Exclusive:Immigration crackdown a 'guillotine' on care sector that will see homes close, industry warns

Labour’s new immigration controls are a “guillotine” on the care sector that will see homes close, the industry has warned.

Sir Keir Starmer used a Downing Street speech on Monday to lay out plans to “significantly” reduce net migration as the ruling party seeks to head off the electoral threat from Reform UK.

Robert Kilgour, the chairman of Renaissance Care said the sudden announcement felt like a “guillotine” coming down on the sector, and was a “betrayal” of care home staff and the elderly they support.

It came as Scotland’s First Minister said the Prime Minister “walked right into the arms of Nigel Farage” with his immigration announcement.

Speaking to The Scotsman, Dr Kilgour said: “I have got 1500 staff, and a third are overseas staff. I could not run the care homes without those staff. People seem to think they’re being used as a cheaper option, that’s a complete fallacy. Overseas staff are more expensive because of all the charges. They are not a cheaper option, they are paid exactly the same, but the add-on cost makes them more expensive than UK staff. I need to understand the impact on our existing staff, and then the impact on our recruitment overseas going forward, if that’s even still an option.

“It’s incredibly difficult for us to attract, train and maintain a domestic workforce when your main customer refuses to pay for it. I see this as a shocking betrayal of not just our brilliant staff, but the elderly they care for. It is a fact of life that you cannot fix the NHS without first fixing social care.”

Pointing to recent rises in employers' national insurance contributions, Dr Kilgour also accused ministers of having no understanding of the sector.

‘NHS first, and social care a very poor second’

He said: “I would love to pay my amazing staff more, but if my main customer refuses to pay, there’s not much I can do about it. I try to increase our staff pay rates as often as possible.

“I fear this will lead to more care home closures, cancelled NHS operations and longer NHS waiting lists. So the government is really shooting themselves in both feet again. I cannot understand this completely blinkered attitude that the government seems to have for social care. It’s really totally NHS first, and social care a very poor second.

“They really need to wake up and smell the coffee, and I just don’t think any of them get the simple details of what’s involved. I am equally critical of Chris Philp, who is the shadow Home Secretary of the Conservatives who doesn’t seem to get it either.

“It should be about the people, rather than the perceived political threat of Nigel Farage and Reform.”

There were also warnings from Hazel Brown, Chief Executive of leading Scottish social care charity Cornerstone.

She said: “This is yet another blow for the sector which is already struggling with a huge recruitment crisis, coupled with recent changes in eNIC’s. Far from being 'low skilled jobs' social care workers are a regulated workforce who require not only compassion and resilience but also specialist training and a high degree of professionalism in order that they can support some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

“Tightening the visa rules is going to make a bad situation even worse. What message does this send to a sector and workforce that is already struggling to survive within a broken system?”.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer holds a press conference on immigration at Downing Street (Picture: Ian Vogler - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

The GMB Union told the Department for Health and Social Care that the plan to scrap care visas will be potentially catastrophic for the sector.

Will Dalton, GMB National Officer, said: “Scrapping this visa will be deeply damaging – potentially catastrophic for our beleaguered care system.

“The whole sector is utterly reliant on migrant workers – yet we still have more than 130,000 vacancies across the country.

“Care work is difficult, often dangerous yet very badly paid.

“GMB is working with the Government on Fair Pay Agreements in care, which are desperately needed to give these highly skilled professionals the wage rise they deserve.

“But there is absolutely no chance these will in in place in time to fill the void these new visa restrictions will create.”

UK risks becoming ‘island of strangers’, says Starmer

Sir Keir announced changes to the system on Monday in a Downing Street address, including making migrants wait ten years rather than five to apply for settlement or citizenship, increasing required standards of English for those coming to the UK and tightening tests on colleges and universities offering places to foreign students.

The Prime Minister said the UK risked becoming an “island of strangers”.

But responding to his comments and the associated White Paper published on Monday, John Swinney accused the Prime Minister of being “terrified” of Reform UK.

He said: “I think Keir Starmer walked right into the arms of Nigel Farage. Nigel Farage could have delivered that speech this morning.

“I can’t believe that Keir Starmer found himself able to deliver that speech which just totally contradicts everything he’s ever said in the past.

“He’s obviously terrified of Nigel Farage.”

The First Minister has put the perceived threat of Reform UK in Scotland – where the party seems on track to return up to a dozen MSPs in next year’s Holyrood elections if polls come to fruition – front and centre of his party’s campaign.

The SNP, the First Minister said, would “confront” Mr Farage, not “cosy up” to him.

Sir Keir’s announcement, where he said the new system would be “controlled, selective and fair”, would be “deeply damaging” for the Scottish economy, Mr Swinney claimed.

Scotland’s working age population has been declining in recent years as Scots get older and it is projected to fall further, with the SNP-led Scottish Government pushing for looser immigration rules north of the border.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has also suggested a need for at least partially different rules, similar to the Fresh Talent scheme put in place by the last Labour administration in Scotland.

“There will be a huge impact on employment in the National Health Service and on social care,” he said.

“We struggle in Scotland to have a large enough working-age population.

“The announcements today from the UK Government are going to make that even more difficult and there’s going to be some significant opportunities lost for the Scottish economy by the implications of these announcements.

“For our universities, for example, where we were arguing for there to be greater flexibility applied for university students to be able to stay for longer when they come as international students and that opportunity will be lost.”

Rachel Cackett, chief executive of the Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland, said: “Proposals to include the scrapping of visas for new social care workers will inflict further damage on a sector already deeply weakened by decades of underinvestment and now contending with the impact of increased employers’ National Insurance contributions.”

She added: “Blocking routes for skilled and committed workers from abroad to be employed in social care and support in the UK, when we know so many providers are struggling to recruit and retain staff, is a retrograde step.

“We are also deeply concerned by the rhetoric underlying the announcement today. Implying that support staff are ‘lower skilled workers’ is misinformed, disparaging of UK workers and deeply damaging to the government’s own policy intent.

“Over many years CCPS’s members have tirelessly highlighted that social care staff are highly skilled and regulated practitioners required to hold professional qualifications.

“In Scotland, the reality is that low pay in the sector is not down to employers but to rates of pay for social care staff set by government; rates that utterly fail to recognise the professionalism of support workers.

“If governments in Westminster or Holyrood want to attract more UK citizens into care and support roles they need to convey the worth of these crucial staff by paying a salary commensurate with the skills and responsibilities of the profession.

“They must also radically alter their language to demonstrate the respect rightfully due to essential key workers.

“And they must ensure that people who are vulnerable and need support can receive it, when it is needed, from skilled, regulated staff – including from overseas when the UK labour market simply cannot meet need.

“Whatever the political calculation behind today’s UK announcement, it has demonstrated a profound disregard for the contribution of the social care workforce – and ultimately, a depressing devaluing of the people they support.”