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Social care leaders have warned of the “catastrophic” impact that visa-tightening policies have had on the sector, as new figures lay bare the extent health and care visa applications have plummeted in the last year.
New figures from the Home Office, published this week, have revealed an 83% decline in the number of monthly applications for skilled worker health and care visas.
“The situation is now likely to become even more dire for a sector wholly reliant on its overseas workforce to fill the vacancy chasm”
Gavin Edwards
It comes as, since 11 March 2024, overseas care workers and senior care workers have been banned from bringing dependents, including partners and children, with them on their visa.
The controversial policy, first announced in December 2023, came as part of a host of measures by the home secretary, James Cleverly, to try and curb the number of immigrant workers in the UK.
Latest Home Office figures have now shown that just 2,400 people applied for a skilled worker health and care visa in March 2024, compared to 14,300 in March 2023 – an 83% drop.
Meanwhile, some 13,200 people applied to be a dependant on the visas in March 2024, compared to 16,700 in the same month the previous year – a 20% decline.
The data also revealed that in the six months leading up to the policy coming into force, applications halved compared to the previous six months.
Between April and September 2023, the number of people applying for a health and care visa was 88,800.
However, between October 2023 and March 2024, this number dropped by 54% to 40,800.
The drop comes despite the fact care services in England continue to rely on overseas recruitment to plug workforce gaps in a sector that has more than 152,000 vacancies.
During 2023, the independent social care sector recruited 70,000 internationally educated workers into direct care-providing roles – up 50,000 from the year before.
When the policy was first announced by Mr Cleverly, social care leaders sounded the alarm that tightening visa rules risked losing thousands of overseas applicants, who are essential to plugging workforce gaps in the sector.
Speaking this week, the chief executive of Care England, Martin Green, said the latest Home Office figures had contradicted the government’s own estimation of the impact of the policy.
“With the policy now in place, the sector has been left to pick up the pieces,” he explained.
“While we all want to see a sector that can be sustained by domestic labour, there is nothing to suggest the government’s workforce reforms have made the sector a sufficiently attractive destination for work such that it can cope with this drop in international applicants.
“These figures only serve to renew the need for meaningful workforce reforms that make the sector an attractive destination for domestic staff if we are going to shut off the route for overseas recruitment.”
Meanwhile, Unison head of care, Gavin Edwards, said ministers had made it clear that migrant care workers “aren’t welcome” and that the figures were “the stark result”.
He added: “The figures were plummeting even before new rules kicked in to make it tougher to get a visa.
“The situation is now likely to become even more dire for a sector wholly reliant on its overseas workforce to fill the vacancy chasm.
“Unless the government gets a grip soon, reforms care and boosts wages for its highly skilled workforce, the situation will soon become catastrophic.”
However, the Home Office has defended its decision to implement policies that aim to cut migration to the UK.
Commenting on figures, Mr Cleverly said: “This data shows a significant fall in numbers on the first of our measures to take effect whilst underlining why necessary action was taken to cut unsustainable numbers of care worker dependants.
“This does not mark the end of the road in our plan to cut migration, there is more still to come.
“Over the coming months, we will continue to show the pace of our progress as we deliver the control the public rightly expect.”
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