Government to End Overseas Recruitment Route for Care Workers Amid Migration Reforms
The government has announced plans to close the overseas visa route for care workers as part of new measures to reduce net migration. https://thecareruk.com/government-to-end-overseas-recruitment-route-for-care-workers-amid-migration-reforms/. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper revealed the policy direction during an appearance on national television, stating that the Labour government intends to focus future immigration policy on higher-skilled roles while boosting domestic workforce training.
The decision forms part of a wider strategy expected to be detailed in the forthcoming Immigration White Paper. It follows a series of recently introduced changes, including tighter eligibility criteria for skilled worker visas, which now require a degree-level qualification and higher minimum salary thresholds.
The Home Office has indicated that the number of visas issued under the Health and Care Worker route surged from around 31,800 in 2021 to nearly 146,000 in 2023. However, the figure dropped significantly to just over 27,000 in 2024, following enforcement measures and increased scrutiny of visa compliance.
Ms Cooper said the closure of the care worker visa pathway could lead to a reduction of up to 50,000 low-skilled worker visas in the current year. She also noted that an estimated 10,000 individuals who had arrived in the UK on care worker visas are now without jobs in the sector, urging employers to prioritise recruitment from this existing pool.
“These individuals entered the UK in good faith but were let down by a lack of proper checks and safeguards,” she said. “We want to ensure that care providers recruit responsibly and within a fair system that supports ethical employment practices.” She said.
The care sector, which continues to struggle with workforce shortages, has expressed deep concern over the government’s stance. Industry leaders have long highlighted low wages and inadequate funding as key barriers to attracting domestic workers, and fear that tightening overseas recruitment may exacerbate existing challenges
Care Workers
The Care Workers’ Charity is proud to announce the launch of Centring Care Workers: A Guide—a practical and vital new resource co-produced with the Care Worker Advisory Board. https://thecareruk.com/the-care-workers-charity-launches-centring-care-workers-a-guide-championing-frontline-voices-in-adult-social-care/. The guide supports organisations and leaders to meaningfully engage care workers in decision-making, service design, and policy development, putting those with frontline experience at the heart of change.
Too often, care workers—the very experts delivering essential services—are left out of the conversations that shape their roles and the sector. This guide highlights the transformative power of co-production, providing practical approaches to foster genuine collaboration, inclusive practices, and sustained partnerships.
Revolutionising social care : How technology-enabled insights transform local authority services
In today’s challenging economic climate, Local Authorities face mounting pressure to deliver personalised, high-quality care with increasingly limited resources. The Access Group has developed an innovative solution that addresses these challenges head-on: Access Technology Enabled Care (TEC), a groundbreaking platform that harnesses the power of artificial intelligence and sensor technology to transform how care is delivered and managed. The solution identifies subtle changes in an individual’s routine, alerting families and providers when to offer support. As a result, Access is not only enhancing people’s independence and wellbeing but also enabling authorities to use their scarce resources in the optimal way.
Care commission progress
Government Publishes Terms Of Reference For Independent Commission Into Adult Social Care
The government has published the terms of reference for Baroness Casey of Blackstock’s independent commission into adult social care. The commission will form part of the critical first steps towards delivering a national care service. https://thecareruk.com/government-publishes-terms-of-reference-for-independent-commission-into-adult-social-care/
The commission, announced in January, formally began earlier this week with a meeting between its chairwoman, Baroness Louise Casey, and those with lived experience in the sector.
The terms of reference set out that the commission will report directly to the Prime Minister and will be split over 2 phases:
Phase 1 (medium term)
The purpose of the first phase of the commission is to set out the plan for how to implement a national care service, a government manifesto commitment. This should report in 2026.
Phase 2 (long term)
The second phase should then make longer-term recommendations for the transformation of adult social care, reporting back by 2028. This should build on the commission’s medium-term recommendations to look at the model of care needed to address demographic change, how services must be organised to deliver this and discuss alternative models that could be considered in future to deliver a fair and affordable adult care system.
Some of the first recommendations from a newly launched commission into adult social care in England might not be implemented until 2036. https://uk.news.yahoo.com/social-care-commission-recommendations-might-230100226.html. An independent commission, announced in January, formally began earlier this week with a meeting between its chairwoman, Baroness Louise Casey, and those with lived experience in the sector.
Care minister Stephen Kinnock has described the commission as a “once in a generation opportunity to transcend party politics and build consensus on the future of adult social care”.
While it had already been confirmed that the first phase of the commission would report in 2026, it has now been revealed some of its recommendations may not be put into effect for another 10 years. The commission’s terms of reference, published by the Government on Friday, said: “The Commission should produce tangible, pragmatic recommendations that can be implemented in a phased way over a decade.”
Voices within the adult social care sector had already raised their concerns about the fact the second phase of the commission might not report until 2028.
Age UK said the latest timeline will “deeply disappoint many older people and their families” and risks bringing change “far too late” for many.
Lady Casey, who has previously led a review into standards and culture of the Metropolitan Police, is also currently overseeing a national audit into grooming gangs in England and Wales.
Downing Street said while that work is ongoing this month, there had been “lots of preparatory work to ensure that (Lady Casey) can hit the ground running in relation to what she’s doing on social care”.
