EXCLUSIVE: The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has claimed plans to change indefinite leave to remain (ILR) rules amount to a ‘betrayal’ of migrant care workers, with the UK already one of the most restrictive places to move to
Shabana Mahmood is set to announce a final decision later this year(Image: Dan Kitwood/PA Wire)
Shabana Mahmood’s sweeping immigration shake-up will scupper Andy Burnham’s plans for a new National Care Service, nursing chiefs have warned.
In a scathing report, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) says proposals being weighed up by ministers amount to a “betrayal” of migrant nursing staff. Analysis carried out for the RCN found the UK already has one of the most restrictive sets of rules for settling nurses in the world – and this would get worse if the Home Secretary’s reforms are passed.
Ms Mahmood is weighing up measures that would see care workers from overseas forced to wait 15 years before qualifying for indefinite leave to remain (ILR) – up from its current level of five.
This change would be applied retrospectively – meaning thousands of people already in the UK would be affected. Ms Mahmood, who argues settlement must be earned, told MPs on Tuesday that a final decision will come later this year.
Professor Nicola Ranger, the RCN’s general secretary, told The Mirror: “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”.
Shortly after becoming PM, Andy Burnham pledged to finally fix the social care system after decades of failure. But the RCN has warned tens of thousands of care workers and nurses in the care sector will leave if settlement rules change.
New analysis carried out for the RCN found the UK would be an outlier if the settlement delay is brought in for care workers. In the US and Australia, skilled professionals like registered nurses are offered immediate permanent residency.
In Canada, care workers can settle after 16 months, while New Zealand and Ireland have a two year wait. The UK is also the most expensive place to apply for permanent residency, with a cost of £3,029 per person.
The RCN has called on migrant health and social workers to be offered immediate ILR – with the processing cost reduced to £523. Prof 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.”
It is estimated by Skills for Care that 38% of care workers and senior care workers, and 43% of registered nurses in adult social care are not British nationals.
Earlier this year an RCN survey found 60% of migrant care workers who do not have ILR said it is very likely extending the qualifying period would affect their decision to remain in the UK. This could mean up to 46,000 nursing staff are at risk of leaving, it said.
Under current rules, those in the UK on health and care worker visas have no recourse to public funds – meaning they cannot claim benefits or council housing. Ms Mahmood said the changes are necessary because of years of high net migration, with 1.6million people forecast to qualify for ILR by 2030.
Other nations allow migrant nurses to claim benefits sooner – including Canada, which permits them to claim benefits immediately after being granted permanent residence. New Zealand and Ireland allow full access after two years, while in Australia this wait is between two and four years.
In the US access to means-tested benefits is permitted after five years. The RCN report said: “Nursing staff working on a visa in the UK already face an increased risk of financial distress due to their inability to access public funds. In cases of long-term sick leave, these staff may have no income at all as they have no recourse to means-tested ill-health benefits.”
It continues: “Whilst many comparable countries are moving to simplify and accelerate pathways to settlement for health and care workers, the UK is moving in the opposite direction. Instead of recognising their long-term contribution and valuing internationally educated nurses, the UK government’s proposals create additional barriers to staying in the UK, increase cost and uncertainty, and risk positioning the UK as an international outlier.”
The Home Secretary faces calls to tear up plans to apply changes retrospectively, including for care workers. Earlier this year Angela Rayner – who returned to the Cabinet when Andy Burnham became PM – branded the move “un-British”.
Addressing the cross-party Home Affairs Committee on Tuesday, Ms Mahmood said: “We’re trying to do a proper piece of work where we have the right arrangement that strikes the right balance between our responsibilities to people who have come here to work, our recognition of the failures that we inherited as a government and also our need to do right by the people who are already here who pay for the systems we already rely on.”
She said it is a long-standing principle that the rules migrants would have to abide by would be those in place when they apply for ILR. The Home Secretary stated: “The rules that apply to you are the rules that are in force at the point of your application, not when you arrived in the country.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “Last November, we set out reforms to double the standard qualifying period for settlement to 10 years for most migrants, with shorter routes for those who contribute the most to the UK.
“Under the proposals, key public service workers, including doctors and nurses, may settle after five years. A consultation on elements of those reforms has now closed, and we will set out our response in due course.”
