Changing lives and changing systems: migrant care workers on England’s Health and Care Worker visa.

GOLTC Migration, Mobility and Care Workers and Social Care Reform in England Interest Groups webinar

Date: 9 June

The international recruitment of care workers has played a key role in supporting the UK’s social care workforce in recent years. However, the closure of the Health and Care Worker visa to new recruits, alongside wider immigration policy developments, raises significant questions about the future of care provision. What have the impacts been – for social care systems, providers, and workers themselves? In this webinar, we explored the consequences of these visa changes, consider the challenges facing care providers and internationally recruited workers, and consider the broader policy implications.

The webinar covered:

1. Introduction to the Global Observatory of Long-Term care and welcome (Adelina Comas-Herrera, Care Policy and Evaluation Centre, LSE, UK).
2. Introduction to the GOLTC Interest Groups
3. Overview of existing research on migrant workers in social care, Isabel Shutes, LSE
4. The experiences of migrant workers in social care, Patricia Chinyoka, Women of Zimbabwe
5. Supporting international recruits and employers in social care, Lucy McDonald, Skills for Care and Keiron Broadbent, CEO West Midlands Care Association
6. The contribution of international recruitment to adult social care system sustainability, Suzanne Westhead, ADASS Workforce Co-Lead and Director of Adult Social Care, Bath & North East Somerset Council
7. Discussion, Chaired by Catherine Needham, University of Birmingham

Presentation = GOLTC migration webinar, combined slides