Casey Commission reforms doomed to fail, unless Government measures true cost of inaction on social care’, say MPs
“Government needs to present a robust financial case for reforms of the system,” cross-party committee warn
Reporting on the problems of England’s social care sector, a group of MPs said that too much emphasis is put on the cost of change and not enough consideration is given to the human and financial cost of inaction
Parliament’s cross-party Health and Social Care Committee warn that the Government needs to measure the true cost of inaction on social care, to be able to present a robust financial case for reforms of the system, saying that “without this we fear that the reforms that come out of the Casey Commission will be doomed to failure, leaving everyone continuing to suffer under the current unsustainable system.”
The Committee’s report sets out how the existing adult social care (ASC) system is not meeting the needs of the population and “the Government and taxpayers are currently paying £32 billion a year for a broken system”.
MPs highlight that this is despite the enormous contribution by unpaid carers, who provide care worth £184 billion a year, “equivalent to a second NHS”, and who are bearing the highest cost from failures to reform adult social care.
The broken system is also straining local authorities’ budgets with an increasingly high proportion of spending on adult social care, which MPs state is crowding out spending on other services, such as fixing potholes, keeping libraries open and providing youth services.
The report expresses the Committee’s concern that there is a growing disconnect between where council tax revenue is being spent and what services residents expect to see delivered from their council tax – undermining trust in local democracy.
MPs also point to the impact of the status quo on the NHS and say that social care reform is an integral part of NHS reforms and cannot be a separate process.
Vulnerability
The Financial Conduct Authority’s recent vulnerability review highlighted that firms are still sticking too rigidly to processes that ultimately do not support vulnerable customers and are falling short of consumer duty obligations. https://www.ftadviser.com/vulnerable-clients/2025/5/1/how-will-advisers-know-their-clients-are-vulnerable/ As an industry, we need to ask ourselves why customers still experience poor outcomes driven by overly complex requirements, accessibility barriers and unacceptable levels of poor service.
After the Covid-19 pandemic we’ve seen a shift in considering consumers’ financial health alongside mental and physical health needs, and a change in mindset away from challenging customers who may be experiencing vulnerability toward supporting them with a more flexible approach to issues such as affordability and debt recovery.
Progress has also been made recognising the characteristics vulnerable customers may have when considering stereotypical vulnerabilities such as bereavement, ill-health or old age.
Yet, to deliver an outstanding vulnerability strategy, firms need to dig deeper, assessing characteristics of vulnerability against their target market and adjusting their products, processes and approach accordingly, especially for those customers who are non-stereotypically vulnerable.
When it comes to vulnerability, a comprehensive framework that meets a variety of customer needs must support the service offering by considering:
- Identifying additional support needs:Ensuring process design and training materials identify potential triggers for additional support needs, such as allowing more time to make decisions.
- Contact optionality:Ensuring a variety of contact channels so customers aren’t forced into a contact method that makes processes harder for them.
- Business requirements:Ensuring any ‘must have’ declarations or evidence can be supplied without placing unnecessary barriers in the way of customer outcomes. For example, allowing verbal instructions as opposed to completing lengthy forms.
- Managing customer expectations:Proactively keeping the customer informed of expected completion times, especially where there are foreseen delays during peak transactional periods.
- Management information and reporting– Developing business intelligence that reflects the drivers of vulnerability, its impact and the effect these have on customers to support continual improvement of services and fulfil consumer duty obligations.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has released its Financial Lives 2024 survey which took a snapshot of consumers’ attitudes and financial circumstances. https://www.professionaladviser.com/news/4413805/fca-49-uk-adults-financially-vulnerable
The survey, which quizzed nearly 18,000 UK adults in 2024, showed that 49% of UK adults showed characteristics of financial vulnerability, down from 52% from May 2022.
The regulator defined four characteristics of vulnerability, which were: poor health, negative life events, low resilience and low capacity.
Of those surveyed, 24% had low financial resilience which remained at similar levels from May 2022. Topping the list of low financial resiliency metrics was low savings, with 14% of respondents represented. This was followed by 13% being heavily burdened and 8% in financial difficulty.
The survey’s findings showed that 54% of UK adults had no protection products in place. Life cover (28%) was the product with the most representation in the survey, followed by private medical insurance (14%), critical illness cover (13%) and healthcare cash plans (9.4%).
Of those asked, 13% had been offered a general insurance or protection product in the last two years that they felt was “completely unreasonable” due to price or terms and conditions. This figure has more than doubled since 2022, where the statistic sat at 6%.
The most likely demographics to not take out general insurance or protection policies were the unemployed (48%) and those with no investible assets (48%) This was followed by those who were digitally excluded (42%), those aged 18-24 (35%), Black customers (30%) and customers who were sick/disabled (30%).
More than 60 per cent of UK adults are fearful they will run out of money in retirement, with more than a third worried about the cost of later-life care.https://www.ftadviser.com/ft-adviser/2025/5/19/two-thirds-of-adults-are-worried-about-care-costs-in-later-life/ LV’s Wealth and Wellbeing study heard for 92 per cent of people, staying in their own home was the most important thing for them in retirement.
Georgina Oxton, LV’s equity release divisional sales manager, said: “With rising costs and increased pressures on public health services, it’s no surprise many people are feeling anxious about how they’ll manage in retirement.
“With a rising number of people facing uncertainty about accessing care in later-life, it’s clear that proactive financial planning is of paramount importance.”
LV’s research also revealed 78 per cent of adults said being able to adapt their home to meet changing needs is important to them, yet more than half are worried about how they would pay for the renovations if their health were to deteriorate.