Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to treat disabled people who employ live-in carers as approved employers for the purposes of visa sponsorship, so they are able to accept applicants from the EU.

While senior care workers and senior support workers qualifyfor a Skilled Worker visa, they would need to be sponsored by an organisation which holds a Skilled Worker sponsor licence. The Skilled Worker Visa is not limited to EU Nationals, as it allows recruitment on a global basis.

Individual persons are not eligible to be recognised as sponsors. The sponsorship system is designed to ensure employers fulfil specific duties to confirm those who apply for permission to enter or stay in the UK to work are eligible and will comply with the conditions of their visa.

Businesses are able to comply with these duties and demonstrate a verifiable track record of operating lawfully in the UK, both within the immigration system and the wider employer regulatory regime, in a way individuals cannot. This approach ensures the integrity of the immigration system and safeguards those who migrate to the UK.

Outside the Skilled Worker route, employers and individuals can recruit people with general work rights, including the millions of people who have been granted status under the EU Settlement Scheme, Commonwealth citizens with UK Ancestry visas, dependants of those here on our economic routes and those in the UK under our Youth Mobility Schemes. They have full access to the UK labour market and are free to work in the UK in any sector.

In July, I commissioned the MAC to review the impact of ending free movement on the social care sector. The MAC have issued a call for evidence with stakeholders and we look forward to receiving their report in April 2022.