Recommendation 26

The Home Office has been working with 15 regional partnerships— established by DHSC—to support care workers who lose their employment if their sponsor’s licence is revoked.67 These arrangements seek to enable care workers to find new employers by matching them to genuine care providers with vacancies in their local area.68 The Home Office writes to affected people to direct them towards these hubs and provides a list of licensed employers.69 We were concerned, however, that these arrangements were not working effectively, with only small numbers being successfully placed into new employment, and many workers left displaced and fearing deportation. The Home Office told us that DHSC run the regional partnerships and that it could not provide any detail on how these arrangements were working.70 A Freedom of Information request from the Royal College of Nursing indicates that only 3.5% of workers who approached regional partnerships were successfully supported into new positions.71 While the White Paper states the government will close care worker visas to new applications from abroad, migrant workers already in the United Kingdom—who are able to extend or switch visas—may still be affected if their sponsor’s licence is revoked.72