Ban on overseas care workers will close North Wales homes
That's the warning from sector champions Care Forum Wales (CFW) which says the plan to end the recruitment of care staff from overseas will have a devastating impact on care homes and domiciliary care companies - with catastrophic consequences for the NHS.
The announcement by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper came at a time when the sector was already reeling from increases in National Insurance contributions and wage rises, which amount to a 37 per cent hike in costs.
CFW raised the issue as a matter of urgency at a meeting a meeting of the Five Nations group, which represents social care providers in Wales, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Eire, where the condemnation was unanimous.
Both organisations are writing to Prime Minister Kier Starmer and the Home Secretary urging them to reverse the overseas recruitment ban for social care.
Mario Kreft MBE, the chair of CFW, said: 'It really is a half-baked, ill-thought through idea that's ignored commonsense for the sake of short-term political expediency.
'Calling these social care heroes low skilled is an affront. It's shocking because we're talking about some very special people who are highly skilled at caring.
'To treat them with such disdain as the Home Secretary has done is an absolute disgrace. We live in ageist society where older, vulnerable people are not valued.
'As a result, these social care workers are at the wrong end of the salary scale because of the model that local authorities and health boards apply to commissioning publicly funded social care services.
'It's particularly damaging here in Wales because most people who need social care – whether it's in a care home or in their own homes – are publicly funded.
'If you lose 10 per cent of your workforce it's going to cause major issue because you need so many people."
Mario Kreft MBE (Image: Mike Dean (Eye Imagery))
The UK Government has said care workers from overseas have made a "huge contribution" to social care in the UK, but too many have been subject to "shameful levels of abuse and exploitation".
A statement released by the government said: "Workers seeking to support the UK's care sector arrived to find themselves saddled with debt, treated unfairly, or in extreme cases discover the jobs they were promised did not exist.
"In March, the Home Office revealed over 470 care providers had had their licence to sponsor international staff suspended since 2022.
Under plans to be outlined on Monday (May 12), the government will go further and put an end to any more overseas recruitment.
"The crackdown on rogue care providers has seen around 40,000 workers displaced, many of whom are ready to rejoin the workforce. They will be given the opportunity to do the jobs they were promised, while long-term plans are drawn up to train homegrown talent into the care sector. "
It added: International workers who are already sponsored to work legally in the sector will be able to continue to extend their stay, change sponsors and apply to settle, including those who need to switch employers following a sponsor licence revocation.
"This government is committed to tackling these issues and has committed to establishing fair pay agreements which will empower worker, employer and other sector representatives to negotiate improvements in the terms of employment. This builds on the announcement in January of the expansion of the Care Workforce Pathway which will support the adult social care sector to professionalise the workforce.
"Together, these measures will move the UK away from a dependence on overseas workers to fulfil our care needs."
However, Mr Kreft said it will "inevitably lead" to care homes closing and domiciliary care companies "going to the wall".
'If you have problems in terms of quality because you haven't enough staff, you'll get closed down anyway by the regulator." he said.
'At the very least, domiciliary care and care homes will have to reduce services which will cause a backlog into the NHS.
'It is so counterintuitive. At a time when you're hitting businesses with a 37 per cent increase in National Insurance to raise £20 billion for the NHS, the UK Government is harming the social care sector that keeps the NHS going. They are shooting themselves in the foot. It defies logic.
'All of the work we have done over the past 20 to 30 years to professionalise the sector, working in partnership with the Welsh Government and Social Care Wales, they have put a match to it overnight.
'If we were able to recruit sufficient staff locally we would. We certainly wouldn't go to the extra expense of recruiting international workers. It can cost £10,000 per person."
Mr Kreft said the policy is "politically driven", describing it as "knee-jerk politics of the worst kind" in an effort to "confront a right-wing agenda".
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