Allowing asylum seekers to work in care homes is ‘sticking plaster solution’ for staffing crisis
Allowing asylum seekers to work in care homes is just a “sticking plaster” over the sector’s staffing crisis, insiders have warned.
Asylum seekers, including Channel migrants, have been quietly given the right to work in understaffed sectors including care, agriculture and construction and to retain access to state-subsidised bed and board under a Home Office scheme.
The scheme giving migrants the right to work allows them to do so if their application remains unresolved after a year and they have yet to be granted leave to remain in the UK. The Home Office has refused to reveal how many people benefit from it.
However, care industry providers and experts have warned that the scheme is just a “short, sharp fix” and a “sticking plaster” amid a wider staffing crisis facing the sector.
They claim that asylum seekers who are not eventually granted permanent residency, yet who work in the care sector, will only temporarily be plugging the gap as they will be sent home.
Furthermore, they fear that those who are granted the right to remain will quit for higher-paid jobs.
‘We need sustainable options’
Nadra Ahmed, chairman of the National Care Association said: “This is just a short, sharp fix, and can work against us.
“We must not assume that social care is a role that can be filled by just anyone. There needs to be no English language barrier for frail, elderly or other vulnerable people being cared for – speaking to someone with dementia with perfect English is challenging enough and there needs to be a long-term plan for working in the sector.
“This is not a stopgap. To create a robust, sustainable social care sector, we need people who are committed to the role and who are willing to learn and undertake training, this is why we call the social care workforce a skilled workforce.”
She added: “We would welcome with open arms someone who wanted a long-term career in social care, but I worry that this is short-term. Providers need to spend huge amounts of money to train people and skill them up, and if they’re sent back or receive a change in status, we lose that person from the sector. Or if they stay and then they could leave for a higher-paying job.
“So the challenge remains how do we retain people. That is the issue…these are all short sharp fixes, we need sustainable options.”
According to the latest available Skills for Care data for the year 2022-23, published in October, there are 152,000 vacant posts in the care sector, out of a total 1.79 million. This means that there is a vacancy rate of 9.9 per cent, down from 10.7 per cent in 2021-21.
This comes amid increasing recruitment of international workers. In 2022-23, there were 70,000 people starting adult social care roles having arrived in the UK that year. This number was up from 20,000 in 2021-22 and 10,000 in 2020-21.
The health and social care sectors faced significant staff shortages in 2023. As a result, the UK immigration system admitted unprecedented numbers of overseas health and care workers in the year ending March 2023, making up the majority of skilled worker entry visas.
According to a report in the Guardian, modern slavery is also surging in the social care sector since ministers relaxed immigration rules to fill thousands of vacancies, with rising incidents of exploitation leading to workers being ripped off or living in squalor.
‘Current system causing preventable problems’
Unseen, a Bristol-based anti-slavery charity, said it recorded at least 800 potential victims of modern slavery last year, based on calls to its helpline – an increase of more than 1,100 per cent on the 63 in 2021. The increase comes in the wake of the Home Office scheme to add care workers to the shortage occupation list in 2022 amid the relaxed visa rules.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior health official told The Telegraph: “Social care providers are really being impacted negatively by current immigration policy, and specially third sector providers.
“There are a number of unscrupulous suppliers plying their trade who promise people work and don’t deliver or don’t do due diligence.
“A number of care providers have said that the current system is causing preventable problems.
“And indeed they proposed solutions a while ago which would be more efficient and cheaper. In some places care homes are short of staff and migrants can both be good staff and be supported to become good UK citizens by working in social care, for example by learning about culture and also providing skills we need.
“But the current situation seems to be damaging social care and leaving loopholes for trafficking and slavery and it’s just counterproductive.”
The Home Office scheme in which asylum seekers are allowed to take jobs in care, construction and farming sectors after a year, is the legacy of an EU law from 2005, which reversed a measure introduced by Sir Tony Blair in 2002 barring illegal migrants from any right to work.
The source added: “What I hear is a) a lot of people aren’t aware of it and b) it is cumbersome and c) it isn’t what we need – it’s a sticking plaster for a national system. I haven’t heard a lot of positives about it
“I think what the Home Office needs to do is sit down and do some proper co-design with care providers. But they’ve always been utterly incapable of grasping that.”
A government spokesman said: “The UK has one of the most restrictive right-to-work policies for asylum seekers in Europe, both in terms of occupations and time limits. This strikes the right balance between protecting taxpayer money and ensuring people are not incentivised to come to the UK illegally.
“However, we are committed to ethical international recruitment and continuing to bring in workers that our care sector and NHS need, while also supporting our home grown care workforce by providing councils with almost £2 billion over two years.”
