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AIBU to think banning new international recruitment of staff for care homes is bonkers? [Title edited by MNHQ at OP's request]

405 replies

Locutus2000 · 11/05/2025 13:16

The latest Labour lunacy chasing the coat-tails of Reform.

"Care homes will be prevented from recruiting staff from abroad as part of an overhaul of rules to drive down net migration, Yvette Cooper has said.
In a change that will concern employers in the sector, the home secretary said providers should instead seek to employ foreign staff who have already come to the country or extend existing visas.

It is part of a preview of wider plans to be announced by Cooper on Monday designed to reduce net migration to the UK."

"In a series of interviews on Sunday, Cooper said the government would not set a figure for net migration but would target recruitment in lower-skilled sectors.

Speaking to Sky News’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Cooper said: “We’re going to introduce new restrictions on lower-skilled workers, so new visa controls, because we think actually what we should be doing is concentrating on the higher-skilled migration and we should be concentrating on training in the UK.

“New requirements to train here in the UK to make sure that the UK workforce benefits, and also we will be closing the care worker visa for overseas recruitment.”

Asked by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg where care homes would recruit staff from, Cooper said companies should recruit from a pool of people who came as care workers in good faith but had been “exploited” by unscrupulous employers.
“Care companies should be recruiting from those workers. They can also extend existing visas. They could recruit as well from people who are on other visas, who are already here. But we do think it’s time to end that care worker recruitment from abroad,” she said.

While Cooper declined to set a specific target for net migration, she said ministers believed changes to certain visas could result in “up to 50,000 fewer lower-skilled visas” over the next year."

Care homes have been at breaking point for years, few Brits want to work in them and those that do often burn out rapidly. I did several years and couldn't do it again.

Surely care homes are exactly where immigrant labour is needed? What is the alternative, other than actually paying care staff properly and improving working conditions to the point people actually want to do it?

UK care homes face ban on overseas recruitment under migration plans

Yvette Cooper to announce proposals to reduce net migration in response to growing pressure from Reform UK

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/may/11/uk-to-time-limit-visas-for-roles-below-graduate-level-under-new-migration-plan

OP posts:
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soupyspoon · 11/05/2025 13:50

Locutus2000 · 11/05/2025 13:49

You've already identified how to solve the staff shortage issue - improve the pay and conditions for care workers. It's skilled, physically and emotionally challenging work that requires a high level of empathy and communication skills.

I first worked in care around 1998 and we were having the same conversation then. Things have only got worse since.

We cross posted, yes same for me, around 92 I started in care

user1471538275 · 11/05/2025 13:49

While I'm at it - the way that care workers were treated during Covid was absolutely disgusting - and many of them voted with their feet at that time.

It's not just pay - care workers need to be treated better, have their training paid for them, better shift patterns and progression.

soupyspoon · 11/05/2025 13:49

Getting care workers has always been an issue as far as I recall. (last 30 years that I can talk about)

Locutus2000 · 11/05/2025 13:49

user1471538275 · 11/05/2025 13:48

You've already identified how to solve the staff shortage issue - improve the pay and conditions for care workers. It's skilled, physically and emotionally challenging work that requires a high level of empathy and communication skills.

It wasn't an issue in the past so it's not that Uk workers won't do the work - it's more that the pay and conditions have been driven down so far that only migrant workers will accept them - as is the case in many many uk sectors.

I thought supply and demand was a clear economic principle - somehow though, it doesn't seem to apply in the same way for care workers whereas we're told CEOs/bankers have to offer very high salaries 'to attract them'.

You've already identified how to solve the staff shortage issue - improve the pay and conditions for care workers. It's skilled, physically and emotionally challenging work that requires a high level of empathy and communication skills.

I first worked in care around 1998 and we were having the same conversation then. Things have only got worse since.

OP posts:
user1471538275 · 11/05/2025 13:48

You've already identified how to solve the staff shortage issue - improve the pay and conditions for care workers. It's skilled, physically and emotionally challenging work that requires a high level of empathy and communication skills.

It wasn't an issue in the past so it's not that Uk workers won't do the work - it's more that the pay and conditions have been driven down so far that only migrant workers will accept them - as is the case in many many uk sectors.

I thought supply and demand was a clear economic principle - somehow though, it doesn't seem to apply in the same way for care workers whereas we're told CEOs/bankers have to offer very high salaries 'to attract them'.

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