Can the care sector adjust in time for new immigration laws?

Of all public sector businesses, care and nursing homes look likely to face the toughest challenge in preparing for the stricter immigration rules announced by home secretary Theresa May, due to come into force by the end of the financial year. As of 1st April 2011, care providers will have to apply for an ‘entitlement’ in order to have permission to allocate a number of jobs to overseas workers, with more complicated application procedures also expected for migrants from the EU.

Theresa May defended the new limits by stressing that the ‘Government believes Britain can benefit from migration but not uncontrolled migration’. On such a divisive issue as immigration there will be both supporters and critics, but the needs of the care sector can at least be said to be far from ideological, considering its reliance on migrant workers and difficulty in appealing to enough workers who are UK citizens. Even if some of the stigmas that surround working in care homes can be lifted, services that receive such low funding from local authorities cannot compete with higher salary roles in other areas of healthcare, meaning a large proportion of skilled staff are just not available from the UK workforce.

Providers, therefore, have eight months in which to come up with solutions to their staffing requirements, while many who hold sponsorship licences to employ a quota of overseas workers may find themselves the subject of a UK Border Agency review and learn that some employment contracts may not be renewed as a result. All this at a time when care homes in England are also faced with re-registering their service with the Care Quality Commission, with the deadline only a month from today, in the process of which they need to demonstrate their facilities match up to updated quality and safety standards.

It is a risky time to play with the structuring of our care industry, at a time when the sector needs expansion and investment into new forms of care to protect the dignity and independence of an ageing populace. Should work permits for overseas workers prove more flexible for care-related positions than some fear, then perhaps future development will not be damaged, but if difficulties in assembling a skilled workforce should prove detrimental to the performance of care and nursing homes then it’s easy to see how enthusiasm for the sector will be damaged.

Labour leadership contender, David Miliband, is among those most vocal in their opposition to the new immigration restrictions, declaring them to be ‘dangerous and misguided’ and contradictory to Prime Minister David Cameron’s wish to build better relations with India in particular. However, the Institute for Public Policy Research is not so impressed by any political party’s stance on the issue, believing the Government to have ‘no control at all on total net migration’, making for a wide and uncertain range of verdicts over what the resulting effect will be upon UK society.