The government’s top immigration adviser has attacked plans to stop foreign care workers bringing relatives to Britain, warning it could be “very dangerous” for the social care sector.
Professor Brian Bell, chair of the Migration Advisory Committee, said Immigration Secretary Robert Jenrick’s policy, which also includes a cap on the number of foreign healthcare providers, risks worsening chronic staff shortages. The end result, he warned, could be that “many people will not get care.”
“You can’t encourage enough Britons to do social care work because it is so poorly paid. Making it more difficult for migrants to enter through the route could reduce the number of incoming migrants. That will reduce net migration, and so the government could be happy with that,” he said.
“But I think you have to ask the question: if you do it from a migration perspective, and you achieve that policy goal, aren’t you massively damaging the social care sector?”
He said that before introducing policies that would lead to a decline in the number of people entering care, the government needed to address workforce issues, including increasing funding and improving wages to attract more British staff and to preserve.
“The fundamental way you solve this problem is to pay healthcare workers better. And the government has done absolutely nothing about it,” he said. He added that “until that missing piece” of solving workforce issues was addressed, it was “very dangerous to play with the social care figures”.
The comments come after new figures showed net migration to Britain hit a record high of 745,000 in 2022. In the year to September 2023, 143,990 people fell under the health and care worker visa route, 58% of whom were healthcare workers. They brought with them 173,896 dependents.
Jenrick is said to have drawn up a five-point plan to reduce numbers, including banning employees from bringing dependents or limiting them to one family member. It is not yet clear whether any restrictions on dependents, if introduced, would only apply to healthcare workers or also to other healthcare workers.
His other proposals include raising the minimum salary threshold for skilled workers and a cap on the total number of caregivers. The plans are being considered by Downing Street but have yet to be commented on.
Proposals to limit the number of dependents have been condemned by migrant rights groups, who said they were ‘cruel’ and would ‘tear families apart’, while care sector bosses warned Jenrick’s proposals could lead to unsustainable staffing levels and financial pressure on caregivers, which would force some to limit the number of dependents. close to. Mike Padgham, the boss of the St Cecilia care home chain, said raising minimum salary thresholds without significantly increasing funding would be a “double whammy” for the sector, which he warned is “already on its knees”.
Last week, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) highlighted the growing financial pressures facing local authorities responsible for social care delivery in its report accompanying Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s autumn statement.
It made clear that due to central government cuts, local government spending had fallen from 7.4% of GDP to 5% since 2011, and was expected to fall to 4.6% by 2028. The OBR suggested this would put additional pressure on councils responsible for managing adult and children’s social care in their area.
Hunt used the autumn statement to claim the economy had “turned the corner”. But economists pointed out that his tax cuts were only possible because he had put pressure on already tight departmental budgets in a way that would impact public services, especially in areas where demand is growing such as social care.
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While the government hoped its £20 billion in tax cuts would revive Tory fortunes, the latest Opinium poll for the Observer shows no recovery for the Conservatives. Labor has extended its lead by 3 points to 16 points since last weekend. Keir Starmer’s party is on 42% (up two percent on the week), while the Tories are 1 point lower on 26%.
Professor Bell, who was appointed chair of the MAC by former Home Secretary Priti Patel in 2020 and reappointed in July by another former Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, said his committee had not been asked for advice on the Jenrick’s proposals to reduce the number of health workers. But he told the Observer that the plans presented to the media indicated a lack of a “joint” approach within government.
While the changes could help the Tories reduce net migration, the knock-on effects could be serious without reforms to attract British workers into social care jobs. There are approximately 150,000 vacancies in the sector. ‘Are they going to force British workers to do this? It’s magical thinking,” Bell said. “Fundamentally, this means that many people do not receive care. That is the net result.”
Any changes affecting social care would also impact the NHS, which works closely with the sector. Sir Julian Hartley, of NHS Providers, said the wider healthcare system was too “reliant on highly valued staff from abroad to keep it going” and that this was not sustainable. But he said the government must also ensure that “international professionals see Britain as a viable place to work and live”, and that the number of domestically trained health and social care workers is “turbo-boosted” needs to be achieved, including increasing funding and improving wages.
Bell has also reported exploitation on the healthcare visa route, warning that the evidence he has seen indicates the problem is “very serious”. There are widespread reports of healthcare workers being charged thousands in recruitment fees, being underpaid, overworked, receiving unlawful deductions from their salaries and being tied to contracts for years. According to Unseen UK, cases of exploitation in the healthcare sector increased by 606% between 2021 and 2022.
“It goes too far for me to believe that we treat people who go into social care so badly that we don’t think we should regulate whether the companies that work there are good. It’s terrifying,” Bell said.