More than a dozen health organisations have criticised the government’s latest measures to curb net migration, branding it a ‘seismic step backwards’ for social care recruitment.
It comes as the new home secretary James Cleverly last week announced a new plan from the government to stem ‘abuse of the immigration system’.
But 13 health organisations have now written to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak urging the home secretary to reconsider the decision not to allow care workers and senior care workers to bring their dependants with them to the UK.
Signed by NHS Employers, the NHS Confederation the British Medical Association and Unison, the Cavendish Coalition’s letter reiterated that the health and social care workforce would not be able to function without its international colleagues.
It said: ‘There is increasing global competition for health and care workers and our country must do everything it can to be a more, not less, attractive destination. Therefore, we urge you to reconsider the government’s decision to not allow care workers and senior care workers to bring their dependants with them to the UK.
‘This should be done in conjunction with developing the domestic labour market and fully funding a Social Care Workforce Plan, which we believe will provide the best long term strategy to reduce the need for international recruitment.’
The coalition emphasised projections from Skills for Care highlighting that the country will need 25% more posts by 2035 (440,000) if the number of adult social care posts grows proportionally to the projected number of people aged 65 and over in the population.
It added that the government should disclose any assessment of how recruitment levels in social care will be affected and the impact on waiting times if the changes are introduced anyway.
The new measures include:
- Preventing overseas health and care workers from bringing their dependants to the UK
- An increase to the earning threshold for overseas workers by nearly 50% from its current position of £26,200 to £38,700, from next Spring – excluding those coming on Health and Care visas
- Ending the 20% going rate salary discount for shortage occupations and replace the Shortage Occupation List with a new Immigration Salary List, which will retain a general threshold discount
- A review, by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), of the new list against the increased salary thresholds in order to reduce the number of occupations on the list
- A MAC review of the graduate visa route to ‘ensure it works in the best interests of the UK and to ensure steps are being taken to prevent abuse’
- Increasing the annual Immigration Health Surcharge from £624 to £1,035.
This article was first published by our sister title Healthcare Leader
