Will New Immigration Laws Hit Care Home Recruitment?

There are benefits of having live-in care, not least because it means there is dedicated, high-quality help on hand to ensure the best care and comfort for those who need it in their own homes, provided by a familiar face.

It exists as an alternative to living in a residential care home, where potential disadvantages can include short-staffing or a high staff turnover, making it hard to build up relationships with caregivers.

Those concerns about care homes may be increased following the announcement of plans by the government to tighten up immigration rules, following recent news that the net level of legal migration to the UK in 2022 was 745,000, far above government targets.

Plans aimed at tightening the immigration criteria will mean that those working in the private care sector in non-NHS homes will not have the right to bring dependent relatives to the UK.

This has led to deep concerns that this will reduce the number of overseas workers taking up such jobs, making it harder for private care homes to fill vacancies.

The Independent reported that such concerns were expressed in a letter to the government it had seen from the Cavendish Group, a body covering both the public and private care sectors, warning of this potential consequence.

It added that assuming care workers would be willing to come to the UK without dependents “will be disastrous to our services and make the UK a less attractive place for much-needed social care staff weighing up where they might choose to work.”

Similar concerns were expressed by care home manager Gabriela Ogreanu, who runs the Sefton Hall care home in Dawlish, Devon. She told the BBC that overseas workers “will not come over here without their families”. She said it is hard to fill roles among British workers.

If such warnings prove true, they make the care home option much less attractive due to chronic understaffing and, as a result, mean a live-in care option would be a better option by far.