Care leaders have joined MPs, charities and professional bodies in a fresh call on ministers to abandon proposed changes to settlement rules for migrant workers, warning the measures could worsen adult social care workforce pressures.
A joint letter sent today to the home secretary Shabana Mahmood and health and social care secretary Yvette Cooper, coordinated by the Work Rights Centre and signed by Care England, is calling on ministers to withdraw plans that would extend the qualifying period for Indefinite Leave to Remain and apply new requirements retrospectively to some workers already in the UK.
It warns that the proposals risk creating a ‘Windrush level scandal’ and could increase workforce instability across health and care services.
It adds the current proposals, which include an ‘unfair’ move to double the baseline qualifying period for ‘indefinite leave to remain’ to 10 years and triple it to 15 years for care workers, as well as ‘punitive’ retrospective application, would unfairly target migrant staff who came to the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic to support essential services.
Workforce concerns
The letter comes after Care England, the National Care Forum and others held an event in Westminister to lobby ministers over the proposed changes set out in the government's A Fairer Pathway to Settlement consultation, and follows repeated warnings that international recruitment has been essential in helping providers maintain services amid persistent vacancies and recruitment challenges.
Skills for Care warned earlier this month over further recruitment challenges after its latest data showed workforce growth has slowed.
Today’s letter warns the earned settlement proposals could worsen existing recruitment and retention difficulties by increasing uncertainty for overseas workers and their families.
It adds that that adult social care remains ‘structurally reliant’ on international recruitment and adds settlement route restrictions could lead to rising unmet need.
The letter is also signed by Labour MPs Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Diane Abbott, Clive Lewis and Rachael Maskell, alongside Baroness Lister, the Society of Radiographers, and Action for Race Equality.
The group also called for the Government to delay implementation of the reforms until full impact assessments have been scrutinised and to rule out retrospective application of any new rules.
They add that health and care workers and their dependants should be exempt from any extension to settlement qualifying periods if the measures go ahead.
