A new report by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has recommended that care workers and senior care workers remain on the Shortage Occupation List (SOL).

The recommendation is published in the MAC’s Review of the Shortage Occupation List 2023.

In a letter to home secretary Suella Braverman and minister for immigration, Robert Jenrick, MAC chair, Professor Brian Bell, said: “We have …. recommended that care workers and senior care workers remain on the SOL, given their recent inclusion and the government’s continued failure to respond to our April 2022 report on the sector.”

The April 2022 report by the committee examined the impact the ending of freedom of movement has had on the care sector.

Speaking in July this year, Professor Bell said the UK had adopted a deliberate policy of exploiting low-paid overseas workers to prop up the social care system.

His letter to the home secretary this month added: “We are increasingly concerned about the serious exploitation issues being reported within the care sector. We therefore plan to closely monitor the use of the immigration system by care work occupations, and the health and social care sector more broadly, and will provide further comment on this area in our 2023 Annual Report in December.”

The MAC’s recommendation to keep care workers on the SOL was welcomed by Sam Monaghan, chief executive of MHA, who commented: “Care vacancies accounted for half of all visas issued to skilled workers in the year up to June 2023, so we’re pleased to see that our concerns have been reflected in MAC’s most recent recommendations.”

MHA is calling on the government to create a Social Care Council as part of its Fix Care for All campaign which would act as an independent body representing the 1.5 million people working in social care – examining pay scales, accreditation, training and recruitment, and investing more into changing public perceptions around what it means to choose care as a profession.