new “hostile environment” for is putting off NHS and care staff from applying for jobs in the UK while health and legal experts have told . Just 2,900 people applied for a health and social care visa in July, down 82 per cent compared with the same month in 2023, latest immigration figures have revealed. The sharp decline follows rule changes, introduced by the Conservative government, which banned and to the UK.
The number of visa applications from health and care worker dependants fell to 22,200 between April and July 2024 – down from 75,300 for the same period last year. Social care leaders said the tightened rules would have a devastating effect on efforts to fill the 125,000 vacancies that still exist in the sector. Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, told : “This latest decline in health and care visa applications undoubtedly puts paid to the prospect of a fully staffed and functioning social care system, and highlights the bind the Government is in as it juggles two conflicting policy objectives – reducing on the one hand, and staffing up on the other.
“In the absence of the greatly improved pay package everyone in social care knows is needed to make roles attractive to workers already based here, we have become dangerously reliant on staff from overseas to keep things running smoothly. “ , this steep decline highlights the risk to the care system when the supply of essential care workers from abroad is reduced to such a trickle making staff va.