Social care providers will be able to recruit overseas workers to fill vacancies under relaxed immigration rules.

Following a decision first announced by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) on Christmas Eve, care workers have been added to the shortage occupation list. 

The decision came after a recommendation from the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) that these roles be made eligible immediately for the health and care visa and placed on the list to help migrants get work visas, to temper “severe and increasing difficulties” the sector was facing with recruitment and retention.

 “Ahead of the changes coming into force, we’ve started an ambitious package of reform of the sponsorship system and we’re supporting employers new to the system to navigate it,” a government spokesperson said.

“We want to see employers make long-term investments in the UK domestic workforce instead of relying on labour from abroad. Our plan for jobs is helping people across the country retrain, build new skills and get back into work.

“We are doing everything we can to support the incredibly hardworking care staff by including investing £462.5 million in workforce recruitment and retention funds, expanding the health and care visa scheme and promoting our ‘Made with Care’ recruitment campaign.”

Independent Care Group chairman Mike Padgham said providers are “experiencing lengthy delays in getting the licences needed to recruit staff, which is the last thing we need”.

“We need these staff to provide care today and tomorrow, not sometime in the future when the bureaucracy is sorted out,” he continued. “The government needs to streamline this process, or we will be no better off.

“This obstacle should never have been put in our way in the first place. But then once a decision had been taken to remove it, we should not have had to wait this long – it was announced on Christmas Eve after all.

“Now we are finding that there are further delays. It is simply not acceptable for a sector that is on its knees already.

“The people who need care and those providing it deserve better than this.”

In December, health secretary Sajid Javid said the measure would help to “ensure short-term sustainability” as he also urged care workers to get vaccinated.

 “I also urge all care staff yet to do so to come forward to get boosted now to protect themselves and those they care for,” he added.

The DHSC said that the visa offers a path to settlement in the UK, with care workers and carers from overseas who will be able to move with dependents, including partners and children.

“The care sector is experiencing unprecedented challenges prompted by the pandemic and the changes we’ve made to the health and care visa will bolster the workforce and help alleviate some of the pressures currently being experienced,” said home secretary Priti Patel.

“It is clear that social care is a shortage occupation and the addition to the list for immigration will make a difference,” commented PJ Care chair Neil Russell on the decision. “Brexit, the pandemic and more recently the introduction of mandatory vaccinations have decimated a sector that was already struggling to recruit.

“Recruiting from overseas is not a panacea, it will not cure all of the recruitment and employment issues in the sector and it is far more time-consuming and expensive than sourcing staff from the UK.” Russell added. “These issues will remain until care providers are able to afford to pay staff what they deserve.”

Last year’s announcement came after campaigners accused the government of excluding care workers from its new immigration system and ignoring the role they have played during the coronavirus pandemic. The temporary measures will be in place for a minimum of 12 months.