Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of social care workforce demand on levels of immigration in each of the last ten years.

In February 2022, care workers became eligible for the Health and Care Visa and were added to the Shortage Occupation List. Senior care workers were added to the list of eligible occupations for the Health and Care Visa in January 2021.

Published data on entry clearance visa grants for the Caring Personal Services occupation code (613) illustrates the broad trend in international recruitment into adult social care in recent years.

This shows that 37,091 Health and Care Worker visas were granted to main applicants under the Caring Personal Services category in 2022. Volumes peaked in 2023, with 107,772 grants, before falling to 9,539 in 2024. This data does not include in-country visa grants.