Source · Select Committees · Health and Social Care Committee
Recommendation 14
14
Paragraph: 72
The Government must ensure that transitional arrangements are in place to ensure that social care...
Recommendation
The Government must ensure that transitional arrangements are in place to ensure that social care workers can continue to be recruited from overseas for as long as it takes to build sufficient resilience in the domestic supply of social care workers. We agree with the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) that building this resilience will depend on improving pay and other workforce issues in social care.
Paragraph Reference:
72
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
7.24 We recognise the end of free movement between the UK and the EU means the majority of roles in adult social care will not be eligible for a sponsored work visa. Currently, 7% of the adult social care workforce identify as EU citizens. However, those that are already here, and their family members, are able to apply under the EU Settlement Scheme, and so we do not anticipate a sudden loss of this workforce. Furthermore, the flow of EU workers into the sector annually is small comparable to the size of the workforce – 5% of all workers joining the sector in a direct care role in 2019/20 had arrived from the EU in the previous 12 months. We do not anticipate the end-of-transition will have an immediate impact on workforce supply. 7.25 We are clear immigration should not be seen as a solution to recruitment challenges. We are confident employers will be able to recruit enough people domestically to outnumber any decreased flow of workers from the EU, and are taking action to support adult social care providers to recruit domestically. For example, to attract more people to the sector we ran a National Recruitment Campaign across broadcast, digital and social media highlighting the vital work care workers do, and we are working with DWP to promote adult social care careers to jobseekers. We have launched an online recruitment tool, Join Social Care, to simplify and fast track the recruitment process during the pandemic, and are offering free rapid induction training via Skills for Care for new and existing staff and volunteers. 7.26 We also expect local authorities to take an active role in supporting recruitment and retention in their local area, utilising their oversight of local systems, the labour market, future demand for care services, and trends and patterns in adult social care workforce. We are aware of some great local initiatives already in place, which we are promoting on the Skills for Care website. 7.27 We recognise the importance of addressing wider workforce issues to make the sector more attractive, and are working with stakeholders and other government departments to understand what more we can do to support recruitment and retention