Stopping social care visas - helpful or a hinderance to an already struggling sector?
Recruitment and retention of staff within the social care sector has always been a challenge, for various reasons, including issues with pay and terms and also misconceptions about what such a role entails. The sector relies to some degree on international staff in order to maintain the services and understandably therefore, the government’s plans to end overseas recruitment in the social care sector via the adult social care worker visa route and also make changes to the Skilled Worker visa route has caused alarm. Professor Martin Green, the chief executive of Care England, has commented that “international recruitment wasn’t a silver bullet, it was a lifeline”.
A Scottish survey 1 into immigration within the social care sector, which covered care homes, care at home and housing support, found that of the 225 social care organisations surveyed, international staff made up an average of 32% of the workforce, with nearly 7,000 individuals on a work visa. Of those organisations, 14% relied on international workers for over 75% of their workforce and 7% relied on international workers for over 90% of their workforce.
Although a recent survey 2 regarding children’s homes did find that retention and vacancy figures were slightly improved from 2023 figures, it is clear there is still some way to go for the sector to have stable consistent staffing. For example, 62% of surveyed managers reported difficulties in finding care staff, with around 60% struggling with recruiting managerial staff. The survey also covered international recruitment and found that over one fifth of children’s homes surveyed had recruited at least one member of staff from outside of the UK.
In the recent policy paper, “Restoring control over the immigration system”, the government set out the rationale and plans for restricting immigration, including more specifically in the adult social care sector and how it plans to drive domestic employment and investment in improvements in domestic skillsets. There has already been a restriction on overseas recruitment, whereby employers need to demonstrate they have first tried to recruit people from England. In addition, the previous government prevented international care staff from bringing dependants with them when they were recruited which did result in a decrease in visa applications. However, the government felt more needed to be done and is ending overseas recruitment for adult social care workers via the Health and Care Worker Visa. Instead, employers will need to recruit from the domestic labour force; staff who are already on Health and Care Worker visas which will be extendable; individuals who are in the UK via other immigration routes, such as student visas; or individuals who are without a job due to their employer’s sponsorship being cancelled. It should be noted that visa extensions, along with in-country switching for those already in the country with working rights will currently only be permitted until 2028. In addition, changes to the Skilled Worker visa means that individuals will need to meet higher qualification levels (equivalent to a degree) and the government plan to increase salary thresholds. According to the government, this approach would see the number of eligible occupations reduced by approximately 180 occupations.
The government have noted that labour shortages are not always due to a lack of skill and have highlighted how historic levels of poor pay and poor terms of employment have contributed to low domestic recruitment and retention rates within the adult social care sector. In order to tackle this issue, the government are establishing Fair Pay Agreements whereby minimum terms and pay are agreed between relevant stakeholders. The government consider these agreements will make the adult social care sector more appealing and enable the UK to move away from dependence on international recruitment in order to fill vacancies within the sector.
Social care is a specialised sector which is heavily regulated to safeguard the vulnerable service users and consequently employers need to ensure that the individuals they are recruiting are appropriately skilled and knowledgeable for the role being considered. The Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, when interviewed, commented that there were “more than 10,000 people who came on a care visa where the sponsorship visa was cancelled, effectively they came to jobs that weren’t effectively here or were not of the proper standard. They are here and care companies should be recruiting from that pool of people…”. However, it is not sufficient to have a wide pool of people to recruit from if they are not competent to work within the social care sector. Whilst there may be 10,000 people who were initially in the country on an adult social care visa, what is not clear is what jobs these individuals have been undertaking since the sponsorship visa was cancelled and whether their knowledge regarding social care has been kept up to date, or even how employers are meant to know how to identify these people as possible recruitment opportunities.
An end to social care visas is likely to cause staffing issues and further financial strain on adult social care providers, at the very least in the short-term. In addition, similar issues could be experienced within children’s social care due to the changes to the Skilled Worker visa. Where there are staffing issues, there is always a risk that the quality of the care is negatively impacted as staff are over-stretched and there can be an over-reliance on agency staff which can bring a level of instability to the care being provided. Providing social care across the UK is a vital service and ensuring such services are fully staffed, with the appropriately skilled individuals, is critical in order to protect the country’s most vulnerable individuals. The government’s investment in training and a commitment to ensuring fair pay and terms within the social care sector is clearly welcome, however what is not clear is the timeline for implementation of these commitments. An understandable concern is whether the government are making far-reaching changes before having a suitable strategy to ensure the stability of the social care sector is appropriately safeguarded. Therefore, it remains to be seen whether the immigration restrictions will drive domestic recruitment or hinder an already challenging sector.
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