Template Letter to MPs: Protect Social Care Staff in Immigration Policy

Dear <MP Name>,

We are writing to raise serious concerns about the Home Office’s current consultation on “earned settlement” and the potential impact these proposals would have on the social care workforce and, by extension, the NHS.

Under the consultation, migrant workers on the Health and Care visa in lower-paid roles—including care workers and senior care workers—would face a 15-year baseline qualifying period for settlement. These roles are currently categorised as “low-skilled and low-wage”, yet this fails to recognise the essential expertise, experience, and responsibility these staff bring to maintaining safe and effective social care services across the country.

Alongside this, the consultation proposes a significant concession for specified “public service occupations”, allowing individuals who have worked in those roles for five years to reduce their qualifying period for settlement by five years. While this currently applies only to occupations at RQF Level 6 and above (such as nurses and teaching professionals), there is a clear risk that this concession could be interpreted or extended in ways that advantage NHS roles over equivalent roles in social care.

This creates a deeply worrying imbalance. If NHS workers—potentially including lower-paid roles—are offered a faster route to settlement, social care providers will inevitably lose staff to NHS employers, not because of pay, working conditions or career development, but purely because immigration rules make the NHS a more secure option. The consequences for social care staffing would be immediate and severe, particularly given that many care roles are already underpaid relative to their responsibilities.

As you will know, social care services nationwide already face significant recruitment challenges. Many providers are heavily reliant on international staff to maintain safe staffing levels and to support hospital discharge, community care and long-term support for older and disabled people. Any policy that incentivises workers to leave the sector will destabilise services that the NHS itself depends upon to function effectively.

We would therefore ask you to consider raising this issue with the Home Office and in Parliament, and to seek the following:

1. Equal treatment for social care within the settlement framework – Social care should be recognised as a vital public service. Migrant workers in this sector should not face longer or more restrictive settlement routes than their NHS counterparts, particularly when their work is essential to maintaining the wider health and care system, and when their salaries fall below comparable public service thresholds.
2. Inclusion of social care roles within any “public service” concession – If the policy allows certain public service workers to reduce their qualifying period for settlement, equivalent roles in social care—especially regulated roles at RQF Level 6 and above—should receive the same consideration.
3. Protection for staff already working in the UK – Any changes should not be applied retrospectively. Workers who came to the UK under the current Health and Care visa arrangements should not have the rules changed mid-way through their journey, creating uncertainty for them, their families and the services that rely on them.
4. Recognition of the essential contribution of migrant workers – International staff are indispensable to social care delivery. They support vulnerable people, enable families to work, and ensure the NHS can operate safely by keeping hospital discharge flowing. Settlement policy should reflect both their skill and the relative low pay of these roles, rather than treating social care as a lesser part of the health system.

These proposals, if implemented in their current form, risk widening the divide between social care and the NHS at a time when both systems should be working more closely than ever. I hope you will agree that social care must not be placed at a structural disadvantage in immigration policy, and that migration routes should support workforce stability rather than undermine it.

Thank you for your time and for anything you can do to ensure social care is treated fairly in this important consultation.

Yours sincerely,                                                                                                                                             

<Your name>

<Organisation name>

<Contact details>