.

‘I think it would be important to get an immigration solicitor on your side right from the beginning.

‘They’ll explain what your responsibilities are, and you can go away and make sure that you have everything in order.’

Brogan said dental groups were also facing delays in the sponsor licence system.

She said: ‘Our solicitor, who is an immigration solicitor, is saying that all the dental corporates are having the same problem.

‘We went into it blind. We didn’t know what was required of us, and we had to unpick it all after the event.’

The comments come after skilled worker visa changes introduced in July 2025 removed several dental care professional roles from new sponsorship eligibility. Read Dentistry’s full explainer on the skilled worker visa changes and UK dentistry.

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