Care at risk in ‘swathes of Scotland', warns sector chief

The Herald Scotland

14-05-2025

Dr Macaskill's warning comes after the Prime Minister set out new immigration rules designed to drive down net migration — which stood at 728,000 in the year to mid-2024 — and overhaul the current visa system. The new ban on care visas was announced as part of new UK Government immigration curbs
As well as a ban on low-paid care worker recruitment from overseas, the new White Paper includes tougher English language requirements, a ten-year minimum stay for settlement, and higher qualification standards for skilled worker visas.
Sir Keir said the new system would end what he described as 'a squalid chapter' in British politics and the economy, while promising to 'take back control of our borders'.
'In a diverse nation like ours — and I celebrate that — these rules become even more important,' he said. 'Without them, we risk becoming an island of strangers, not a nation that walks forward together.'
He added: ''Take back control.' Everyone knows that slogan, and everyone knows what it meant on immigration — or at least that is what people thought.
'Because what followed from the previous government, starting with the people who used that slogan, was the complete opposite.
'Between 2019 and 2023, even as they were going round our country, telling people with a straight face that they would get immigration down, net migration quadrupled, until in 2023 it reached nearly one million.
'That is about the population of Birmingham, our second-largest city. That is not control. It is chaos.'
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The Prime Minister said some of the millions of inactive adults in the UK would be supported back into work to help cover the staffing shortfalls.
'The current system does the opposite, and so we will support them into work with a £1 billion package, the right to try and measures like that — and that if you can work, you should work. And I do think that this White Paper should be seen in conjunction with what we are doing on welfare.'
Dr Macaskill said the sector had tried and failed repeatedly to hire local workers.
'When the United Kingdom Government, without consultation and engagement with the care sector — the organisations who employ tens of thousands of people who care — unilaterally decided we can no longer recruit from abroad, they did so with little appreciation of just how damaging their actions could be,' he said.
'There are parts of Scotland where the composition of the social care workforce is significantly made up of international colleagues,' he continued. 'Without the ability to attract and to retain international colleagues, it is no exaggeration to say that care would not be able to be delivered in whole swathes of our nation.'
'If that were to occur, this would mean that people would end up being supported miles from home or, worse still, having to be admitted to hospital because they could not be cared for by social care services.'
Dr Donald Macaskill called for a Scottish visaDr Macaskill said the changes showed that Scotland needed its own distinct approach to immigration.
'What any sensible and rational immigration policy requires is an assessment of need based upon specific sectors and geographies. That is why a visa arrangement that specifically addresses the needs of Scotland and its demographics, together with the national shortage of social care workers, is urgently needed.'
'If federal immigration models can work in Canada and Australia, then a devolved approach to migration can work for Scotland,' he added.
Responding to the Prime Minister's statement, First Minister John Swinney accused the Labour leader of being 'terrified' of Nigel Farage's Reform UK, following their success at English local elections.
He said: 'There will be a huge impact on employment in the National Health Service and on social care.
'We struggle in Scotland to have a large enough working-age population.
'The announcements today from the UK Government are going to make that even more difficult and there are going to be some significant opportunities lost for the Scottish economy by the implications of these announcements.'
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Scottish Labour MP Joani Reid supported the new UK-wide policy, arguing that it would reduce exploitation and improve standards.
'Inward migration is a big part of our national story and will continue to be so in the future,' she said. 'Net migration numbers are going to fall, and that is good, but Britain will always offer a home to the brightest and best of people who want to come here.'
'The Immigration White Paper means we will have tougher rules, more rigorously enforced, on immigration,' she added. 'Importing low-paid, low-skilled workers, often with poor command of English, will be closed off to exploitative employers.'
Scottish Greens MSP Maggie Chapman accused the Government of 'scapegoating' migrant communities.
'It is a cynical, cruel and authoritarian response to Reform,' she said. 'It will only serve to damage public services while throwing migrant workers under the bus with racist, restrictive and totally self-defeating policies.'