Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps is he taking to ensure effective (a) recruitment and (b) retention in the social care sector.

On 4 April, we published our plans for investing £250 million in workforce reforms to improve career progression and access to learning and development opportunities to help reduce turnover.

In February 2022, we made care workers eligible for the Health and Care Visa and added them to the Shortage Occupation list. There were 56,900 visa grants for care workers and senior care workers in 2022. We are also investing £15 million to help local areas establish support arrangements for international recruitment in adult social care.