Latest news with #caresector
Sky News
14-05-2025
- Business
- Sky News
Politics latest: 'I very much enjoyed your speech,' Farage tells PM
Badenoch mocks PM's 'tiny tariff deal' with Trump Kemi Badenoch now uses her third question to welcome the PM's "tiny tariff deal" with the US. The Conservative leader says that the prime minister should "not over-egg the pudding" and adds that it has put the UK in a "worse position than in March", before Donald Trump stuck tariffs on every country. Turning to unemployment, she says high street supermarket chains Tesco's and Sainsbury's and others have cut staff. She asks whether the PM can promise that unemployment will be lower by this time next year. An angry Keir Starmer suggests Badenoch "get the train to Solihull" and speak to workers at Jaguar Land Rover, so she can tell them that she "would rip up the deal that protects their jobs". He adds she should do the same in Scunthorpe and in Scotland's whisky distilleries, "and then come back here next week, and tell us what reaction she got". Watch: How good is UK-US trade deal? 'How will carers pay for jobs tax?' Badenoch points out Starmer didn't promise to lower unemployment by May 2026 "because he knows things are going to get worse". The leader of the opposition then speaks about a hospice that needs to find "an additional £250,000 to pay the jobs tax" (that's the national insurance rise from the budget). She asks the PM how they should find this money. Starmer responds that the government has already announced a £100m boost for the care sector. He accuses Badneoch of "turning up every week to carp from the sidelines" and accuses her of not having "the courage" to say she would reverse the rise in national insurance contributions to pay for more investment in the NHS and schools.
BBC News
13-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Shropshire care home firm 'dismay' over planned visa changes
A crackdown on visas for lower-skilled workers has caused "dismay" and "major frustration" for one care home Woosnam, the human resources director for Shropshire's Coverage Care Services, said: "Without this pool of migrant workers I can't see how we are going to be able to maintain our workforce to the levels that we require."And Joyce Pinfield from Bromsgrove, vice chair of the National Care Association, described the move as "yet another blow to the care sector".The government said it would be requiring firms to hire British nationals or extend visas of overseas workers already in the country. Ms Woosnam said her reaction to the news was "dismay, major frustration".She said the industry cared for "the most vulnerable people in our communities and we need skilled people to do this". But she believed the change in the rules would mean "the tools are being removed to enable us to do this properly". Her company employs staff from India, Africa and the Philippines who she said played "a vital part in replacing those hard-to-recruit positions, particularly night-workers".In the past the industry had difficulties attracting British people, she said, and these problems had not gone away. "We had a reduction in the number of young people wanting to come and have a career in care and we had an ageing workforce," she said. Ms Pinfield said: "We just seem to fail to get (British) people in."She said paying more was "very difficult". "Unfortunately, if you are reliant on the fees paid by local authorities, it is very difficult to pay more," she explained. 'Back to drawing board' The government plans are part of a wider push to reduce the amount of immigration into the Secretary Yvette Cooper said the government expects these changes will "lead to a reduction of up to 50,000 fewer lower-skilled visas over the course of the next year".Ms Woosnam said: "It feels like we have to go back to the drawing board and re-look at our strategies but with really little to do that with."She added part of her dismay was because her company had helped overseas workers settle in Shropshire and that work was now in Pinfield said the industry had been "So pleased when we were allowed to bring in care workers from overseas".But she said a lack of clarity meant many firms had "brought people in from abroad that didn't really have the jobs ready for them".She believed this had partly led to the government crackdown. Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
