12 May 2025
Immigration announcement ‘shows profound disregard for social care’
CCPS’s CEO Rachel Cackett responds to the UK Government pledge to curb recruitment of care workers from overseas
Responding to today’s announcement from the UK Government on immigration, CCPS’s CEO Rachel Cackett said:
“Building on messaging shared with the media by the Home Secretary over the weekend, this morning the Prime Minister announced a new white paper aimed at cutting levels of immigration into the UK.
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.
The 2023 Social Care Benchmarking in Scotland report found that frontline posts were extremely difficult to fill, with 95% of respondents experiencing difficulties in recruiting operations staff.
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.”