There has been a significant decline in the number of Health and Care Worker visas granted in the UK over the past year – sparking fresh concerns over a social care workforce ‘crisis’.
Latest figures show a 65% annual drop in visa grants when compared with data from 2023.
It comes after the government last year banned direct care workers arriving from overseas from bringing dependents on their visa.
Government data shows there were just 13,131 Health and Care Worker visa grants between April to September 2024 – down from 80,541 grants in the same period the year before (-84%).
In total, 50,591 such visas were awarded in the year ending September 2024 – a 65% decrease when compared to the previous year.
The number of Health and Care Worker visas had previously increased by 114,023 between 2021 and 2023 – peaking at 145,823 in the year ending December 2023.
However, the volume of visas issued to care workers and home carers has fallen since the latter part of 2023.
The decline follows increased scrutiny from the Home Office to employers in the health and social care sector, and comes after measures were introduced to prevent social care workers from bringing dependents when they migrate to the UK.
Since March of this year, care workers have been unable to bring dependents with them to the UK.
Health and care dependents accounted for 62% of all work dependents in the last year, with 211,337 issued in the year ending September 2024.
Applications for Health and Care worker visas have also fallen since August 2023, reducing to 2,200 in October 2024.
The monthly numbers of Health and Care Worker visa applications from main applicants increased from 4,100 to 18,300 between February 2022 to August 2023, following the addition of care workers to the Shortage Occupation List.
Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, said the decision to stop health and care workers from bringing their partners and children to the UK was ‘short sighted and profoundly damaging’.
‘We are already battling a domestic workforce crisis, with 70,000 fewer British workers in the sector over the past two years. The pipeline of international recruits was keeping services afloat, but now even that lifeline is being cut off, and care providers are left scrambling to fill shortages, unable to deliver the amount of care they once could,’ he said.
‘How can we build a compassionate system when the workers at its heart are treated with such little regard?’
Professor Green warned that the ban on dependents had introduced a ‘two-tier system’ where NHS staff and other skilled workers can bring their families to the UK, but where care workers are excluded.
While care workers are unable to bring dependents with new applications, those who were already in the UK before March 11 2024 may still bring dependents if they are still on a Health and Care Worker visa; are extending their Health and Care Worker visa; or are changing jobs within the same occupation code.
The number of internationally educated professionals who joined the NMC register in the six months to September 2024 was down 16.6% (-2,501) compared to the same period last year.
A version of this story was first published on our sister title Nursing in Practice.
