The Challenges of Staff Shortages in the UK Care Sector and the Growing Reliance on Migrant Workers

 

Care homes in the UK are facing significant challenges in finding sufficient staff. Recruiting and retaining care workers has been difficult due to low wages and the demanding nature of the work. This issue is expected to be exacerbated as the government plans stricter rules around foreign workers bringing families with them when taking health and social care jobs.

To address the shortage, the government wants to encourage more British people to enter careers in social care. This is important as the ageing population is projected to dramatically increase demand for such services. Projections indicate there will be around 13.8 million over-65s in the UK by 2035.

Surveys show over half of care providers struggle with recruitment while one-third battle retaining employees. Remuneration remains a core barrier, with salaries only marginally higher than comparable roles like cleaning but lower than positions such as retail assistants.

Tougher immigration policies risk exacerbating understaffing challenges for care homes. There are also concerns about exploitation of some care workers, with reports of conditions akin to modern slavery.

Currently, around 19% of care workers hail from abroad, primarily nations like Nigeria, India, Romania, Poland, Philippines and Zimbabwe. In 2022, a new visa route aimed to fill over 160,000 vacancies following COVID-19 and Brexit.

Experts assert the staffing crisis cannot be solved without addressing the root cause of inadequate funding limiting wage growth. Without fixing this, the social care sector’s personnel problems seem unlikely to improve.