Care leaders have welcomed the government's decision to retain a five-year route to settlement for eligible international care workers, describing the move as an important concession following concerns that thousands could have been required to wait up to 15 years before qualifying for permanent settlement.
The decision announced by the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood yesterday to allow care workers who entered, or switched into, the Health and Care visa route before publication of the Immigration White Paper in May 2025 to be exempted from longer settlement requirements follows sustained lobbying from MPs, charities and care sector organisations, including Care England and the National Care Forum.
Care England chief executive Professor Martin Green OBE said the u-turn is “an important step forward” for international care workers who “deserve certainty about their future “ after coming to the UK in “good faith, worked hard, paid their taxes and dedicated themselves to caring for others” and have built lives here with their families.
However, Care England warned that ‘further clarity is needed on earnings requirements, transitional arrangements and protections for those whose employment has been disrupted’.
“The government has promised greater support for these workers, yet the funding for regional partnerships helping them find new employment is due to end in March 2027,” he said.
“We cannot promise displaced care workers greater protection at the same time as the infrastructure designed to help them is being wound down,” he added.
Care workforce strategy
Meanwhile, National Care Forum chief executive Professor Vic Rayner OBE described the reversal of the previous proposals as “a reassuring start” and said it demonstrated ministers had listened to concerns raised by the sector.
And the Work Rights Centre chief executive Dr Dora-Olivia Vicol said the retention of a five-year settlement route would be welcomed by workers who had “answered this country's call in its hour of need,” adding she was “greatly relieved” that migrant care workers would be given more time to secure alternative sponsorship and “will no longer be tied to rogue employers and will be given longer to find a new job before their visas are curtailed.”
The King's Fund senior fellow Simon Bottery said the move was “an important recognition of the crucial role migrant workers play in maintaining the social care services” but warned that international recruitment could not be viewed as a long-term solution to workforce shortages, arguing that the sector still requires a comprehensive workforce strategy, including action on pay and measures to attract more domestic recruits into care roles.
