Changes to visas for care workers are causing concern among industry bodies

“Rapidly improved” pay and conditions will be needed to boost recruitment of domestic social care workers, the government has warned, as a trade union assessed changes to UK migration rules as “representing a complete disaster” for the sector.

Immigration has been hailed as “saving the social care sector” in much the same way it helped the NHS after the Second World War, by an organization representing care providers across England.

Under new plans announced in Parliament on Monday by Home Secretary James Cleverly, overseas health and care workers will no longer be able to bring their dependents to the UK.

The changes are an attempt to “reduce abuse of health visas”, he told the House of Commons.

While he also announced that the skilled worker earnings threshold would be raised by a third to £38,700 from next spring, Cleverly said people coming on health and social welfare visa routes “will be visa exempt so that we can continue to employ the healthcare workers our care sector and the NHS rely on.”

Cleverly said care companies in England would need to be regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in order to sponsor visas.

On changes to dependents, the Home Office said no exact timetable had been confirmed but further details would be provided “in due course”.

Cleverly told the House of Commons: “In the year ending September 2023, around 120,000 dependents were accompanied by 100,000 care and aged care workers.

“Only 25% of dependents are estimated to be in work, which means a significant number rely on public services rather than helping to grow the economy.

“We know that overseas workers do great work in our NHS and health sector, but it is also important that migrants make a sufficient financial contribution.”

Home Office figures published last month showed that 143,990 visas were granted to health and care workers in the year ending September 2023, more than double the 61,274 visas in the year ending September 2022.

The Home Office said the three nationalities with the highest number of these visas were Indians, Nigerians and Zimbabweans.

The figure of 143,990 was for primary visa applicants only and did not include their dependents.

Meanwhile, in its latest migration update, also published last month, the Office for National Statistics said that health and care work visas are the most common type of work visa on which dependents come to the UK, adding that it is this is the reason for the increase in immigration of these people. on work-based visas.

Under current rules, visas are issued for up to five years with the possibility of extension, with partners and children also able to apply to join as “dependents of the main applicant”.

NHS Providers, which represents trusts, said it recognized overseas workers alone could not be relied upon to fill staffing gaps, but added it felt changes that could discourage people from taking up jobs in the NHS and social care are ‘deeply concerning’.

Miriam Deakin, director of policy and strategy at NHS Providers, said: “It is vital that overseas health and care workers continue to see the UK as a viable place to work and live.

“With over 120,000 staff shortages in the NHS and over 150,000 social care workers, measures discouraging people from entering these professions are deeply concerning.”

She said the health and care sectors should be attractive not only to domestic workers but also to those educated overseas, describing the contribution of overseas staff as “vital”.

Care England said immigration was “saving the social care sector” and said changes to dependents would make it harder for care providers to “recruit workers from overseas”.

Professor Martin Green, its chief executive, said: “If the Government now wants to move away from international recruitment as a solution to the social care staffing crisis, it must act quickly and invest in improving pay and conditions to boost domestic recruitment. “

Unison, which counts health workers among its members, said the changes “would spell a complete disaster for the NHS and social care”, while general secretary Christina McAnea added that hospitals and care homes “simply couldn’t function without” workers from abroad.

She suggested that instead of being forced to live without their families in the UK, they could now go to “friendlier countries”.

She added: “If ministers stopped sidestepping difficult issues and reformed social care, as they have long promised, there would not be such a staff shortage.”

Caroline Abrahams, director of the charity Age UK and co-chair of the Care Support Alliance, said: “We fear that older and disabled people in need of care, and their families, will pay a high price for the Government’s changes to migration rules from next spring.”

She said social care “urgently needs investment and reform and until the government is prepared to tackle this, we will continue to be heavily reliant on internal migration, and that is not what we should be aiming for.”