Most home care bosses opt to recruit in UK despite easing of immigration rules

The majority of home care bosses (58 per cent) have said they will not be seeking overseas recruitment and will instead focus on hiring locally to fill job vacancies, despite care workers being added to the government’s Shortage Occupation List (SOL).

The stark reality was revealed by a recent poll of 296 home care providers in England. The members of the Homecare Association gave a variety of reasons for their decision which included the cost and complexity of sponsorship and the issue of foreign workers not having a valid driving licence or car to do the job.

The government announced last December that care workers would be added to its list of occupations with a shortage of skilled workers on 15 February – a change supposed to make it easier for the care sector to recruit from abroad. However, bosses have said the application process is bureaucratic, expensive and far from quick.

Home care providers surveyed also said they would not be hiring from abroad because of an inability to meet the minimum salary requirement. To qualify to work in the UK, carers will need to earn an annual salary minimum of £20,480 – equivalent to £10.10 an hour.

Foreign workers require a valid driving licence and car

The issue of overseas workers not having a valid driving licence or a car was raised as another barrier to recruiting from abroad.

Care bosses also highlighted the difficulty in finding affordable accommodation for staff and possible language barriers (particularly an issue, one said, for those receiving care who have dementia or hearing loss).

Home care workers have been added to the Shortage Occupation List (SOL) for 12 months but home care bosses say they are also not considering recruiting from overseas because the visas are only temporary.

The care sector has been struggling to recruit enough staff to meet workforce shortages and faces over 100,000 vacancies. Many care providers have faced delays in getting the licences needed to recruit staff from abroad.

Home care bosses have called the sponsorship process long and complicated, with some providers being unsure how to go about it.

Mike Padgham, chairman of the Independent Care Group, said: “Social care is facing its biggest staffing crisis in living memory and anything that alleviates that is welcome indeed.

“But providers are now experiencing lengthy delays in getting the licences needed to recruit staff, which is the last thing we need.”

Before a care provider can hire a foreign worker, criteria including police checks must be carried out for every country that a care worker has lived or worked in for the last 10 years. Often details are sent to care bosses in different languages.

25% of home care providers handing contracts back

The home care poll also revealed that a quarter of home care providers intend to hand some or all of their existing work back to councils or the NHS.

The vast majority (91 per cent) admitted demand for their home care services had increased over the previous two months but 41 per cent were delivering less care than this time last year.

Care workers’ pay and terms and conditions of employment was the greatest challenge to recruiting and retaining home care workers. Competition from other sectors and staff re-assessing their work/life balance were other factors.

Some 63 per cent said more of their care workers were leaving more often than before the pandemic and 90 per cent of providers reported needing to offer £10 or more per hour to attract job applicants.

The Homecare Association has revealed ‘a clear difference’ between the private-pay and state-funded sectors, when it comes to the number of care workers quitting their jobs and their ability to take on new care packages - as home care providers serving the private-pay market experienced ‘fewer difficulties’.

Jane Townson, the chief executive of the Homecare Association said in a blog: “Demand for homecare continues to rise but the number of care workers available in homecare has reduced.

"Mismatch between supply and demand in homecare is leading to an increase in unmet need, which risks adversely affecting individuals and their families, as well as the wider health and care system.”