The UK’s new points-based immigration system which will come into force in the new year, will not allow foreign care workers working in social care to apply for a special health and care visa. The new rules state that people who want to live and work in the UK will need to gain 70 points to be eligible to apply for a visa. Points will be awarded for key requirements like being able to speak English to a certain level, having a job offer from an approved employer, and meeting a minimum salary threshold. But special visas will be introduced for workers considered essential to the UK but who do not have sufficient points to immigrate.
The Home Secretary Priti Patel said it is designed to "make it easier and quicker for talented global health professionals to work in our brilliant NHS and in eligible occupations in the social care sector". For foreign nationals who want to work with the NHS but lack enough points, a new-fast track health and care visa will be introduced.
Care homeowners told Asian Voice that this discrimination between ‘social care’ and ‘NHS care’ is not acceptable. Criticising this non-inclusion, Labour MP for Nottingham East, Nadia Whittome in a tweet said, “Interesting choice of name for a visa that does not appear to include care workers. Points-based immigration system statement explicitly excludes care workers from ‘skilled workers’ route and unclear whether Health and Care Visa will include them, or what the concessions would be if so. Looks like government rowing back due to campaigners and public solidarity. In February I asked Priti Patel why she considers care work “low skilled”. She had a chance to apologise and accept our amendments to the Immigration Bill. And yet care workers are still excluded from ‘skilled workers’ and the health and care visa. When workers are hyper-exploited during Covid-19, linking people’s immigration status to their employers makes everyone more precarious. It creates a two-tier workforce: migrants will be scared to unionise and fight against poor conditions because they’re dependent on the bosses.”
Raj Sehgal, Director of National Care Association and Managing Director of Armscare Ltd told the newsweekly, “We at the National Care Association are exceptionally disappointed at the decision of the Home Secretary to virtually exclude social care workers from entry to the United Kingdom. The NCA has long since recognised the need and value of a multicultural workforce to support our vulnerable and elderly. We fully appreciate and accept that there has to be a safe immigration policy but despite recommendations in a letter to our PM, the Government has failed to acknowledge that there are some 122,000 vacancies which cannot be filled by the local settled population.
“The Government has also failed to recognise that social care is a skilled profession. They have therefore excluded the sector from being able to recruit “the brightest and the best” into care. The important fact that is being overlooked is that we need a sustainable workforce to ensure we can deliver care - their heritage is not critical - it is their aptitude, willingness and ability to provide quality care which is paramount.”
Out of a staff of 102, his care home has 40 foreigners and 18 of them are Asian. “From a business perspective, our single drain on resources for the past 5 years has been the recruitment and retention of staff.” Raj added. “Our sponsored migrant staff have during this time provided us with stability and also enabled us to provide a consistent quality of service. Many of our migrant workforce have moved on to progress in their careers in the NHS. As this supply of migrant staff for the social care sector dries up, the shortages are now being experienced by the NHS too. As an organisation that operates in a rural area with little public transport, it is virtually impossible to attract and retain local staff and as our migrant workforce diminishes, many rural providers will have to re-consider whether they can continue to operate a safe and quality service for its local residents.”
Ravi Gidar, Director, Gold Care Homes speaking to Asian Voice said, “Care workers will not be on the fast track visa by the NHS. They are distinguishing between again the difference between social care and NHS care. That’s a big thing that people are upset about. A care worker at the NHS should be treated the same as a care worker who is an immigrant. We are going to lose all the staff from eastern Europe as well. There are already 22,000 vacancies in the care industry
“There just aren't enough people in England who will do the care job. That’s why for years we have been relying additionally on Tier 2 visas from India, Sri Lanka and other countries. When they finish their shift, we rely on Eastern Europeans. Now from 1 January, everybody will need a work permit and it won’t be fast tracked. The Government has to decide, either they increase the care rates, they have a special exemption or make them eligible for fast track. We are already short of staff and now if they don’t do anything, this route is closed for us.”
Mathew Philip, Partner, Silk Route Legal said, “I believe this is a terrible decision by the Home Secretary. Social care, as you can see, was already on the point of collapse prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. And this has pushed it over the edge to be honest. The care workers were never on the list even before the home secretary said so. But it was said that given we are going to have Brexit, given we are going to have a shortage of staff, that will have a huge impact on social care.
“If care homes are used to relying on European nationals and if they don’t qualify for coming to the UK under the new point-based system, then who will do the work?
“The Government unfortunately doesn’t care about this industry. The amount of money the care home has to show to even recruit a foreign carer or nurse, then there’s also a hurdle of getting the registration. After that there are visa fees, NHS surcharge, skill surcharge – the list is endless. I don’t think the care home industry is going to survive this.”
Further criticising the Home Office’s skill charge, he added, “Skill surcharge is one of the biggest rip-offs I've seen in my life. If an employer decides to sponsor someone for three years, whether you apply for one year or three years, you end up paying the same amount of money i.e. around £1200. Now if this migrant worker decides to quit in three months, there is no way the employer is going to get the money back for three years. The same employee could then go and join another place, and the new employer would repeat the same process, and pay the skill surcharge again for the same person. So technically the Home Office is getting twice the skill surcharge in a span of six months for the same person!
Age UK published a response to care workers not being eligible for the health and care visa as part of its skilled worker route on their website on July 13. In the statement, Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director at Age UK said, “It’s really disappointing that the Government’s Health and Care Visa turns out to be a Care Visa in name only. Care will scarcely benefit at all since the vast majority of care workforce roles are ineligible for the visa. What a missed opportunity. With well in excess of 100,000 vacancies the care workforce needs all the help it can get, and even if the ultimate solution is to greatly improve pay and conditions any process of refinancing and reform is bound to take time. In the meantime, say the next 3 to 5 years, the sensible thing to do is to keep the door open to EU based care workers. In the absence of this the mountain that care providers have to climb in order to be properly staffed up will be even steeper than it is now and it will be harder for them to provide good quality care, especially in London and other cities where EU based staff are clustered. It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the best interests of older people in need of care have been sacrificed on the altar of other political priorities. We urge the government to think again.”
In a response published by The Royal College of Nursing, Dame Donna Kinnair, RCN Chief Executive & General Secretary said, “Once again, we are disappointed to see the government’s plans for the UK’s future immigration system falling short of what is required to meet the workforce needs of the health and social care sectors, now and in the future. The government is ignoring our concern that we need an appropriate immigration route for social care workers. Arbitrary salary thresholds will prevent key workers from working in the UK, which will directly impact patient care. The pandemic has revealed how reliant the NHS is on good social care and vice versa – they cannot be viewed as separate services. The care system has been heavily reliant on international staff, and the proposals continue to ignore the significant risk to this sector, and therefore the entire health and care system across the UK.”
