Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the UK leaving the EU on the number of social care workers over the next five years.

The Department of Health is engaged with colleagues in the Department for Exiting the European Union to ensure that the needs of social care providers and those in ineed of social care services are taken into account as we exit from the EU.

The Government has made clear it wants to protect the status of EU nationals already living here, and the only circumstances in which that would not be possible is if British citizens’ rights in European member states were not protected in return.

The Department is aware that our challenge, working alongside stakeholders in the adult social care sector, is to ensure the workforce has the right number of people to meet increasing demands, with the right skills, knowledge and behaviours to deliver quality, compassionate care.