Struggling care providers say overseas worker crackdown 'short-sighted'
Care providers already struggling to find staff are raising alarm about the government's new plan to end overseas care worker recruitment, part of sweeping reforms to the immigration system."A lifeline" is how many care companies supporting older and disabled people in their own homes and in care homes view the overseas staff who they have recruited in the last few years.Even with staff being brought in from other countries, official estimates showed there were 131,000 vacancies in social care in England last year. Care provider groups warn that some services will struggle to survive without international recruits and threaten their ability to support vulnerable clients."The sector has been propping itself up with dwindling resources, rising costs, and mounting vacancies," says Prof Martin Green of Care England, which describes itself as the largest representative body for independent care providers."Taking (international recruitment) away now with no warning, no funding, and no alternative, is not just short-sighted - it's cruel," he says.Keir Starmer, the prime minister, said on Monday that visa changes were part of a drive "to reduce immigration significantly" and that the government wants to create "a migration system that is controlled, selective and fair".The government has said care providers can extend visas for existing staff and recruit migrants who have arrived in the UK but have yet to find a job. It also promises a new fair pay agreement for care staff and wants companies to recruit and train more people from UK.But Dr Jane Townson of the Homecare Association says the government is introducing the changes "in a vacuum" as a fair pay agreement is a long way off and there is "no plan to deliver the care workers our country needs."So how did we get here?Social care has been in crisis for years, with council funding of services squeezed, significant staff-shortages and growing demand from an ageing population. Plans for reform have been delayed time and again.Whilst care workers were clapped along with health workers during the pandemic, that did not translate into an improvement in pay or status.About 1.7 million people work in social care in England, according to Skills for Care, the official body that monitors the workforce. It is often a minimum or just above minimum wage job, with little recognition of the increasing responsibility and complexity of the support staff provide to older and disabled people.
Putting it bluntly, if someone can earn more working, for instance, in a supermarket for fewer, less strenuous hours, then that is the option many will chose.Post-Covid, some staff left care work because they felt burnt out and others who still loved the job, felt they could not afford the increases in the cost of living.Between April 2021 and March 2022, social care vacancies reached a record high of 165,000, a massive 52% increase on the year before.By December 2021, the warnings of imminent collapse coming from care providers reached such a pitch, Boris Johnson's Conservative government made care work a shortage occupation so making it easier for companies to look overseas for staff. Those recruits had to earn a minimum of £20,480 a year to qualify for the visa, and they could bring family with them.There was a rapid rise in overseas recruitment – in 2022/23 80,000 people arrived in the UK to work in care and in 23/24, there were another 105,000 visas.Many care companies said bringing in those staff was the difference between providing services or collapsing. However, there was also abuse of this new route into the UK. For instance, some people were exploited, ending up paying middlemen thousands of pounds for travel and sponsorship certificates.The Home Office says 470 care companies have had their licence to recruit international staff revoked since 2022. It estimates that has led to about 40,000 staff being displaced. Companies say many will have already found alternative care work.
In March 2024, Rishi Sunak's Conservative government tightened the visa requirements. This included saying recruits could no longer bring family with them. It has led to a significant fall in the number of people arriving to work in care from abroad.In the year, up to December 2024, 9,500 visas were granted to people entering the UK to provide "caring personal services", according to the government.However, in the four years since staff shortages were most acute relatively little has changed to encourage more UK people to work in care. There has been an ongoing government funded recruitment campaign and plenty of talk about the need to improve the pay and status of staff, but many who work in care fear solutions remain a long way off.The independent Casey Commission started work last month to draw up plans for adult social care. It has been described by ministers as a "once in a generation opportunity to transcend party politics and build consensus on the future of the sector". Its first update is due next year and its final report by 2028.At a time when the NHS is struggling, social care is more important than ever as it can keep vulnerable people out of hospital and support patients when they return home.Many care workers will say it is an incredibly rewarding job and with overseas recruitment being closed, the question is what needs to change to encourage more UK people to take on the role?
