Do you agree with the government's move to end international recruitment of care workers?
- No, the policy risks severe staff shortages for the sector. (71%, 2,065 Votes)
- Yes, the focus should be on strengthening and investing in the domestic workforce. (29%, 835 Votes)
Total Voters: 2,900
Loading ...The government’s decision to stop adult social care providers from recruiting staff from overseas – at some point later this year – has sent shockwaves through the sector.
According to provider bodies, it risks creating “extreme workforce shortages” and consequent harm to older and disabled people (the Homecare Association), and was a “short-sighted” decision (National Care Forum), dealing a “crushing blow to an already fragile sector” (Care England).
On behalf of council leaders, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) warned that the policy risked a “triple whammy” of greater reliance on more costly agency staff, greater levels of unmet need for care and more people giving up work to look after loved-ones.
From a staff perspective, UNISON said that it was only through the recruitment of staff from overseas over the past few years that the system has been prevented from “falling over”.
Why government is ending overseas recruitment
The government’s argument is that adult social care’s reliance on overseas staff was the result of poor pay and conditions that deterred UK workers from joining the sector.
Furthermore, it says that the sector fair pay agreement, which it is legislating for through its Employment Rights Bill, will attract UK staff into the sector and move the country away from a dependence on overseas workers to meet its care needs.
Few would argue with the pressing need to raise pay and improve conditions in adult social care, where the median pay of independent sector care workers in England as of March 2024 was £11 an hour, 58p above the then national living wage (source: Skills for Care).
Building domestic workforce ‘will not happen overnight’
However, though the fair pay agreement – under which an Adult Social Care Negotiating Body will set pay for sector workers, with ministerial sign-off – is designed to improve terms and conditions, its implementation is years away.
What, sector bodies ask, should they do in the meantime?
“Building a skilled, better-paid domestic workforce in social care is vital, as is a proper career structure,” said UNISON’s head of social care, Gavin Edwards. “But none of this will happen overnight. Until it does, the sector will be stuck in a doom-loop of staffing shortages.”
But what difference will the removal of providers’ ability to recruit staff from abroad via the health and care worker visa really make?
Vacancies at all-time high
It is not hard to find evidence of the vital role overseas staff have played in shoring up the sector over recent years.
Rewind to April 2022 and, as the wider economy recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic, adult social care vacancies in England hit a record high of 164,000, up 52% (56,000) on the year before and equivalent to just over one in ten of all posts.
The figures came after the then government had relaxed its post-Brexit immigration arrangements to allow providers to recruit care workers and senior care workers from abroad through the health and care visa.
Ministers decided that overseas staff were key to addressing the sector’s workforce crisis, setting up a taskforce on boosting the number of international recruits in summer 2022, to help social care make it through a “challenging winter”. Then, in 2023-24, they provided councils with £15m to resource the recruitment of care staff from abroad.
Huge impact of overseas recruitment
The results were dramatic. The number of international staff recruited into direct roles in England’s independent care sector quadrupled from 20,000 in 2021-22 to 80,000 in 2022-23, rising further to 105,000 in 2023-24 (source: Skills for Care).
Over that time, the number of staff from outside the EU working in the sector almost doubled, from 140,000 to 300,000, while the number of British staff fell by 70,000, from 1.26 million to 1.19 million. As such, overseas recruits almost single-handedly drove a reduction in vacancy numbers, from 164,000 to 131,000, and an increase in the number of filled posts, from 1.615 million to 1.705 million, from 2022-24.
And international workers did far more than make up the numbers. According to Skills for Care data, while international recruits took an average of 2.5 days’ sickness absence during 2023-24 domestic recruits took nine days. And though 55% of international recruits had completed the care certificate standards, which set basic expectations of care workers, by March 2024, this was true of 37% of British recruits.
Exploitation of international staff
However, there was also a much darker side to the international recruitment of care workers.
