The UK Home Office has established new rules for the recruitment of care workers.

Care providers who want to recruit a new employee from overseas, from April 9, must first prove that they have made an effort to hire an employee from England who requires new sponsorship. The Home Office's plan to restructure their immigration system through their plan, which will help remove the dependency on overseas recruiting and ensure that those who migrate to the UK to seek a career in social care for adults are able to do so. 

Much effort has been made by the government and the care industry to maintain good standards in the immigration system and to support care workers in finding other employment if their sponsor's license has been revoked. They will lay out a thorough plan to fix their broken immigration system as part of their Plan for Change, which will connect the visa, immigration, and skills sectors to increase domestic skills, reduce dependency on foreign labor, and boost economic growth.

With modifications to the Short-Term Student route, the government is continuing to prevent exploitation while also closing down on misuse in the immigration system.

The Home Office said that "The visa is designed for those studying an English language course in the UK for between 6 and 11 months, however, there are rising concerns that the route is being abused by those without a genuine intention to study or to leave the UK at the end of their course. In light of this troubling trend, tough new rules will give expanded powers for caseworkers to refuse visa applications which are suspected of being non-genuine."

Seema Malhotra, Minister for Migration and Citizenship, said:  “Those who have come to the UK to support our adult care sector should have the opportunity to do so, free from abuse and exploitation.

We have already taken action to ensure employers are not able to flout the rules with little consequence or exploit international workers for costs they were always supposed to pay.

We are now going further, requiring employers in England to prioritise recruiting international care workers who are already here and seeking new sponsorship, before recruiting from overseas.

The new requirements continue government action announced in November to crack down on employers who abuse the visa system; barring those who repeatedly break immigration or employment laws from hiring overseas workers and will help support those workers into new jobs.  

The changes announced last year also ban companies from charging workers for the cost of their sponsorship, which has never been intended and led to exploitation, unfair treatment of staff and unsustainable levels of debt in the care sector.”

Between July 2022 and December 2024, the government has revoked more than 470 sponsor licences in the care sector to clamp down on abuse and exploitation. More than 39,000 workers have been associated with these sponsors since October 2020.

The minimum salary thresholds will also be altered in light of today's announcements to take into account the most recent Office for National Statistics (ONS) statistics. This will ensure that care workers and other individuals employed under the skilled worker visa receive at least £12.82 per hour.

The minimum wages for professions in the health and education sectors, such as physicians, nurses, allied health specialists, and educators, are also being increased to meet the most recent national pay scales.

Stephen Kinnock, Minister of State for Care, said:  “International care workers play a vital role in our social care workforce. We value their contribution and work supporting vulnerable people across the country every day.

As we crack down on shameful rogue operators exploiting overseas workers here in the UK, we must do all we can to get the victims back into rewarding careers in adult social care.

Prioritising care workers who are already in the UK will get people back to work reducing our reliance on international recruitment, and make sure our social care sector has the care professionals it needs.

The rules come as the government continues implementation of a series of measures to reduce the potential for abuse on the Student and Graduate visa routes.  

Further details of the government’s plan to reduce the staggeringly high levels of legal migration seen in recent years will be set out in the government’s forthcoming Immigration White Paper.”