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Mosquito colony feeds on blood from scientist's arm
Dr Véronique Paris has a hands-on approach to her research — she lets hundreds of mosquitoes bite her arm in order to feed and maintain her mosquito lab. Paris helps research mosquito-borne diseases. 'We have people working on mosquitoes here that don't feed their own colonies, there will always be volunteers around that can do that, so no one has to feed mosquitos if they don't want to and that's totally fine," Paris says
Times
an hour ago
- Times
My child with cancer goes to private school … so he can't learn in hospital
Councillors have been accused of 'bashing' private schools that refuse to provide lessons for their pupils when they are ill in hospital for months with cancer. Parents who pay for education have described how their children are prevented from joining state-school patients in the ward classroom at the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People in Edinburgh. Privately educated children with cancer, and other serious conditions, are excluded from the hospital teaching service unless a fee of £115 per hour — more than double the typical cost of cover teachers or home tuition — is paid by the families or their schools. In an escalating row Edinburgh city council has written to all private schools in the capital to remind them of this situation. The council is also writing to the Scottish government, asking if it plans to review its guidance on the matter, which the city claims to be following.
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
The simple blood test that can predict Alzheimer's decline
Alzheimer 's decline could be predicted with a simple blood test already offered to those at risk of type 2 diabetes. The disease is the most common type of dementia, with symptoms including confusion, speech and language issues, problems with moving around and behaviour changes. Around a million people in the UK are living with dementia, but that figure is projected to rise to 1.4 million by 2040, Alzheimer's UK warns. There is currently no cure for the disease nor any definitive way to predict how quickly it will progress, only medicines to help relieve some of the symptoms. However, research presented at the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) Congress 2025 suggests a blood test used to detect insulin resistance could also identify patients at a high risk of cognitive decline. Neurologists at the University of Brescia, in Italy, analysed data from 315 non-diabetic patients with cognitive deficits – that included 200 people with Alzheimer's disease. All participants were tested for insulin resistance using the triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index – a low-cost, widely available marker calculated from standard blood test. They were then followed up three years later. Participants were divided into groups of varying cognitive impairment and also separated according to their insulin resistance score. Among those with mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's, individuals with the highest TyG scores declined four times faster than those with lower TyG levels – but this link was not seen in the group with cognitive impairment not caused by Alzheimer's. 'Once mild cognitive impairment is diagnosed, families always ask how fast it will progress,' said lead investigator Dr Bianca Gumina. 'Our data show that a simple metabolic marker available in every hospital laboratory can help identify more vulnerable subjects who may be suitable candidates for targeted therapy or specific intervention strategies.' It's believed insulin resistance impairs glucose uptake in the brain, which means it is less active. This can lead to increased inflammation in the brain disrupting the blood-brain barrier and contributing to amyloid build-up – a protein that can form toxic plaques in the brain - all of which are linked with the progression of Alzheimer's disease. While inflammation is the body's defence mechanism which responds to damage and infection to keep us healthy, too much of a good thing can have consequences, Alzheimer's Research explains. When these toxic proteins build up in people with Alzheimer's, the brain fights back with an inflammatory response to keep the damage at bay. But this is thought to cause more damage. 'We were surprised to see the effect only in the Alzheimer's spectrum and not in other neurodegenerative diseases', Dr Gumina noted. She suggested it highlights that there is a 'disease-specific vulnerability' to insulin resistance and interventions could change the trajectory of the disease. Researchers also found high insulin resistance was associated with blood–brain barrier disruption and cardiovascular risk factors, but these were not associated with increased risk of Alzheimer's progression. It's hoped these findings could help detect Alzheimer's patients who are at a high-risk of cognitive decline early and enrol them in more targeted clinical trials – such as anti-amyloid trials. This blood test could also be used to make timely interventions to improve their insulin sensitivity. 'If targeting metabolism can delay progression, we will have a readily modifiable target that works alongside emerging disease-modifying drugs', concluded Dr Gumina. The researchers are currently investigating whether levels of insulin resistance also track with neuroimaging biomarkers- brain scans which indicate the structure, function and chemistry of the organ as well as diagnosing neurological conditions.