In 2023, Brian Bell, chair of the Migration Advisory Committee, which advises the government on immigration, warned that some workers were being charged fees of up to £10,000 by “middlemen” in their home countries to come to the UK. Then, on arrival, some staff faced exploitation by “a tail of very bad employers”.
Many workers reported being forced to work excessive hours with the threat that their sponsorship would be cancelled, according to watchdog the Gangmasters & Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA).
Others were forced to pay off debts resulting from excessive fees charged to secure work, or reported not being properly paid, living in unsuitable conditions while being charged high accommodation fees and, in some cases, being offered no work at all, said the GLAA.
Support to help displaced workers
Between July 2022 and December 2024, the government revoked more than 470 sponsor licences from care sector employers, as a result of such abuses and other breaches of the visa system.
To tackle the issue, the then Conservative government announced plans, in 2023, to restrict visa sponsorship licences to Care Quality Commission-regulated providers.
Then, in 2024, it provided £16m for regional partnerships of councils to help find work for overseas staff displaced from their jobs by employer immigration abuses.
However, in the face of a sharp rise in immigration generally, it also barred overseas social care staff from bringing dependants with them to the UK, from March 2024 onwards, triggering a sharp fall in international recruitment.
Sharp fall in overseas recruitment
According to Home Office figures, there were 23,200 applications from main applicants for health and care worker visas from April 2024 to January 2025, an 81% fall on the number made in the same 10-month period from 2023-24. These figures include staff coming to the UK to work in the NHS, as well as social care.
In relation to social care alone, about 11,000 people from overseas took up posts in English independent care providers in each quarter of 2024-25, down from 26,000 per quarter the previous year, according to provisional Skills for Care data. This includes staff on health and care worker visas and those who have come through other immigration routes.
Official figures for sector vacancies for 2025 are not yet available. However, further provisional data from Skills for Care, provided by some independent sector providers, shows vacancy rates have actually declined during 2024-25, from 7.6% in April 2024 to 6.8% in March 2025. The March 2024 figure for all independent providers was 8.1%.
This suggests that the sector – while still struggling with significant workforce shortages – has survived the turning off of much of the supply of international recruits it had previously relied upon.
Tougher restrictions
Since April 2025, providers in England have faced even tougher restrictions, with the government barring them from recruiting from abroad without first trying to hire staff from the pool of overseas staff displaced from the roles they had come to the UK to fill.
To support this, the Labour government has renewed its predecessor’s fund to help regional council partnerships find work for these staff, who ministers claim number over 10,000.
As a result of this measure, plus the already reduced level of overseas recruitment into adult social care, the impact of banning providers from recruiting from abroad outright may not be substantial. The Home Office estimates it will reduce migration by about 7,000 a year.
The government will also allow providers to extend the visas of staff already in post and to hire people who have come to the UK through other immigration routes by helping them switch to health and care worker visas. They will also still be encouraged to recruit from the pool of displaced staff.
However, that will not prevent many providers from finding it significantly more difficult to fill jobs when the ban comes into force, at a time when the whole sector is under substantially increased pressure from the rise in employer national insurance contributions.
An uncertain future
And the permission to recruit from migrants already in the country and extend visas is due to end in 2028. So what then?
The answer appears to be the fair pay agreement for adult social care, assuming it is in force by then.
But there are severe doubts across the sector that the agreement will deliver real change.
While eight out of ten adult social care staff in England work in the independent sector, 71% of the care that sector provides is funded by councils.
So any package of improvements to pay and conditions proposed by the Adult Social Care Negotiating Body, which will comprise council, provider and union representatives, will need to be backed by significant public money.
Tight spending settlement expected
Next month, ministers will announce the results of its spending review, setting public expenditure levels from 2026-29.
According to the independent Office for Budget Responsibility, this settlement is likely to be exceptionally tight for services other than the NHS and defence, including local government; these services are likely to, collectively, face real-terms cuts in resource, though there will be winners or losers among them.
As a result, ministers may not sign off on any significant increases in adult social care pay and conditions put forward by the negotiating body.
