From the Editor: Misjudged government plan to limit overseas care workers
The Care Home Environment Magazine
The Care Home Environment is the leading business information resource focusing on the build and equipping of care homes
Given that the social care sector currently has over 150,000 vacancies, new government plans to discourage overseas care workers from coming to the UK seem deeply misjudged.
As the Tory government continues its tailspin towards inevitable doom, this latest headline-baiting policy – yet another pledge to limit legal migration into the country – ?is surely the last thing social care needs. Given our dependency on foreign workers, particularly in health and social care, the Home Secretary’s decision to “stop overseas care workers from bringing family dependants” to the UK could not have come at a worse time for the sector.
National Care Forum CEO Professor Vic Rayner OBE said: “Adult social care faces systemic shortages in frontline workforce, and even with the 70,000 or more international workers joining last year, Skills for Care reported 152,000 vacancies in the sector in October. This is unsustainable for any sector, never mind one upon which millions of people rely for care, each and every day. Last summer the government heralded the arrival of international workers, and indeed funded a programme to support local authorities to encourage the recruitment of staff through this mechanism. However, today, it would appear that it wants to restrict the essential arrival of care workers who have been, and remain, fundamental to care.”
Professor Martin Green OBE, chief executive of Care England, commented: "The government recognised the important role international recruitment plays in the adult social care sector. Immigration is something which has been shown to save sectors in the past; immigration saved the NHS post World War 2. In a similar way now, immigration is saving the social care sector.?
“Over the last year, we have seen a reduction of 53,000 domestic workers working in the care sector, but we have also seen an increase of 70,000 people from overseas starting in care-providing roles in the adult social care sector.
“With dependents being limited by the new changes, the government is making it harder for care providers to recruit foreign workers. If the government now wants to move away from international recruitment as the solution to fixing the social care workforce crisis, it must act swiftly and invest in improving the pay and conditions to drive domestic recruitment."
As always, we look forward to the serious conversation that needs to be had – and soon – about exactly where the UK is going to find the hundreds of thousands of workers that are – and will be –required to work for low pay to support a sector already unable to cope with ever-rising demand.
Of course, this government knows only too well that, in a matter of months, this will all be somebody else’s problem.
Matt Seex, Editor, The Care Home Environment
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1 年Perhaps the wellbeing of care home managers and NHS leaders should be included in the regulations. That way they won't burn out and leave but will actually feel valued and this will cascade through their teams. Come on government care for those who care for others.