A SHARP fall in overseas care staff recruitment has sparked fears from providers that the sector will not have enough workers to cope with demand this winter.
Figures show an 80 per cent drop in the number of people applying for health and social care visas to work in this country.
This follows measures introduced by the last government that prevented overseas workers from bringing dependents with them.
The figures have been greeted with dismay by social care providers.
Mike Padgham, chair of the Independent Care Group, said: “The last government’s brutal measures are working and the lifeline of overseas staff to help us fill shifts in homecare and in care and nursing homes has been cut.
“The question is, what do we do now? As we warned at the time, no serious measures have been put in place to replace those overseas workers who have played such a key role in helping us to keep delivering care.
“With 1.6m people unable to get the care they need and demand for care growing every day, we are struggling to maintain services.
“We desperately need to see the new Government’s promised care workforce strategy and with it some funding measures that will help us to properly reward care workers and enable us to recruit at home, otherwise we will be in dire straits.
“Skills for Care reports that there are 131,000 vacancies in social care – with the availability of overseas staff dwindling, we are going to be very, very short.
“And as we approach winter, when staffing levels in health and social care are always placed under the greatest demand, will we be able to cope?”
Figures suggest we will need to recruit an extra 540,000 care workers to cope with rising demand, by 2040.