Or they might agree a deal, but not sufficiently resource councils – and therefore providers – to implement it, a scenario that risks driving more services out of the sector and increasing unmet need.
Impact of Casey Commission
A possible saviour for the sector is the Independent Commission into Adult Social Care, led by Baroness (Louise) Casey, which is due to produce a 10-year plan for developing a ‘national care service’ – Labour’s as yet undefined ambition for the sector – in 2026 and an even longer-term reform strategy by 2028.
The most optimistic social care watchers will hope that the commission delivers a compelling argument that results in a generous funding settlement for local government and adult social care for 2029 onwards, laying the ground for a significant boost in pay and conditions.
However, this government’s record on adult social care so far – cancelling the planned cap on care costs, significantly cutting planned investment in training, not compensating providers for the national insurance rise and now cutting off overseas recruitment – does not provide much cause for such hope.
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If this isn’t to cause utter chaos in the care system it has to be managed properly with a transition period. One aspect of recruitment must be honoured – that of an absolute ability to communicate, written and verbally, with service users and employers, IMHO. I am so disappointed with the current government, skating perilously close to ageism, disablism and anti migration, and failing to heed public opinion
Surely it will badly affect the sector.
Perhaps the cart has been put before the horse here. The pay review for social care workers should have been implemented ahead of any restriction to overseas recruitment. However the exploitation of workers from abroad under the Tory visa scheme was also apalling.
When the review for pay is finalised, where is the funding coming from for better wages? Council taxes?
There is a yawning gap in labour plan here with no social care strategy, this issue has just turned over the stone of a problem that’s been neglected for decades.
I am dumpfounded and flabbergusted by these unfortunate decisions by politicians who behave as if they own the country and everybody without consulting society about the ills of their bad decisions which are likely to boomerang with devastating effects.
Surely it will badly affect the sector
It will terribly affect the sector and before you take that drastic steps. Look at the bigger picture and consider the patient well-being, and what about the nurses Doctors, Care assistants Mental health, the burn out the stress, on my opinion I don’t think is a good idea to. The current Government, and recruitment should have transparency. You just sit in office making a decisions not doing really work that it is intensely
It is common knowledge that will negatively affect the sector
Why don’t they do a survey among overseas care workers now in UK. They are making decisions, but they should check with all stakeholders. It is expected in a country like UK.
I am a care worker. If you ask me, there is no clarity after 2028. We are working days and nights and overtime agency shifts to save up money for our visa and ilr expenses. Going home for a week or two itself for leave to see loved ones itself will cause a major dent to the money we save up.
Then this uncertainty is too much. An average person will be under too much pressure with this uncertainty.
Then politicians are making toxic comments about immigrants and then to seemingly neutralise it they say ‘migrants are important’.
About ILR
Now, the uncertainty after we leaving everything back in the country, some of us selling everything we have back there, so that there is a certainty of work, and eligibility to apply for the privilege of ILR after 5 years. We left our careers, lifes, families, familiarity etc..and have faced serious challenges, major restrictions about how we live and work here, all based on an understanding that the privilege of applying for ILR was 5 years away.
When we got into that flight a few years ago , fully legit paying every penny, providing every document, following every rule to the dot, if we knew that ILR is going to be 10 years only, many would have had a rethinking. This is treason.
Solution for ILR 10 years
If we are asked, my gut feeling (have to be confirmed with a survey) is that we are not bothered about taking advantage of the system and exploiting all the benefits – pip, disability or universal credit. We are more bothered about being free to live..which basically means, at the moment we are tied to an employer and compared to a local worker, the employer can decide any moment (can find 10 reasons) to revoke our visa sponsorship and then we will be pushed into the torture of finding a new sponsor and paying all the 1000s of pounds or choosing to live the country. This uncertainty, I don’t mean to offend anyone, but an average British worker will consider saying it as causing mental pressure or issues and may take medical help.
