Care providers sometimes sponsor a worker for a role and then find the worker will not do part of it: refusing live-in assignments, declining Sunday shifts, or turning down the shift patterns the role was built around. This sets out where you stand.
The sponsorship position
There is no immigration rule that stops you ending someone's sponsorship because they are unable or unwilling to carry out the duties of the role they are contracted and sponsored for. If live-in care, or weekend working, is a genuine part of the job the CoS was assigned for, a refusal to do it is a performance and contractual issue rather than an immigration one. Immigration status does not shield a worker from being managed or dismissed for failing to fulfil their role.
The reverse also holds. You must keep paying the salary and hours recorded on the CoS for as long as the worker remains sponsored, whatever the dispute. You cannot reduce pay or hours in response to a refusal without going through a change of circumstance.
It is an employment matter first
The dismissal itself has to be handled as a proper employment matter: a fair process, documented reasons, and a real opportunity for the worker to respond. Treating it as an immigration decision is where sponsors get into difficulty. Take separate HR or employment law advice on the process before you act, particularly where the refusal touches a protected characteristic such as religious observance, since that raises discrimination questions that sit outside immigration law entirely.
Before you act
Check what the CoS and the employment contract actually say the role involves.
Keep a written record of what was asked, what was refused, and when.
Consider whether a change to duties or hours would resolve it, and whether that change would need to be reported or need a new CoS.
Get HR or employment law input on the dismissal process itself.
If employment ends
Once employment ends you must report the cessation on the Sponsor Management System within 10 working days, recording the reason sponsorship has ended. Use the worker's actual last day of paid employment. Keep a clear record of how the situation arose, including anything at the recruitment or offer stage that set expectations about the role, in case the Home Office asks later.
Reporting cessation starts the worker's 60 day cure period. See Ending Sponsorship - Cessation, Non-Renewal and the 60-Day Cure Period.
Where Borderless can help
We can advise on the sponsorship and reporting side, and on whether a change to the role needs a new CoS. We are not employment lawyers and cannot advise on the fairness of a dismissal or on discrimination risk.
Government guidance: Sponsor guidance Part 3: sponsor duties and compliance