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

[Locutus2000]

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?

Pound shop farage-ists. Those rascist reform voters aren't going to vote for a watered down version when they have the 'real deal' to voter. Labour: focus on what you're good at!

Pardon my ignorance, but what is the material difference? If a non UK person was already working in the UK, they can get another job if they want/need to. But if they've never lived here they can't work here?

No government is going to cut immigration. The vapid Tories banged on about reducing it for 15 years - priority no 1 (not the economy, stupid) and it went up year on year (highest ever last year- which i am fine with...).

Where does the extra money come from? Tax on wealth impractical, although ethically justifiable. 2% more on NI or income tax? Can't imagine any government EVER doing that- there'd be wigs on the green!

If you are a librarian and no vocation, well the consequences aren´t the same as if you are a carer giving 1 on 1 care to a patient of Alzheimers. I could work in a library (not my job) but I am not the right person to work in that type of care. Care is gruelling and a person not in the right frame of mine will snap, and snap with the most vulnerable people.

@HamptonPlace You ain’t seen nothing yet if Reform get in. You might not like the Tories but immigrants have kept prices down. Can you afford care home fees of £5,500 a month or do you expect others to pay for you?

I entirely prefer the tories over over Farage, they're not ENTIRELY insane! But i don't think the tories are fit to govern, the far right tail is wagging the dog IMHO.

@foreverblowingbubbless

"I think even if care workers and care staff were paid more, this country does not have the culture of respect for older people and by this short sighted decision based on pandering to racists who are turning to reform, we will have to rely on being poorly treated or neglected as we age"

So do you think it is just Filipinos that are suited to working in care homes by having a "culture of respect for older people " or are there other SE Asian nationalities as well?

Also what jobs in the do you think are best suited to say white people or black people?

Maybe you might need to check your own levels of racism before accusing others?

@TizerorFizz

"@HamptonPlace You ain’t seen nothing yet if Reform get in. You might not like the Tories but immigrants have kept prices down. Can you afford care home fees of £5,500 a month or do you expect others to pay for you?"

"The best cure for high prices is high prices ".

If care home fees increased to £5,500 per month then demand would drop significantly. Care homes would then have the choice of cutting their fees or closing up shop.

Also if the rational for using immigrants is to keep prices down, then given that a key incentive for many migrants is to do the job in order to get permanent residency / citizenship, then would you support removing minimum wage requirements on migrant labour as many would still do it on lower wages in order to get residency/ citizenship?

@Katiesaidthat

"Care is gruelling and a person not in the right frame of mine will snap, and snap with the most vulnerable people."

Same could be said for nursing, police, teaching etc. All of which deal with vulnerable people, the difference is that these jobs pay more.

But in short different jobs require different mindsets.

Ah the old racism dig 🙄Firstly that was not MY post or words however I did agree with it from my personal experiences with older relatives.

I have lived in many foreign countries and I know what I have seen. I live in the Uk and have seen some of the abysmal British born care staff.

The reason the Philippines was mentioned is because there is an active policy of recruitment from that country because of their SKILLS in particular training and English language. I have no idea of this goes on in other countries - perhaps you can enlighten me?

Don't try to make me out to be racist. It's a weak and lazy argument.

@HamptonPlace

"Also, immigrants are far far more likely to be hard workers than the homegrown na're-do-wells...."

Jeez and I thought that the accusation was that Reform and the right wing were supposed to be the racists.

Added to which is the elitist attitude where you are willing to write off 9 million economically inactive Jobs K citizens as unemployable. Maybe I have more belief in my fellow citizens.

The job centre wont make you go into those jobs though.
Care is seen as job anyone can do, and a sector where they are so desperate, they will take on anyone.

@foreverblowingbubbless

"Don't try to make me out to be racist. It's a weak and lazy argument."

Sorry but describing people as better suited to certain roles based on their nationality/ skin colour rather than their individual character and qualifications is clear cut racism, regardless of your own personal experience (or prejudice).

@NeedASafeSpace

"Care is seen as job anyone can do, and a sector where they are so desperate, they will take on anyone."

The reason they are so desperate and have so many vacancies is that salaries are so low and working conditions so bad.

Improve both enough and they will have no problem filling the roles. That's how a free labour market works and not seeking a cheap short cut of importing cheap labour to keep profits up.

There are so many care jobs though, even a small increase would be massively costly.

I'd say you may quite possibly need a few more qualifications to be a nuse, copper or teacher than a carer!

As I said it wasn't even my post but you do you if it makes you happy !

Yep, the Job Centre can't insist you go get a nursing degree so you can become a nurse.
If you already have a nursing qualification, can they insist you apply for nursing jobs though? I am thinking of, for example, someone who has left nursing and is now unemployed.

I want the right people working in care ... people who care and have the right qualities for the job regardless of where they come from.
"Pressed wo/men" hoovered in from the ranks of the unemployed who get the job because they are British born will not cut the mustard. They must be the right people.

Way cool, a thread full of people clamouring to pay much higher taxes.

Way cool - a thread full of left wing posters defending the right of care home operators to continue making high profits by importing low cost labour rather than do what most other employers do when unable to fill vacancies- raise the salary.

@TalkToTheHand123

"I'd say you may quite possibly need a few more qualifications to be a nuse, copper or teacher than a carer!"

Yes you are correct different jobs need different levels of qualifications, however the point was about mindsets rather than qualifications.

There are many nurses, police and teachers who may be perfectly qualified but don't have the right mindset for the job.

I have lived in many foreign countries and I know what I have seen. I live in the Uk and have seen some of the abysmal British born care staff.

@foreverblowingbubbless I have come across hundreds of care staff for DD, and I have never come across abysmal British born care staff.

@BlueandWhitePorcelain

"@foreverblowingbubbless I have come across hundreds of care staff for DD, and I have never come across abysmal British born care staff"

Despite the prejudiced views of some posters the reality is that there will be good and bad carers irrespective of the person's nationality or skin colour.