Falling immigration presents problems for social care sector

Responding to new ONS immigration data, Nuffield Trust Researcher, Cyril Lobont said:

"Social care has been entirely reliant on recruitment of non-UK nationals to meet growing demand, with the number of British nationals working in the sector falling in recent years. The large drop in immigration numbers, especially for work, we see today will likely mean far fewer care workers entering the country, with huge consequences for the fragile care sector. Already, the restriction on care workers bringing family members to the UK is having a major impact. Health and Social Care Worker visas were once the main source of overseas social care workers, but the number of visas being granted has now fallen to close to zero.

“The government intends to account for this by attracting more domestic recruits into the sector through its Fair Pay Agreement for adult social care. However, this won't take effect until 2028 and the £500 million pledged for the first year of implementation is far from what is needed to drive an influx of British nationals into this vital sector.

"When immigration policy is implemented suddenly without proper coordination across government and with little regard for the impact on essential care services, changes can come in at speed, but the problems they create then take years to fix.”