The Home Secretary must scrap her proposed immigration reforms as they're 'entirely incompatible' with the ambition for a thriving National Care Service and amount to a 'betrayal’ of migrant staff working in the sector, the 麻豆视频 (RCN) warns today.
It comes as a new report by the College shows the UK's route to residency for migrant nursing staff is already by far the most hostile amongst comparable countries, with the Home Secretary’s proposals threatening to worsen the UK’s position as ‘a significant outlier internationally’.
There are currently tens of thousands of migrant nursing staff working in social care, providing care to the UK’s most vulnerable, long-term sick and elderly, and are crucial to the delivery of services. However, the government is proposing to extend the time they must wait until they are eligible for permanent residency up to 15 years and to restrict their access to benefits even after securing Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR).
Currently, migrant nursing staff must wait five years to be eligible for residency while having with no access to public funds, despite working in public services and paying tax, making them more likely to fall into poverty or destitution compared to their UK-trained colleagues [NOTE 1].
The changes, which could be applied retrospectively to migrant nursing staff already in the country with their families, would make the UK a far more restrictive place to live and work, behind Ireland, Germany, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and even the United States under Donald Trump.
Today, nursing leader Professor Nicola Ranger says the proposals would be a ‘betrayal’ of migrant staff who have come to the UK to care for the vulnerable, pushing out those who are already here and further destabilising an already fragile sector.
Ranger says: "The Home Secretary must scrap these proposals and recognise they are entirely incompatible with building a thriving and stable National Care Service. If she doesn't, our brilliant migrant colleagues will choose to leave for where they feel more welcome and supported. At a time when domestic nursing workforce growth has stalled, these proposals would be a disaster for any hope to successfully reform social care”.
Instead, the RCN is today calling on the UK Government to value migrant nursing staff and protect the social care sector by providing immediate eligibility for ILR across all roles and health settings, ensuring that no NRPF condition is attached. The cost of applying for ILR should be reduced to a Home Office processing fee of £523 to bring the UK in line with its international peers.
In its report ‘Pathways to settlement for internationally educated nurses: Findings from an international comparison’, the RCN commissioned MigrationWork CIC to undertake a comparative analysis of a selection of high-income countries’ systems for offering permanent residency to migrant nursing staff.
Amongst the key findings, it showed that the UK is already an international outlier in requiring five years to qualify, with the US and Australia offering skilled professionals like registered nurses' immediate permanent residency, and Canada after six to 16 months. New Zealand (2 years), Ireland (2 years) and Germany (2 to 3 years) all offer permanent status far sooner than the UK.
Similarly, the UK is already by far the most expensive place to apply for permanent residency, with the cost at £3,029 per person. Except for Australia (£2,440), all other countries in the analysis cost around £500 or below, with Germany charging only £100. In 2003, the cost in the UK was £155 per person. Since the research was conducted, this has risen even further to £3,229, a nearly 2000% (1983.23%) increase in just 23 years.
Additionally, the UK has amongst the most restrictive access to public funds conditions across the selected nations, with the tied longest waiting period of five years, same as the US.
While it is expected that NHS nursing staff will retain the current qualifying period of 5 years, this has not been extended to thousands of nursing staff and care workers employed in social care and non-NHS settings who face up to 15 years to be eligible.
The adult social care sector is heavily dependent on employing migrant health and care staff who hold nearly 30% of all jobs in adult social care. Since 2022, the number of migrant nursing staff coming to the UK has substantially increased to fill the vast gaps in the social care workforce, however tens of thousands of posts remain unfilled.
Last November, new research from the RCN found in a survey of over 5,000 migrant nursing staff that 53% were extremely concerned about the impact of the proposed changes to ILR on their financial security, with 60% of those who don’t have ILR saying the decision to extend the qualifying period would ‘very likely’ affect their decision to remain in the UK.
However, in a positive change of direction, the Home Office announced last week that it would untie the visas of recognised victims of modern slavery from their specific employer. The RCN said the government was right to start taking action but must be far bolder to end exploitation in the social care sector.
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger, said:
"Migrant nursing staff hold our health and care system together and have built lives in our country and become part of our communities. The Home Secretary's proposals would amount to a betrayal by reneging on our commitment to them because it’s politically convenient and would make the UK a significant outlier internationally.
"The Home Secretary must scrap these proposals and recognise they are entirely incompatible with building a thriving and stable National Care Service. If she doesn't, our brilliant migrant colleagues will choose to leave for where they feel more welcome and supported. At a time when domestic nursing workforce growth has stalled, these proposals would be a disaster for any hope to successfully reform social care.
"Rather than pushing forward with these proposals, ministers should consider what’s best for social care and the dedicated migrant nursing staff that work in it. This starts by making the UK the best place to work and live in by offering immediate routes to settlement on arrival, ending the toxic no recourse to public funds condition and reducing the cost of applying for ILR down to the processing fee for the Home Office."
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Notes to editors
NOTE 1 - Currently, migrant nursing staff working in the UK have no recourse to public funds (NRPF) as part of their visa conditions. This means they are unable to claim any public benefits including Universal Credit, Child Benefit or Housing Benefit, despite paying taxes and national insurance.
The RCN's report 'Without a Safety Net' found that internationally educated nursing staff reported that they were struggling far more with housing, childcare and general household costs than their UK-educated counterparts due to a lack of access to public funds.
