“A crushing blow” for social care as government ends overseas recruitment

International recruitment for care workers will end under plans announced by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper. 

The Government’s Immigration White Paper, published in Parliament today, includes the change as the Government takes action to bring down historically high levels of net migration.  

International workers who are already sponsored to work legally in the sector will be able to continue to extend their stay, change sponsors and apply to settle, including those who need to switch employers following a sponsor licence revocation.

However, new measures will mean skills thresholds for work visas will be returned to degree level – reversing a system that saw the proportion of lower-skilled visas issued increase between 2021 and 2024.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said that, in order to create a fair system, migration “must be properly controlled and managed”.

“Overseas recruitment soared at the same time as big increases in the number of people not working or in education here in the UK,” Cooper said.

“The last government lost control of the immigration system and there was no proper plan to tackle skills shortages here at home. 

“This has undermined public confidence, distorted our labour market, and been really damaging for both our immigration system and our economy.”

The Government also says it will end the “chronic underinvestment” in domestic skills. It says it will support businesses to take on British workers through new industry workforce strategies, while introducing much tighter restrictions on recruitment for shortage occupations.

However, representatives for social care providers say the announcement constitutes a “crushing blow to an already fragile sector”.

Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care England which represents care homes, small local groups, national providers and not-for-profit voluntary organisations, says “the Government is kicking us while we’re already down.”

“For years, the sector has been propping itself up with dwindling resources, rising costs, and mounting vacancies. International recruitment wasn’t a silver bullet, but it was a lifeline. Taking it away now, with no warning, no funding, and no alternative, is not just short-sighted – it’s cruel.

“We’re told to wait for the Employment Rights Bill and a Fair Pay Agreement, but those reforms are years away and come with no significant funding attached. In the meantime, we’ve lost 70,000 domestic workers over the last two years, vacancies still remain sky-high, and many providers are on the brink of collapse. Who do Ministers think is going to care for people tomorrow, next week, or next month?

Professor Green added that social care is being sacrificed to score political points.

“There’s a dangerous pattern emerging; action is too slow where it’s needed, and too fast when it’s harmful. The sector cannot take any more. We need proper funding, a real workforce plan, and immediate recognition that without care, the NHS, our communities, and countless families will fall apart.”

The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) say that cutting off this source of recruitment without a plan about how to replace them domestically will worry many people who draw on services as well as employers.

“A shortage of care workers leads to a triple whammy of more reliance on agency staff who the person drawing on care won’t know and who the provider will need to pay much more for, more people – especially women – giving up paid work to care for their loved ones, and many people potentially missing out on care altogether,” ADASS President Jess McGregor, said.

“Recruitment and retention of care workers is one of the longstanding major challenges in social care, and we need to dramatically increase the numbers of people starting a career in care to meet the needs of our growing population requiring more complex care than ever before.

“To attract people with the right values and skills into this rewarding career, we are calling on the Government to a commit to a workforce strategy which provides proper pay, career progression and training, comparable with the NHS.  They must also outline how the fair pay agreement for care workers will be funded and timescales for implementation.”