Recommendation 15

It is extremely hard to predict what impact these changes will have on the social care workforce. Given the level of overseas recruitment that has taken place, decisions about routes to settlement for social care workers are likely to affect a significant proportion of the care workforce, which could have a major effect on the social care sector and the essential care delivered to vulnerable people in this country. It is not clear what impact the Government expects these changes to have on the social care workforce and we have seen no evidence that the Home Office has made efforts to integrate these reforms with the Government’s overall strategy for adult social care. Outcomes in the NHS and the social care sector are inextricably linked and changes that affect social care will have a knock-on effect on the NHS. If the Government applies reductions to waits for settlement for employment in public services to the NHS but does not apply equivalent reductions for workers in social care, this could contribute to staff shortages in social care that ultimately harm the whole system. (Conclusion, Paragraph 58)