Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help tackle vacancies in the social care workforce.

We are running a national recruitment campaign until 31 March to encourage more people to consider a rewarding role in care. In addition, the £500 million adult social care discharge fund announced last September can be used for the recruitment and retention of the social care workforce.

In February 2022, we made care workers eligible for the Health and Care Visa and added them to the Shortage Occupation list. This was in addition to senior care workers who were made eligible in January 2021. There has been a strong uptake of international recruitment in the sector since, with the latest Home Office data showing there were 56,900 visa grants for care workers and senior care workers in 2022.

The Government is making available £15 million for the 2023/24 financial year to help local areas establish support arrangements for international recruitment in adult social care.