Care England has backed the decision by the Home Office to give foreign social care workers greater opportunity to come to the UK following changes to immigration rules.
Senior care workers are among roles that have been added to the Shortage Occupation List (SOL), which gives people in these roles an advantage in obtaining a skilled worker visa.
A job on the SOL is worth 20 points of the 70 points required by a foreign worker to be eligible for a work visa under the UK’s post-Brexit immigration system.
The Home Office initially rejected the Migration Advisory Committee’s recommendation to add senior care workers to the SOL to avoid exacerbating workforce pressures on the sector post-Brexit.
Care England, which lobbied the Home Office to reverse that decision, welcomed the U-turn.
“I am pleased that the government has acknowledged the challenges of recruiting social care managers, this is something we have long called for,” said chief executive Martin Green (pictured).
“We hope that this is the start of a process towards the creation of a migration system which supports rather than undermines the development of the adult social care workforce,” he added.
Care England said it would continue its work to push for all social care workers, not just senior social care workers, to be added to the SOL and reassert its calls for a social care workforce plan.
