Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, has voiced his concerns over changes to legal migration last month.

Speaking to the Health and Social Care Committee yesterday, Green said he was “particularly concerned” about the ban on social care dependants announced by home secretary James Cleverly.

Green contrasted the treatment of social care with the NHS where staff are still allowed to bring in dependants, warning this could lead to an exodus from the sector.

“We have grave concerns that people are going to move into the NHS because of this policy,” he said. “They are going to move away because they can’t bring their dependants and go into other sectors where they can.”

Oonagh Smyth, chief executive of Skills for Care, highlighted the role that international recruits had played in boosting social care recruitment.

In the year March 2022 to April 2023, 70,000 international recruits joined the sector contributing to a 20,000 net increase in workforce numbers.

Smyth also highlighted that 90,000 domestic recruits left the workforce in the year 2021/22.

Smyth said: “International recruits have significantly contributed to workforce capacity. If we do reduce international recruitment it’s really clear that we are going to have to do more to recruit and retain our domestic workforce because demand is only to grow over the next few years as our populations grow and we are living longer but not necessarily healthier.”

Responding to firms in England being required to be regulated by the CQC to sponsor visas, James Bullion, chief inspector of adult social care and integrated care, said: “We are concerned and want to make sure that any abuse of international recruitment and unethical recruitment is minimised.”