The United Kingdom (UK) government has announced the closure of its overseas recruitment route for social care workers.
The Department for immigration, in a statement, said the decision is aimed at overhauling the adult social care sector.
UK is planning to unveil changes to visa and recruitment laws on Monday in a bid to cut net migration, and says measures will cut up to 50,000 lower-skilled and care workers coming to the UK over the next year.
The measure is part of its newly published Immigration White Paper. The paper sets out reforms to prioritise high-skilled migrants and reduce dependence on international recruitment.
“We have been clear about our concerns about the Adult Social Care visa. The introduction of this visa route has led to significant concerns over the abuse and exploitation of individual workers. We have taken steps to address these concerns, restricting access to overseas recruitment unless employers have first tried to recruit from the in-country redeployment pool, but the evidence shows more needs to be done.
“We will therefore end overseas recruitment for social care visas. In line with our wider reforms to skills thresholds, we will close social care visas to new applications from abroad. For a transition period until 2028, we will permit visa extensions and in-country switching for those already in the country with working rights, but this will be kept under review,” the statement read in part.
The UK government tightened rules around care sector workers after coming to power in July 2024.
Applications for Health and Care Worker visas peaked at 18,300 in August 2023, then collapsed to 1,700 by April this year following the ban on bringing dependents.
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