Care home sector demands immediate action to address nursing shortages

Leading voices from the care home sector are calling for the UK's nursing shortage to be tackled and for the importance of nursing in social care to be recognised.

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) is being is urged to immediately review the way applications from foreign nurses are assessed to take into account the ‘critical health and care’ needs of the UK’s population.

The demands were made in a joint letter signed by the National Care Forum (NCF) and 10 other national organisations from the social care and health sector.

The letter to Sir David Metcalfe, chair of MAC, also calls for the immediate inclusion of the nursing profession on a shortage occupation list, in light of an ‘unprecedented demand on services’ which is outstripping the supply of nurses.

The care organisations' letter, which has also been signed by the Care Quality Commission, is calling for a shortage occupation list that is responsive to changing demand and prioritises foreign nurses’ applications for certificates.

The joint letter states: ‘In social care the increasing demand for provision, coupled with the increasing demand for nursing staff from the NHS, has heightened the challenge for employers of small and larger care homes with nursing and other health organisations to recruit and retain staff.

‘The demand for trained nurses currently exceeds the available UK supply.

‘We also know that after significant nurse recruitment from within the EEA in recent years, this supply cannot now meet demand and an element of non-EEA recruitment is required.’

In its National Care Forum Personnel Statistics survey report 2015, the NCF found the recruitment and retention of nursing staff was a major problem for care providers. Staff turnover varied hugely from zero to 83 per cent with one of the chief reasons for high turnover rates being the result of nurses returning overseas.

The NCF said in a statement that it wants ‘a pragmatic solution which enables health and social care employers to employ the clinical staff they have recruited from overseas in order to provide the responsive, high quality care people deserve.’

More than 63,000 have signed a petition calling on the Government to make nurses exempt from new immigration laws in order to stop them being deported.

The law, scheduled to come into force next year, means workers recruited from outside the EU since 2011 who earn less than £35,000 a year, will have to return to their countries of origin after six years - a measure that will increase nursing shortages.

Des Kelly, executive director of the NCF said: “It is imperative that this situation is addressed as a priority if adult social care services are to be able to continue to support the NHS in an integrated and professional way.”