Guardian Angel Carers is a multi-award-winning, highly regarded home care group operating on an innovative franchise basis. Over the last 14 years, as the company has expanded to meet demand for family-feel, compassionate at-home care, it has also had a front-row seat to the disagreements about immigration.
Immigration policy has been a major topic of discussion in recent months, with political discourse about settlement policies, the periods after which foreign nationals have the right to settle permanently in the UK, and, more specifically, within the care sector, where 20%+ of professionals are born overseas.
The firm shares insight into the controversy about the effects of visa reforms and overseas recruitment on the care sector, and why, at the heart of the issue, capacity and skill remain pivotal.
Workforce Challenges and Visa Reforms in Adult Social Care
There are well-documented difficulties within the adult social care sector that have been prevalent for several years. They include high rates of vacancies, increasing demand for care from a population that lives longer, and healthcare funding restraints that limit the capacity of public service providers.
It is no secret that employers, from private home care businesses to the NHS, have often been reliant on overseas recruitment, with pathways like the Health and Care Worker visa enabling experienced professionals to relocate to the UK and join the workforce.
International recruitment has, for some time, been a part of the puzzle, with a reported 26,000+ individuals moving to the UK between April 2024 and 2025 to take up caring roles, albeit representing a reduction compared to the 145,000 candidates who relocated between 2023 and 2024.
This followed previous reforms that left care workers unable to relocate with their dependents, amid concerns that the visa route had been exploited since its introduction in 2021.
The Health and Care Worker visa still exists, but further changes were made last year to tighten the qualification requirements, and it is now available only to candidates such as nurses and doctors. Other care professionals, regardless of their experience or skills, are not eligible to apply.
However, workforce capacity problems persist, with an estimated 8.3% of all social care positions currently vacant, worth 131,000 vacancies. Many home care companies are dealing with significant issues where they are unable to recruit or retain the number of employees they need to meet demand.
Balancing Shifts in Immigration Policy and the Need for Healthcare Professionals
Calls for changes to immigration rules have largely been driven by public pressure and the Labour government’s promises to reduce net migration.
Statistics show that net migration last year was around +200,000, with 105,000 asylum applications recorded, and that refugees and asylum seekers accounted for 12% of immigration during that same period.
The Home Office has published various white papers and policy statements on removing unauthorised migrants and reinforcing border controls, with headline proposals giving the government more powers to refuse applications and move away from spending on hotels and other accommodation, instead developing larger-scale sites.
While this sits alongside a statement about protecting safe and legal routes, these will be subject to tighter annual caps on the number of applicants approved and are not designed for any particular sector or profession.
The Proportion of Foreign National Care Professionals Working in the UK
The key worry within the care sector is that, while reducing migration may ease pressure on government finances and public services, it is also expected to have a negative impact on the capacity of healthcare providers, given the proportion of foreign nationals who perform key roles.
Estimates show that around a third of all adult social care workers are foreign nationals, and approximately 21% of NHS staff originate from overseas. In addition, one in four carers working in home and residential facilities was born outside the UK, all of which illustrates the scale of dependence on immigration.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics support these estimates, stating that 25.3% of all people employed in home care and other types of care work were born overseas, as were 19.4% of social workers, 18.7% of senior care workers, and 17.4% of managers and owners of domiciliary or residential care organisations.
The government has developed a care workforce pathway with Skills for Care, intended to improve NHS recruitment and retention and encourage more people to enter the care sector as a career, but this is part of a 10 Year Health Plan and isn’t expected to have any immediately tangible impacts.
The Need for Balanced Sector-Specific Immigration Policies
The debate is far from simple, but the reality is that public and private care are interlinked. When local authority services and NHS providers cannot keep pace with demand, or services are unavailable, private care businesses are relied upon to absorb that.
Issues with workforce stability aren’t new, and the ramifications of the visa reforms, which have yet to be quantified, are expected to include more pressure on recruitment from a shrinking pool of applicants, limited service capacities, and an ever-larger gap between the need for skilled care and the providers with the ability to deliver.
The biggest oversight seems to be in introducing sweeping immigration reforms, which many feel are needed to address economic and social factors, but without any exceptions or exclusions made for social care, or new, better-managed visas to replace the previous route to UK residency for the care workers that are so desperately needed.
Many of the leading voices in the care space are calling for a more nuanced, sensitive approach that recognises the human cost of limiting immigration for all care workers. Investing in domestic training, qualification and education remains vital, but in the short term, this won’t replace the contributions of overseas carers.
While we await further reporting on the real-world effects of the closure of the Health and Care Worker visa for care professionals, the expectation is that the consequences are only just beginning to be felt within communities and care organisations that lack the adaptability needed to maintain care delivery.
