Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have made to address concerns in the social care sector about the closure of care homes caused by the loss of staff from overseas as a result of restrictions on staff bringing their families to the UK.

We recognise the importance of international recruitment to ensure we have sufficient supply of care workers and senior care workers. This is why the Government decided to add care workers to the Shortage Occupation List in February 2022, in response to unprecedented workforce pressures.

On 4 December 2023, the Secretary of State for the Home Department announced a five-point plan to curb legal net migration, including removing the right for care workers and senior care workers to bring dependants to the United Kingdom and restricting access to the route to employers who are regulated by the Care Quality Commission. The Secretary of State for the Home Department has committed to put estimates of the impact of these announcements in the House of Commons Library. This will be set out in due course.

The Government is committed to building a sustainable adult social care workforce. As part of this, international recruitment has bolstered the workforce with 101,000 out of country visa grants for care workers and senior care workers to the year ending September 2023. While at home, we are backing domestic recruitment with our National Recruitment Campaign, working with the Department for Work and Pensions to promote adult social care careers, and funding sector partner to support employers and commissioners to improve recruitment and retention.