Atleast give us the certainty to give PR after 5 years, maybe govt.can delay our access to benefits after citizenship and citizenship could be another 3 years away, we don’t mind.
We just need to be free to work with any employer after 5 years and don’t want the pain and stress of finding money to renew the visa or the uncertainty of should we invest our young lives in UK to be thrown out by the politicians who just want to appease the vote bank.
Many of us are well educated and holds RQF 6 or above and the sheer expenses of visa is making us not to choose better jobs. Employers also find it expensive.
Best comment.
Thank you for speaking up
Pure racism at work. Crying for a just, inclusive UK society
I’m very disappointed to hear this. I was looking forward to working as a caregiver for the NHS. I’m a American citizen married to a British citizen and we’re living in the United States but we are being persecuted because of his nationality. I guess I will have to seek employment and we will have to move to another country because it seems like the UK doesn’t want to take any more caregivers there. I work as a caregiver here. I didn’t want the current administration to get in and we are trying to move out of the country but now it’s become even more difficult.
Maybe every person able to work on benefits should be a carer for the pay. If they are bad at it, they get their benefits stopped.
How can we have staff shortages while using tax payer money to fund unemployment. Make it make sense.
ridiculous to imply all on benefits can work as a carer, being a carer is extremely demanding on the body both physically and mentally and I encourage any professional to try it for a full day before deciding to reply to this post, I know full well I could only do this for 4 hours, and therefore I take my hat off (if I had one) to respect all carers. Furthermore to alienate an entire workforce all because they come from overseas is a genuine disregard and disrespect for what they do for the community, and nothing more than another racist government tactic of leaving people without support that they need. Not everyone is made to care, change incontinence pads, including diarrhea it is easy to say you can, especially when comparing a baby or a young child try to think about adults instead, now try to pick up someone else’s vomit, then give them people something to eat, give them their medication, do their cleaning and go with them to do their shopping and that is in 30 minutes because you don’t get paid to commute to your next home- how about the government pays an annual wage to carers instead of hourly rates as previously promised. So before jumping on the non-sensical, money grabbing, government, nothing other than racist initiatives, which cause further employment issues in the care sector … Please try to think about who is really going to be profiteering from this initiative for a short while and who is paying for the consequence, who really wants to and be willing to give up their time to work for minimum wages of just over £12 per hour to help and support your loved ones in their time of need because no they do not get the agency amount of £25 that goes to overheads HR costs and admin etc by the recruiting agency most people are better of not working. Additionally they were working throughout COVID carers never got the appreciation they deserved, didn’t get a mention nor an applause by the government
Not saying this only because I’m a carer myself. I’m working as a carer from few years and it takes a lot of physical,mental,emotional sacrifice having to do this job. Forget about the pay and respect part, atleast if we get appreciated for what is done is a huge relief. Leaving everything behind, working with a hope having a future planned ahead and then this sudden disappointment is adding on to all the stress. I have seen so many people join as a carer and leave not being able to have life work balance, not being able to handle the stress. If only the government had made this clear 10 year ILR rule clear earlier, most of would have considered looking for an alternative option. With majority of carer and healthcare staffs being immigrants, this rule is only going to make things worse, a big beating on healthcare sector. Imagine having to extend the overseas recruitment and changing ILR policy, the number of residents in UK aging in few years, the shortage this sector is going to face ? Then there is no point in regretting. It’s going to be too late with employers having to struggle to find staffs and the staffs having to work with shortage. And obviously the fear of living if we will be continued to sponsor by our employer or if we will have to shed all the savings to find another employer ? I think the government truly needs to reconsider.
I have been working in care Secter for many years
and the care secter help me change the way that I views life and so for we have many youngs people and adults in Prison who long to change thier life and still live a life of regretting thier past, our people can be send in care home and hospital as work training and work experiences and Im sure this will help them to turn from a criminal life to a care life , please give them chances before depending on overseas workers. I hope this will help them enjoy and turn around.
What of the indo-pacific-economic-framework-prosperity-ipef?