Immigration Restrictions: Disaster for Social Care Recruitment?

London: a city where value and worth are measured in currency. In such a city, roles which are skilled and underpaid are failing to recruit enough staff to keep up with an ever growing workload. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the social care sector. Qualified social workers permeate every sector of community, from child protection, through to caring for the elderly; they are a necessary fabric of our society. There is both a need, and a demand for their services.

But fewer and fewer people are choosing to enter into a profession in social care. As a result, the entry requirements for a social worker are being sacrificed in order to broaden the possibility of recruitment. Subsequently, the general attitude toward social work deteriorates. Add to that the media frenzy and blame culture surrounding high profile cases such as Baby P and Victoria Climbié, and fewer people choose a career in social care. And so it is easy to see how recruitment into social care is on a downward spiral. It is no wonder, then, that Social Care Recruitment Companies are calling on qualified social workers from overseas. Unless we are prepared to sacrifice quality in a skilled profession and on which we heavily rely, there simply
isn’t a choice.

We have a specific section on our website, explaining about life in London, supporting foreign workers through
the application process and providing information on finding accommodation. For immigrant workers, the salaries offered to social workers are comparatively high. On our website we state that social work in the UK offers "some of the most competitive salaries for social workers worldwide.”

And yet, social care recruitment saw an increase in British workers during the recession. An indication of how salary is a significant factor in explaining the lack of British recruits. And spending in the social care sector is a major issue. The recent elections threw into focus the issue of cuts in public spending alongside stringent immigration restrictions. Vice-chair of the National Care Association, Mandy Thorn, had this to say on the planned caps on immigrant workers: "I think in the medium term it’s short-sighted because as a sector we have relied on immigrants to have labour to meet the workforce needs.” This could prove a double blow to social care recruitment.