Care leaders have called for a new workforce strategy to drive domestic recruitment after the home secretary yesterday tightened rules on access to overseas workers.

The calls followed James Cleverly’s five-point plan to reduce net migration which included stopping overseas care workers from bringing dependants and increasing the salary threshold for overseas workers by a third to £38,700 from spring 2024, while exempting health and social care visas.

Mike Padgham, chair of the Independent Care Group, welcomed health and social care’s exemption from the increase in the visa salary threshold but warned stopping dependants would deter workers from coming to the UK.

“Social care provision is on its knees,” Padgham said. “The last thing we need is tinkering with the lifeline of overseas workers that we have been thrown.

“We need that workforce strategy. We need to reform social care and give the sector parity with the NHS. We need to give social care workers the pay, terms and conditions they deserve and that match those of their counterparts at the NHS. Then we might see a reduction in the workforce shortage that is threatening proper, safe care delivery.”

Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, said the government was making it harder for care providers to recruit foreign workers who had saved the social care sector.

“If the government now wants to move away from international recruitment as the solution to fixing the social care workforce crisis, it must act swiftly and invest in improving the pay and conditions to drive domestic recruitment,” he added.

Chair of the Care Provider Alliance, Dr Jane Townson, said: “We urge the government to provide sufficient funding for public bodies to increase fee rates, so that providers can offer competitive pay and terms and conditions of employment to UK workers and reduce reliance on overseas workers.”

Suhail Mirza, non-executive director of Newcross Healthcare, commented: “The immigration plans announced by the home secretary yesterday could, as some have said, be ruinous to the social care and NHS sectors. If these restrictions are to come into effect the imperative upon the government to properly fund the sector and fast track a comprehensive workforce strategy for it is urgent.”