Migrant Workers: Recruitment
(asked on 30th May 2025) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of restricting access to overseas recruitment on levels of recruitment from the in-country redeployment pool.
The care worker route has seen unacceptable levels of abuse and exploitation; between July 2022 and December 2024, the Home Office revoked over 470 sponsor licences, impacting approximately 40,000 workers in the care sector.
Although overseas recruitment in adult social care will end, in-country switching for those already in the country with working rights will be permitted for a transition period until 2028. This will be kept under review. These arrangements include those who need to switch employers following a sponsor licence revocation and the Department of Health and Social Care is providing up to £12.5 million to regional partnerships in 2025/26 to support these international recruits to find alternative employment.
No specific assessment has been made of the impact of restricting overseas recruitment on the levels of recruitment from the in-country redeployment pool. However, in the technical annex published alongside the Immigration White Paper on 12 May 2025, the Home Office has estimated an annual reduction of approximately 7,000 main visa applicants because of ending overseas recruitment for care workers and senior care workers. This is based on its internal management information for entry visas granted covering the period March 2024 to February 2025. This estimate reflects that there was a drop in visa grants of more than 90% compared with the 12 months ending March 2024. This analysis will be refined and included within the relevant Impact Assessments accompanying the rule changes, as appropriate.
The technical annex is available at the following link: