Care homes will close and lives will be put at risk in Wales as a result of the \u201chalf-baked\u201d immigration crackdown on social care workers.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the warning from sector champions Care Forum Wales (CFW) who say the plan to end the recruitment of care staff from overseas will have a devastating impact on care homes and domiciliary care companies – with catastrophic consequences for the NHS.<\/p>\n
The announcement by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper came at a time when the sector was already reeling from increases in National Insurance contributions and wage rises, which amount to a 37 per cent hike in costs.<\/p>\n
CFW raised the issue as a matter of urgency at a meeting a meeting of the Five Nations group, which represents social care providers in Wales, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Eire, where the condemnation was unanimous.<\/p>\n
Both organisations are writing to Prime Minister Kier Starmer and the Home Secretary urging them to reverse the overseas recruitment ban for social care.<\/p>\n
Mario Kreft MBE, the chair of CFW, said: \u201cIt really is a half-baked, ill-thought through idea that\u2019s ignored commonsense for the sake of short-term political expediency.<\/p>\n
\u201cCalling these social care heroes low skilled is an affront. It\u2019s shocking because we\u2019re talking about some very special people who are highly skilled at caring.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo treat them with such disdain as the Home Secretary has done is an absolute disgrace.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe live in ageist society where older, vulnerable people are not valued.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a result, these social care workers are at the wrong end of the salary scale because of the model that local authorities and health boards apply to\u00a0 commissioning publicly funded social care services.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s particularly damaging here in Wales because most people who need social care \u2013 whether it\u2019s in a care home or in their own homes \u2013 are publicly funded.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you lose 10 per cent of your workforce it\u2019s going to cause major issue because you need so many people.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost council jobs are 9 \u2018til 5 but social care doesn\u2019t work like that \u2013 it\u2019s 24\/7, 365 days a year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will inevitably lead to care homes closing and domiciliary care companies going to the wall.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have problems in terms of quality because you haven\u2019t enough staff, you\u2019ll get closed down anyway by the regulator.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the very least, domiciliary care and care homes will\u00a0 have to reduce services which will cause a backlog into the NHS.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is so counterintuitive. At a time when you\u2019re hitting businesses with a 37 per cent increase in National Insurance to raise \u00a320 billion for the NHS, the UK Government is harming the social care sector that keeps the NHS going. They are shooting themselves in the foot. It defies logic.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of the work we have done over the past 20 to 30 years to professionalise the sector, working in partnership with the Welsh Government and Social Care Wales, they have put a match to it overnight.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we were able to recruit sufficient staff locally we would. We certainly wouldn\u2019t go to the extra expense of recruiting international workers. It can cost \u00a310,000 per person.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of this is politically driven. It\u2019s certainly not driven by reality. This is knee-jerk politics of the worst kind in an effort to confront a right-wing agenda.<\/p>\n
\u201cThings are bad enough now but even more people won\u2019t be able to get into hospital when they need to and down the line it\u2019s something that could cost lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
CFW treasurer Sanjiv Joshi was equally shocked and said: \u201cInternational recruitment of care workers has been a lifeline for our sector and the NHS as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we\u2019ve realised since the pandemic, the NHS and the social care sector are totally intertwined and the backbone of both these very vital services are the care workers and we have a very small pool to recruit from in Wales.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is absolutely essential that we are able to supplement our domestic workforce with international recruitment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s ironic that the country has just made huge financial sacrifices with higher taxation to try and improve the NHS and the social care offering and this is going to do the opposite.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Government\u2019s claim that not enough is being done to recruit workers from this country is just a false narrative.<\/p>\n
\u201cInternational recruitment has been going on in the social care sector and the NHS for the last 25 to 30 years .<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened was that the rules for\u00a0 non-EU recruitment were tightened because we had an EU workforce prior to Brexit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rules were subsequently relaxed because as a result of Brexit and the pandemic we lost a large pool of our workforce.<\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout recruitment has always focused on the domestic workforce but our working population is decreasing relative to the growing demands of our ageing population.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is making a nonsense of the current rules. If we want to recruit somebody from overseas, we already have to demonstrate that we have tried our best and exhausted the domestic pool of local people and in-country overseas staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe only recruit overseas staff when we have to. It\u2019s a lot more expensive to hire people from overseas so we only recruit internationally when there is no other option.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe language in calling them unskilled is disgraceful and an insult to our existing workforce when we have been working so hard to professionalise the sector and to raise the esteem of our fantastic staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis unwelcoming approach is going to make our current overseas staff feel incredibly uncomfortable.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout international recruitment, it\u2019s going to be impossible to plug the gaps today and going forward the situation is going to get worse.<\/p>\n
\u201cRecruiting international workers for the social care sector and the NHS are going to be essential if we are going to deliver these vital services.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always try and recruit locally first, then we look at the overseas pool of people who are already here and only then will we look to recruit from overseas.\u201d<\/p>\n